gateway journalism review issue 321

Spring 2011 Volume 41 Number 321 $7.00

Ethics Defines the Professional by Ginny Whitehouse Page 14

A Former Students Perspective: From J-School to Archeology, Ph.D. by El izabeth Pierce Page 24

College Newspapers in the 21st Century: Nurturing a Passion for News is the Most Important Job Facing College Newspapers by Lola Burnham Page 21

Student Journalists Stick With Their O usted Advisor by Roy Malone Page 29

gatewayjr.org

St. Louis Journalism Review Presents:Whats Next for

Journalism Educationby Jerry Ceppos

Page 10

Spring 2011 Vol. 41 No. 321 $7.00

Spring 2011 Gateway Journal ism Review Page 3

10 What s Next for Journalism Educ ation by Jerr y Ceppos

12 Preparing Students for the Changing Media Landsc ape by D oug A nderson

14 Ethics Defines the Professional by Ginny Whitehouse

16 In Defense of the Study of Journalism Histor y by El l iot King

19 O verprotec ting Free Speech by Charles Davis

20 Why J-Schools Arent Doing the Job They re S upposed to Do by Wally S parks

21 College Newspapers in the 21st Century: Nurturing a Passion for News is the Most Important Job Facing College Newspapers

by Lola Burnham

23 A Former Students Perspective: J-Schools Cant Replicate Covering a Beat by A ndrew S mith

24 A Former Students Perspective: From J-School to Archeology, Ph.D. by El izabeth Pierce

25 A Former Students Perspective: Study at a Large University by Jennifer Frehn

26 J-Schools Open O ther Doors by Erin Holcomb

27 Column from Scott by S cott Lamber t

This Issue:

J-School Education in the 21st Century

Published by School of Journal ismCollege of Mass Communication and Media Ar ts

Dean: Gar y KolbSchool of Journal ism Direc tor: Wil l iam H. Freivogel

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The Gateway Journal ism Review GJR (USPS 738-450 ISSN: 0036-2972) is publ ished quar terly, by Southern I l l inois Universit y Carbondale, School of Journal ism, Col lege of Mass Communication and Media Ar ts, a non-profit entit y. The off ice of publication is SIUC School of Journal ism, 1100 Lincoln Drive, Mail Code 6601, Carbondale, IL 62901

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Copyright 2010 by the Gateway Journal ism Review. Indexed in the Alternative Press Index. Al low one month for address changes.

POSTMASTER: Please send address changes toGateway Journal ism ReviewWill iam FreivogelSchool of Journal ism1100 Lincoln Drive, Mail Code 6601Carbondale, IL 62901.

Charles KlotzerFounder

William A. BabcockEditor

Roy MaloneSt. Louis Editor

Mallor y HenkelmanCreative Direc tor

Wenjing XieMarketing Direc tor

Jason AllenEditorial Car toonist

William FreivogelPublisher

Scott Lamber tManaging Editor

Jennifer ButcherProduc tion Editor

S am RobinsonOperations Direc tor

Steve EdwardsCover Ar t ist/Car toonist

Aaron VeenstraWeb Master

6 Videotaping in Il l inois: Score One for Police Harassment by Wil l iam H. Freivogel

7 Colorado J-School to be Axed? by S cott Lamber t

8 Let Them Eat Cheese: Media Weigh in on Wisconsins Labor War by Chuck Q uirmbach

11 Journalists and Public Relations Professionals by Namara ta B ansal

Features

29 Student Journalists Stick With Their O usted Advisor by Roy Malone

31 Better Business Bureau Uses Ex-Journalists to Investigate Problem Firms

by D on Corrigan

33 Media Knew in the 1930s: Tobacco is a Poison Column by Charles L . Klotzer

34 Media Notes

SJR Spotlight

Editor Notes

The task of educators would be easier were j-school students really gearing up for mass media careers in news editorial journalism, photojournalism, broadcast journalism, online journalism, advertising or public relations.

But thats not the case. An estimated 65 percent of undergraduate journalism students are in j-schools for the writing skills, never anticipating working in the media.

They say they are studying journalism and mass communications because they know thats where theyll learn good writing, editing and production skills skills they know they will need in whatever field they ultimately choose, and skills that seldom are adequately stressed in most English departments.

As a result, j-school teachers educate students with a vast array of intents and interests. Reaching such a diverse clientele is challenging in good times, let alone during a time when media jobs are at best changing and at worst, ceasing to exist.

In a world where theres really no such thing as a typical first job, its impossible to craft a curriculum where every graduate will have at his or her fingertips the media skills to shine in such an amorphous first job. Sure, j-school teaches students online writing, digital editing, web production, multi-faceted information gathering, video streaming and modern information marketing communication skills.

More importantly, j-schools, through a variety of academic courses including media law, ethics and history, continue to teach students how to think. Key skills change and new tech quickly becomes old tech, but good, sound, logical, ethical thinking remains the goal of any quality j-school.

To help us figure out what j-schools should be doing, weve asked a variety of people for their opinions, including university accreditors, administrators, teachers, students and former journalists.

In particular, weve asked our cover story contributor, former Knight-Ridder executive Jerry Ceppos, if he would recommend a j-school education to Robin, his 18-year-old teenage daughter. He replies that not only would he make

Page 4 Gateway Journal ism Review Spring 2011

Were devoting a large chunk of this edition to an examination of journalism schools whether or not theyre educating students properly, providing students with the necessary academic knowledge and professional skills, anticipating what sort of talent the mass media might need now and in the future and dealing with the necessary technological issues.

Will iam A. Babcock, Editor

this recommendation, but that he indeed did recommend his own school to his daughter, and that shes now a first-year student at the j-school in Reno, Nevada.

But did his daughter indeed make the right decision, and was his advice sound? Is it best to learn the craft through an accredited j-school program, or might an academic degree in political science or economics provide a sturdier foundation? Is it really necessary for budding journalists to take a plethora of skills classes when a bit of practical professional experience might fill the bill just as well or perhaps better?

Do j-school students ever ask why so many of their professors never themselves majored in journalism or mass communications? Can any professional degree realistically hope to infuse undergraduate or graduate students with sufficient new-tech skills to really hit the ground running in a first job?

Can a j-school education ever replicate covering a beat, day in and day out? Is it possible for one required media law course to do much more than suggest that students exercise caution when writing a news story or a blog? Will journalism ethics courses ever help make journalists, or journalism, more credible?

Recent news that the University of Missouri School of Journalism has the lowest post-graduation placement rate of any academic college at the University of Missouri, does not bode well, even considering the uncertain state of the nations job market. Too, the apparent shuttering of the University of Colorados School of Journalism and Mass Communication has sent shock waves to all j-schools across America.

And I wonder, as my own 17-year-old daughter Lillian nears college age: Will I recommend a j-school education to her as Dean Ceppos did to his daughter. Or would my Mandarin-speaking, rock-climbing, environmentally conscious, water polo and violin playing daughter be better off studying biology or English rather than sitting in front of a computer screen in a journalism 101 newswriting lab. Hmm . . .

Li l l ian E. Babcock

Letter to the Editor


Dear Editor:

I was disappointed in your publication for running Margaret Freivogels encomium to the St. Louis Beacon, and I suspect other readers were too.

First of all, it is ordinarily not, as the French succinctly put it, comme il faut, for a reporter to write about an institution in which she or he is associated, especially when that association is so intimate as it is in this case. Its an impropriety, a breach of journalistic etiquette, a conflict of interest. There are exceptions, which well come to momentarily.

If the Journalism Review wanted to run an article on the Beacon, it should have assigned someone else to do it.

Second, the piece read like the kind of prose you see in a corporate annual report (and sometimes on a sports page): immodest, self-congratulatory and largely devoid of any disinterest, objectivity or redeeming social value.

It is sometimes possible under special circumstances for a journalist interestingly and usefully to write about his or her own publication, but it requires an effort at detachment. A recent example is Bill Kellers piece in the New York Times Magazine (Jan. 30) on the Times relationship with Julian Assange. Though Keller allowed personal sentiments to intrude (he found Assange repulsive), he was careful to label them as such, and he kept his narrative at arms length as best he could.

Ive known Mrs. Freivogel for about 40 years and have found her heretofore to be tough-minded, very intelligent and a competent writer, with only a slight tendency to confound journalism with a social mission. So Im disappointed in her, too.

THE EDITOR RESPONDS :

The first issue of Gateway Journalism Review contained a package of five pieces on new/online-journalism initiatives, one of the most timely topics in journalism. This package was geared to appeal to the new, expanded circulation of GJR, which now includes some 16 states.

The centerpiece of this package was Margaret Freivogels article on the online publication she founded, the St. Louis Beacon. By having such a lead story, GJR made it clear that St. Louis is the focus of whats newsworthy in Midwest journalism.

How often is it that a publication gets an exclusive on a trend-setting organization by the CEO of that very company? Or, put another way, passing on such a story would be like a new-tech publication turning down the chance of having Steve Jobs write about the company he founded.

In addition, GJRs publisher, William Freivogel, in his p. 5 column of the previous issue, recused himself from any coverage of the Beacon, edited by his wife.

So now lets see: GJR has a hot, timely story written by the most knowledgeable person possible, a related package of stories and a prominent disclosure of any apparent conflict of interest. Sounds to me like solid, ethical journalism dealing with a truly trend-setting topic the very fodder that makes for an important, readable story in the maiden voyage of a new journalism review.

Ver y Truly Yours, E .F. Por ter Jr.

Universit y Cit y, Mo.

FeaturesVideotaping in Illinois: Score One for Police Harassment

At a time when millions of Americans have cell phones, with video and audio capability, and when videotapes of police misconduct often are the stuff of news reports, Illinois is leading the nation in prosecuting citizens who tape officers in public. Illinois has one of the three most restrictive eavesdropping laws in the country, along with Maryland and Massachusetts. And Illinois police and prosecutors are not shy about using the law to punish the taping of arrests and interrogations. Chicago authorities recently charged a street artist and a stripper for violating the law. Both face 15 years in prison. The street artist, Charles Drew, actually intended to get arrested in an act of civil disobedience targeting a Chicago ordinance banning the sale of art without a permit on the street. That would have been a misdemeanor, but he ended up charged with a felony for arranging a tape

of his arrest. He is scheduled to go on trial in April. Tiwanda Moore, the 20-year-old stripper, went to police headquarters to complain about an officer she said had fondled her and left her his personal phone number. An officer receiving Moores complaint tried to dissuade her from pursuing it. She began recording the conversation with her cell phone. When officers discovered what she was doing, they charged her under the eavesdropping statute. In her defense, Moore is relying on a exception to the eavesdropping law that allows a conversation to be recorded surreptitiously if a crime is about to be committed. She maintains that the officers effort to discourage her from filing a complaint was committing a crime. The ACLU in Illinois went to court to challenge the state eavesdropping law as a violation of the First Amendment, but a Chicago judge threw out the suit last month. The ACLU is appealing. Most states, such as Missouri, allow conversations to be recorded as long as one party to the conversation consents. That means a newspaper reporter in Missouri, for example, generally can record a telephone conversation without telling the person on the other end of the line. Twelve states have two-party consent laws for eavesdropping, meaning all parties must consent to an audio recording. But Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts have the toughest interpretation and enforcement. The other nine states have an exception to the law that allows recording of public police conversations. In Maryland, the state attorney general has issued an opinion indicating that those taping officers in a way that does not interfere with their work should not be prosecuted. Prosecutors and police in Illinois, however, think the strict enforcement of the law is important. The Fraternal Order of Police in Chicago said audio recording of police on the street performing their duty could affect how officers do their jobs. That is exactly what civil liberties groups want. The public impact of the Rodney King tapes is well known. Video and audiotaping of police is often the best evidence of police misconduct. A recent surveillance video of police officers in Houston beating a teenage burglary suspect has resulted in criminal cases and discipline against the officers and provoked a strong public reaction after it was released to the media. The National Press Photographers Association sees the prosecutions of those taping police activities in public as the latest effort of authorities to harass photographers

W i l l i a m H. F r e i v o g e l


Features


Huff ington Post on I l l inois case:w w w.huff ingtonpost.com/2011/01/22/ar t ist- could-face -15-year_n_812596.html

New York Times on I l l inois case:w w w.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/us/23cnceavesdropping.html

St. Louis Beacon on I l l inois case:http://w w w.stlbeacon.org/voices/blogs/law-scoop/107970-eavesdropping-prosecutions-in-i l l inois

C o l o r a d o j - s c h o o l t o b e a xe d ?

The University of Colorado School of Journalism and Mass Communications is waiting on proposals from the Program Discontinuance Committee and the Exploratory Committee to determine the future of its journalism program after deciding that its current course was not feasible. - Scott Lambert

performing their job. In a statement, the association said:

Despite consistent court rulings protecting the First Amendment rights of both citizens and the media to take photographs in public places, and despite many law enforcement agencies spelling it out in their official policies, the officer on the street either doesnt get the word or decides to act on his own in the name of security or terrorism laws, often citing rules that dont exist and exerting authority thats non-existent. And recently in some states police have started citing old wiretapping laws that have been on the books for decades as their excuse for ordering photographers to cease videotaping officers as theyre doing their jobs in public, either during traffic stops or street arrests

or while interfering with photographers who are breaking no rules and who are posing no threats to safety.

William H. Freivogel is director of the School of Journalism at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and a board member of the St. Louis Beacon. He is a member of the Missouri Bar.

Features


Let Them Eat Cheese: Media Weigh in on Wisconsins Labor War

News media in Wisconsin take for granted that the state capital city of Madison will be the site of medium-sized protests, late-night legislative antics and accusations of gubernatorial power grabs. While many of those fights over the last few decades were over substantive issues, it was still not the type of doings that energizes large crowds.

The dynamic and sometimes tragic Vietnam War protests in Madison that many older reporters had covered early in their career and middle-aged reporters studied in school had a remember when air to them. Hearing about the Vietnam era in 2010 was like hearing about the Great Depression in 1970. You got the importance, but looked for current relevance.

Then, Wisconsins newly elected Republican governor, Scott Walker, announced a budget-repair plan in February that would take away many collective bargaining rights most public sector workers around the state had held since before Vietnam. Reporters and editors in Wisconsin pondered, Hmm . . . we bet this brings tens of thousands of people out to protest.

This anticipation was bolstered by several strong possibilities. The people affected would have the means and time to take on the political powers of the day. There would likely be more unusual legislative maneuvering. A bright national media spotlight would shine on an ambitious new governor.

Wisconsin newspapers, blogs, radio outlets and television stations, which usually stuff statehouse news deep into the newscasts, immediately paid attention. A Milwaukee TV station, which typically likes a title for its continuing coverage, called it Capital Chaos.

Some national outlets, such as the New York Times and the Associated Press, were also on the announcement right away, as Walkers plan went beyond what other conservative governors were proposing in their states. Reporters for Wisconsin Public Radio started pitching and

filing to National Public Radio. NPR and other national media sent in their own reporters, or more of them, as the number of protesters inside and outside the State Capitol building did indeed reach the tens of thousands.

For a few days, television networks led evening newscasts with stories out of Madison. The evening cable talk shows paid attention. The late night skewers of the news, including Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, did their thing, often with a cheesy Wisconsin flavor. On the social media front, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported people bonding, or breaking up their relationships, depending on ones view of the collective bargaining dispute.

Along the way, there were new questions for Wisconsin reporters questions already dealt with by some media in other states. A quick list:

What to do when some key players leave? When 14 Democratic state senators left Wisconsin to slow down Republican discussion of the budget repair bill, were the lawmakers on the lam as some reporters called it, or were the senators simply meeting in another state? How closely should the media pursue lawmakers?

When a blogger from Buffalo, buffaloed Gov. Walker into thinking Walker was talking to billionaire businessman David Koch, a large financial donor to Walkers 2010 campaign, electronic media wrestled with airing audio of the discussion, because Walker apparently didnt know he was being recorded. Some outlets aired or posted audio clips, some didnt.

Reporters for Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television and other public broadcasters in the state decided to disclose they would be affected by parts of the budget repair bill. But how often do you repeat that disclosure before the audience says, Yes, okay, we KNOW.

In the aftermath of the Tucson shootings, and threats to some Wisconsin public officials, reporters in the state capitol faced additional security requirements and wondered, how long will this last?

When the Wisconsin State Assembly debated the bill for three days, reporters, editors and others said, When and where do WE sleep, and who will wake us should there suddenly be action?

Wholl take a bet on which Democratic senator will come

back to Wisconsin first?

C H u C k Q u i r m b a C H

When the Wisconsin State Assembly debated the bi l l for three days, repor ters, editors and others said, When and where do WE sleep, and who wil l wake us should

there suddenly be ac t ion?

Features

J o u r n a l i s t s a n d P u b l i c R e a t i o n s P r o f e s s i o n a l s

I was taught in my graduate class that journalists and public relations (PR) professionals share a love-hate relationship. I experienced the validity of this statement when I myself worked as a public relations professional in various capacities in India and dealt with journalists.

I could feel how my relationship with them used to fluctuate, ranging from a symbiotic relationship to a parasitic relationship. Some days journalists would call me to get an exclusive story or for that special interview, and other days the same journalists would not even take my call.

An incident that happened in India recently had wide impact across the Indian bureaucracy, corporate world and Indian media, and confirmed my knowledge of the relationship between journalists and PR professionals.

A PR professional of a large Indian PR agency tried to influence Indian journalists to write positive stories for her client. Two journalists (one from a respected newspaper and one from a TV channel) were featured prominently in the tapes. The conversations were not limited to the benefits of the corporation alone but also involved influencing decisions of portfolios in the Indian cabinet ministry. The whole conversation was recorded by external sources and published. Because of new media, the transcripts of the conversations are now available in the public sphere for consumption by the general public.

In the series of recorded conversations, the seemingly influential PR professional gave directions to the journalists to write the story favoring her client. The journalists were heard asking for opinion and directions from the PR person on how to write and proceed with their respective stories. The PR person seemed to be in full control and one of the

journalists seemed more than willing to take directions from her.

When these journalists were asked to clarify, they reported they were simply doing their job of gathering information from a PR person, and it was usual for journalists to pretend to be friendly with PR persons to access inside stories and exchange information in an informal setting. They nonchalantly dismissed it as part of the love-hate relationship between journalists and PR professionals. The indicted journalists tried to clarify their position by writing articles, tweeting and using other social media devices. But their clarification did not diminish the damage t to their reputation and faced a lot of criticism because of their alleged relationship with a PR professional and, more importantly, for getting influenced.

This incident created quite a stir but the professionals in both the industries know that this is how things function. The entire journalists fraternity came under fire and many articles and discussions took place on the growing deterioration of the Indian media industry.

Since journalists cannot avoid interacting with PR professionals, how much is too much? It is always a difficult decision to draw the line on how far the relationship between a PR professional and a journalist can go. When the actions and conversations are always under scrutiny because of new media technology and increased competition among media, it becomes important for journalists to be careful in their relationship with PR professionals.

Namrata Bansal is a first year Ph. D. candidate in Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She worked for six years as a PR professional in India.

N a m a r a t a b a N s a l


Going forward, there are additional questions; would any lawmaker be recalled by angry voters; would State Capitol building security ever go back to normal; would Wisconsins Governor become a lasting national figure; would unions continue to protest at his stops around the state; would a more financially balanced state budget trigger the private sector confidence the governor promised; whats the effect Wisconsin is having on the 2012 race for president?

These may not be the life and death questions of the Vietnam Era. But the state media, and national reporters who keep an eye on Wisconsin, once again have plenty on their plate besides cheddar.

Chuck Quirmbach has been on the news staff of Wisconsin public radio since 1980. As employees of the University of Wisconsin-extension, he and his fellow WPR reporters would be affected by some of the changes Governor Walker proposed.

gatewayjr.org

J-School Educ ation in the 21st Centur yW h a t s N e x t f o r J o u r n a l i s m E d u c a t i o n

As assignments go, this one was pretty easy: Would I, the editor of this journalism review asked, recommend journalism school if I had an 18-year-old daughter who was about to enter college?

The answer: Yes, I in fact did that very thing. Robin is a sophomore at my journalism school, the Donald W. Reynolds School at the University of Nevada, Reno. I recommended j-school because she was interested after spending a lifetime (literally) listening to me talk about how much fun a journalism career can be. But I also recommended j-school because there still is no better way to learn to write and think clearly and concisely, traits that are shockingly rare in todays world.

I also recommended journalism school because the best of the schools are going to improve in the following ways while Robin still is enrolled, and afterwards.

1. Being famous for something

In 20 years on the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, I would guess that Ive read more than 350 summaries of site teams that have visited schools being considered for accreditation. Ive made nine visits myself. Too often, Ive left a discussion thinking, This school has met the accrediting standards (which is tremendously important), but I cant come up with one really distinguishing characteristic that separates it from schools one state away. Rude translation: Schools that try to do everything end up doing nothing thats excellent.A solution may be in sight: My guess is that tough curricular reviews, prompted by budget crises in many states, will result in the best schools belatedly making difficult solutions about areas to emphasize and, as a result, areas of less importance. Every administrator and faculty member will come up with a different list (I hope). My direction would be to ask a few obvious questions.

Does your location lend itself to a specialization? If not, is there a broad underserved area in journalism that your school might help? After the last election, Id say that rigorous public-affairs reporting would be one area. I love Politifact.com and other fact-checking services, but isnt

J e r r y C e p p o s


Robin Ceppos

J-School Educ ation in the 21st Centur yfact-checking what all journalists are supposed to do?

2. Specializing

When I was the executive editor of the San Jose Mercury News I hunted for an electrical engineer who could write or, at the very least, a journalist who had studied electrical engineering. I never found either but I still think that he or she could have covered Silicon Valleys semiconductor industry better than we did with our very bright but traditionally trained reporters. From the very beginning, journalisms accrediting council had in mind the need for broadly educated journalists who could cover anything, even chips.

As a result, the council limited the number of journalism courses that a j-major can take (which seems counter-intuitive to academics in other, more narrow fields). Todays accrediting standards require a minimum of 80 semester hours in courses outside the major area of journalism and mass communications, with no fewer than 65 semester hours . . . in the liberal arts and sciences. For most students, that means a potpourri of interesting courses that lead to a broad education a good thing but not a specialized education.

However, the requirement leaves plenty of room for that specialization a beefy minor or a second major in a specialized, not broad, area. Writing about graduate education, Nick Lemann, dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, recently said that specialized courses provide the kind of intellectual grounding that enables a journalist to delve deeper into a story, asking the kind of questions an expert in the field might pose and evaluating evidence. Ill bet the best schools will push, even in undergraduate education, for more minors or double majors in unusual areas . . . such as electrical engineering.

3. Learning to add

Our provost my boss recently asked me if journalists know how to evaluate, say, the chance of a Category 5 storm hitting New Orleans or the risk to the population when Ecoli is discovered in a very small part of the food chain. I told him the truth most journalists dont understand numbers. But I suspect the best schools will encourage journalism students to study at least rudimentary statistics and, depending on kids interests, maybe even basic accounting.

If students complained, Id steer them toward one of my favorite sites, 538.com, whose official goal is to accumulate and analyze polling and political data in way that is

informed, accurate and attractive. What it really does is use statistical analysis to measure all sorts of interesting subjects, including the chances of clearing a heavy snowfall from the streets of New York. Its a fascinating site. Stats or accounting would be the perfect accompaniment to a good course in database reporting.

4. Q uestioning news sources

Thanks to pioneering work at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the best journalism schools are teaching students how to evaluate the news they are reading, whether theyre getting it by phone, computer, print, television, radio or social media. To our surprise, many of the students in our pilot news-literacy course last semester didnt grasp the importance of evaluating the source of news: A partisan site seemed as credible to many students as a news site. For the spring semester, well emphasize specific questions to ask about sources.

5. Writing long-form journalism

My newsroom friends will think that all of those ink fumes got to me over the years when they see this idea. But the best public-affairs reporting that I have read recently was long and nuanced. Game Change, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, may have had a lot of blind quotes, but it also had detail I read nowhere else. Adam Nagourney in New York Times Magazine told me things I didnt know about Harry Reid and I live in Nevada.

Almost everything Peter Baker writes in the Times and Times Magazine, such as The Education of President Obama in October, enlightens. The best journalism schools will match up the need for better public-affairs reporting and long-form writing by using some of these examples even if we are in the age of Twitter.

6. Working with journalism professionals

Collaborations flourish. More and more journalism schools are working with professionals in all sorts of ways covering specific neighborhoods, investigating subjects that havent been covered. As Geneva Overholser, director of the journalism school at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, writes, . . . a great deal


Schools that tr y to do ever ything end up doing nothing that s excel lent.

The best journal ism schools are teaching students how to

evaluate the news that they are reading, whether they re gett ing

it by phone, computer, pr int, televis ion, radio or social media.

J-School Educ ation in the 21st Centur yof work is being done by journalism schools in meeting the publics need for high-quality information. Besides, students are learning to collaborate with each other and with pros.

What could be wrong with that? Not much, but Id argue that students should be paid and receive course credit, which implies evaluation by a serious editor or faculty member. Overholser quotes one of my colleagues at Reno, Donica Mensing, as adding a third requirement: For this work to have value, the standards, organization, editing and networking of new models must be incorporated into the creation and distribution of the journalism. We owe it to students and to the health of the discipline to push for new skills and mindsets for the future, and avoid absorbing all energy into reproducing work we know how to do.

7. Learning the right thing to do

At our graduation reception each spring and winter, I tell students I have good news and bad news for them. The bad news is that many other good journalists, in addition to our latest crop, are out there. The good news is that few of them (at least thats my argument) have received the mandatory ethics grounding that our kids have received and that will distinguish them in an important way in this unprincipled society.

Three years ago, our senior class decided that new graduates should be offered a chance to pledge that they will practice ethical journalism in their careers. Those who like the idea sign a parchment ethic pledge that we display and receive a small copy for themselves. Our daughter should put that on her resume, one happy mother told me last year. The best journalism schools will push ethics education.

I dont know what Tony Wagner of Harvard, author of The Global Achievement Gap, had in mind when he wrote about the skills that all students need. But heres how Tom Friedman paraphrased him: There are three basic skills that students need if they want to thrive in a knowledge economy: the ability to do critical thinking and problem-solving, the ability to communicate effectively, and the ability to collaborate. To me, that sounds as if he is talking about journalism education.

Jerry Ceppos is dean of the Donald W. Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. For 36 years, he worked as an editor at the Miami Herald, as managing editor and executive editor at the San Jose Mercury News and as vice president for news Knight Ridder. He later was an adjunct professor at San Jose State University and a fellow in media ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.


During my 34 years in journalism education, Ive seen many changes. But I am as excited about what we do today as I was when I took my first teaching job at Nebraska-Omaha in 1977; when I moved to Arizona State in 1979; and when I assumed my current position at Penn State in 1999.

After 10 years of full time in the classroom where I taught media law, press freedom theory, in-depth reporting and editing and 24 years in administration at two major universities, I still feel good about how we prepare our students for the changing media landscape.

As I have noted on many occasions, we might look at faculty composition and our curriculum differently than we did three decades ago, but the mission of a journalism program remains the same: to educate and prepare students for citizenship in a society in which communication and information are major commodities that constitute the heart of the democratic process.

At a time of profound change in structure, content and dissemination patterns of media, the fundamental skills of investigation, analysis and communications through written and visual media remain.

The news business has changed at warp speed over the past decade or so. Changes ultimately create opportunity and students continue to see journalism as an attractive academic major and career.

We have more than 3,300 undergraduates in our College of Communications at Penn State and with more than 700 junior-senior majors, journalism remains our largest program. Advertising/public relations is a close second, followed by telecommunications, media studies and film-video.

I consistently contend and firmly believe that journalism is one of the best undergraduate majors at universities because it helps prepare students to work in the ever-expanding array of media outlets, as well as to find success in multiple fields.

When students take technique classes such as news writing, reporting, editing and convergence journalism along with conceptual courses such as media ethics, media history and

The news business has changed at warp speed over the past decade or so.

Preparing Students for the Changing Media LandscapeD o u g a N D e r s o N

J-School Educ ation in the 21st Centur y

media law combined with extensive coursework deeply rooted in the traditional liberal arts and sciences they are equipped to gather information, exercise judgment, write and possess a broad understanding of society.

This is one reason journalism is the seventh largest undergraduate major, of nearly 200, on the 42,000-student University Park campus of Penn State.

Yes, I feel optimistic about the future of journalism education although, like the media industries we prepare our students to enter, we face challenges.

Then again, we always have.

I noted in a speech 15 years ago: Indeed, the late 1980s and the 1990s, in many respects, have not been the best of times for journalism-mass communication education. Mandated shotgun reconfigurations of mass communication units and attacks from within and outside the academy on the relevance of our field have provided fodder for countless meetings, discussions, studies and published articles.

I am not among the doomsday forecasters, though. Our students are getting jobs in traditional media as well as in new, interactive media - areas not dreamed about a few years ago. Clearly, these are exciting times, an era filled with unique challenges. I like our chances of succeeding.

Today, the greatest challenge facing journalism education as it was 15 years ago is funding, particularly at public universities. As is the case in most sectors, we must do more with less. States are facing massive budget shortfalls and the foundations and media outlets that, since the 1980s have contributed to our financial well being, have

cut back. All of our revenue streams have slowed at a time when our instructional hardware and software needs have never been greater.

We continue, though, to hire superb faculty members many of whom have significant journalism experience and wonderful new-media expertise and to draw first-rate students who arrive on campus with a thirst for knowledge, savvy technological skills and a desire to be journalists.

We continue to be recognized and appreciated on our campuses for our commitment to sound undergraduate education; for the role we play in offering media literacy courses to non-majors who, more than ever, given the multiplicity of voices in the marketplace, need to be informed news consumers; and for preparing our students to contribute intelligently to the discourse that powers our democracy.

We have our hands full, but it is an exciting time to be adjusting our curricula to respond to the needs of media industries, the marketplace and our students all the while remaining true to the rock-solid fundamentals upon which our programs have been built.

Douglas Anderson is professor of journalism and dean of the College of Communications at Penn State, the countrys largest nationally accredited program. In 1996, The Freedom Forum named him Journalism Administrator of the Year, the youngest person ever to receive the award. He is author and coauthor of six books.


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A thorough understanding of ethics is what will separate professional journalists from someone with a lambasting opinion and an internet portal. As more technology becomes available to a wider audience, journalists will capture their market and define their distinctiveness through their integrity. Knowing how to make ethical decisions will be the skill set that sets professional journalists apart.

Emerging media markets and a crumbling economy have forced journalism administrators, rightly, to re-evaluate their priorities and re-think curriculums.

In a 2004 study, one-half of journalism programs included a freestanding ethics course as either a required or an optional part of the curriculum, and more than 80 percent reported teaching ethics modules in skills or conceptual courses. Faculty in that study said a primary learning goal for ethics courses and modules was to foster moral reasoning skills. In other words they wanted to teach students how to identify ethical problems and come up with viable solutions. Both journalism administrators and faculty described ethics as essential to the curriculum.

But that was 2004, before a host of crises hit the industry. The actual impact on media ethics education is yet to be clear due to rapid change, so let me make the case for continued focus in journalism schools on ethics.

Ethics instruction must be an integral part of j-school curriculums or we will end up with Enrons in our own profession that will make the New York Times Jayson Blair look like a minor blip. Without systematic and deliberate media ethics teaching, students will end up adopting the ethical constructs of their corporations and fail to learn how to ask important questions.

Or, they will fly as solo entrepreneurs fighting to keep their small media businesses afloat and not even have a corporate boss to provide ethical guidance. Things wont quite feel right but they wont know why or what to do about it. Without systematic and deliberate ethics education, they wont have the critical reasoning skills as technology advances to apply ethical codes or see gaping holes where new ethics codes are needed.


Knowing how to make ethical decisions will be the skill set that sets professional journalists apart.

E t h i c s D e f i n e s t h e P r o f e s s i o n a lg i N N y W H i t e H o u s e

More thancogs

Students must have extensive multi-platform technical skills to compete in the ever-emerging media market. But without a solid foundation in ethics they will become little more than automatons operating without mind, heart or soul. Its not enough to be able to write an inverted pyramid lead and know how post it on Twitter. Professional journalists must know what those 140 Twitter-allowed characters have to do with privacy, conflict of interest, truth, fairness, promises, etc. Knowing ethics and being ethical is part of doing the job well, regardless of whether objectivity remains part of the mainstream media business model.

Making sense of the complexities

The New York Times ethics code has more than 10,000 words, a treatise far too complex to ask a newbie to operationalize. But nowhere in all those words are there instructions on how, when or whether to quote directly from a Facebook status update. (Chances are pretty good your mother didnt teach you that either.)

Ethics instruction involves learning how to ask questions from multiple viewpoints: What are the standards that might be in play here? Who might get hurt? Is this really the only way to achieve some greater good? Is my quest for truth trampling on other things I value? Media ethics classes can help students know what questions to ask.

Good teaching needed

Clifford Christians and Edmund Lambeth, in 2004 and in their three previous studies of media ethics instruction, called for better training of ethics professors. As the newly laid-off veterans of the media industry enter the classroom, they need to bring with them more than war stories. They need a solid foundation of ethical theory to give their students an arsenal of tools for problem solving. And, professors need some understanding of the advances in brain research that show how and why the human race tends to make ethical decisions in certain ways.

Just as reporting professors need to know how to best help students learn to conduct an interview, media ethics professors also need to know to how to best train their students to do the good in addition to knowing the good.

Deliberate teaching needed

As curriculums focus on new skill sets, the temptation will be great to just say media ethics will be folded into other courses. Media ethics should be taught across the curriculum and in conjunction with law, history and media literacy.



Yet the free-standing course remains the best way to present media ethics skills with necessary concentration lest it become after-thought or add-on. Ultimately, the ethos of news organizations and those who produce the news will depend on their ability to show integrity in how information is presented.

Perception of ethics then holds as much weight on the bottom line as speed of delivery and ease of access. Ultimately, ethics courses offer the best financial hope for

the future of the journalism because it is by ethics that journalists will separate themselves from everything else clamoring for public attention.

Ginny Whitehouse, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Com-munication Studies at Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash. She is co-director of the AEJMC Media Ethics Divisions annual Teaching Media Ethics workshop, and is former chair of the AEJMC Media Ethics Division and the SPJ National Journalism Education Committee. She teaches and researches in the areas of media ethics, social media and intercultural communication.


Almost by definition, journalists are forward-looking people, always on the search for whats new. One of the most damning criticisms in the trade is that an article is yesterdays news, and yesterdays news, as most journalistic graybeards will tell you, is only fit to line the bottom of a birdcage or wrap fish.

Consequently, the fact that the history of journalism currently doesnt play a prominent role in journalism education, and probably never has, should come as no surprise. History, by definition, requires looking backward rather than looking forward and frankly, the study of history cuts against the ethos of journalism.

But the mismatch in temperament is only one of the reasons journalism history has played such a small part in journalism education. From its inception, journalism education has been a subset of the larger trend toward professional education coming into its own at roughly the same time universities began to offer curricula in business, teaching, agriculture and other professions and mechanical arts.

Given those roots, the focus has been primarily on the acquisition of skills professional journalists need to succeed and it has been hard to make the case that knowing the history of journalism will help aspiring reporters write better leads or ask more penetrating questions. Not a few journalism educators have expressed downright hostility to the idea that students should waste precious time studying anything about the history or social role of journalism itself. Their mantra has been to teach students to report and write professionally and have them study other academic subjects so they have something to write about.

Journalism historians have had trouble offering compelling counter-arguments. The idea that we stand on the shoulders of giants or those who dont know history are bound to repeat it or any other clich in the defense of learning history simply seem unconvincing to students.

And, despite journalism educator James Careys plea nearly 40 years ago to broaden the scope and depth of journalism history, much of the scholarship in the area is just not engrossing. Many professors report getting students interested in journalism history is challenging.

Finally, as with so many other aspects of journalism, the emergence of the Internet and its associated applications has perhaps dealt a coup dgrace to teaching journalism history in the academy. To be current, journalism programs have to address convergence, backpack journalism, blogging, Twitter and so on. With so much new to teach, something old has to be eliminated. As the American Journalism Historians Association has documented, the old is often

journalism history. That is the wrong direction to go.

The tsunami of the new flooding journalism is precisely the reason why the role of journalism history in the curriculum must be enhanced. The established forms and institutions of journalism are being swept away. The days of a crusty ex-professional instructing students to read the New York Times and do it like that or see how it is done on the CBS Evening News are over. You may have noticed that the readership and viewership of the mainstream media are eroding rapidly.

With the forms and institutions that defined journalism for the last 50 years crumbling, what is left? The answer is that the culture of journalism is what remains the way journalists view the world and understand their role in it. And the culture of journalism cannot be understood indeed it makes no sense without knowledge of the history of journalism. In some way, a common thread connects the colonial newspapers published prior to the Revolutionary War to the Huffington Post. The form is different, the subject matter is different, the delivery vehicle is very different and the business model is different. But they are linked.

Many in journalism think that how the craft has been traditionally practiced is the only way to do things. They are factually wrong. In just one example, throughout much of the 19th century, editors felt their primary role in American politics was to lead public opinion, not just objectively report on the back and forth between the parties.

Understanding the history of journalism leads to an understanding of the changing nature of society over time and the role news plays in its organization. Understanding history of journalism leads to an understanding of how new media such as newspapers (newspapers were new once), television and now the Internet, change what is reported by whom to whom and with what effect.

Karl Marx argued that the working class allowed itself to be exploited because it did not have world-consciousness, that is it didnt truly understand its role in economic production. Without knowledge of the history of journalism, journalists and journalism students lack the professional consciousness and context they need to participate fully


Yesterdays news, as most journalistic graybeards will tell you, is only fit to line the bottom

of a birdcage (or wrap fish.)

I n D e f e n s e o f t h e S t u d y o f J o u r n a l i s m H i s t o r ye l l i o t k i N g

J-School Educ ation in the 21st Centur yin the debates and experiments that will shape and define journalism in the decades to come.

There is a maxim that says if you dont know where you are going, any road will get you there. But as any video game player knows, where you can go depends, at

least in part, on where you came from. A knowledge of the history of journalism is the starting point for the creation of journalisms future.

Elliot King is professor and assistant chair of the Department of Communication at Loyola University Maryland. He is the author of six books including Free for All: The Internets Transformation of Journalism (Northwestern University Press: 2010) and The Online Journalist (with Randy Reddick) (HBJ; 1995, 1997, 2000). He is the immediate past head of the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and served as the conference chair of the Joint Journalism Historians Conference from 2001 to 2010.


Many in journalism think that how the craft has been traditionally practiced is the only way to do things.

They are factually wrong.



Change is nothing new to media law scholars. In fact, many of us were drawn to the study of law because it can, and often does, change. The normative tradition of legal scholarship is based entirely on the notion that legal doctrine can be improved through the reasoned critique of judicial reasoning.

So it comes as little surprise that the field of media law, like the broader media world, is undergoing transformative change, raising new legal questions and reframing old ones. Topics of interest to media law scholars are in constant flux, with the time-honored fields of inquiry such as libel, privacy and newsgathering law developing new wrinkles.

Anonymity is a fine example. Long protected by the First Amendment and with roots stretching back to the American Revolution, its an article of faith. Yet the rise of online comment boards and the absolute protection from ISP liability ushered in by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act have many serious First Amendment scholars re-examining their once-axiomatic defense of the right to anonymous speech. The medium, it seems, is altering the message.

A new book from Harvard Press on the subject, The Offensive Internet, edited by Saul Levmore, the William B. Graham Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School, and Martha C. Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, offers a provocative look at online speech.

What is remarkable about this volume is that a group of free speech stalwarts are tackling free speech issues in a critical way, and often concluding that, as privacy expert Daniel J. Solove, John Marshall Harlan Research Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School says in a riveting essay, that the law is hampered because it overprotects free speech.

The Internet poses new problems, and offers new veins of research. Indeed, the issue of net neutrality alone ushers in a host of meta-questions for media law scholars. Tim Wu of Columbia Law School raises many of these systemic First Amendment issues in The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of

Information Empires, a book that has me rethinking much of what I do and how I teach it.

Wu takes apart the infrastructure of American telecommunication historically and legally, raising all sorts of issues ripe for further study, not the least of which is whether or not the First Amendment (gasp!) is the future determinant of free expression.

In the United States, Wu asserts, it is the industrial structure that determines the limits of free speech. The First Amendment limits Congress, he points out, not the titans controlling the channels in which we speak and receive information. And it is control of that channel that will shape the future of online communication. Wu the creator of the term net neutrality writes that each major new medium unleashes optimism and innovation, only to consolidate into an empire that seeks to monopolize the master switch, as Fred Friendly at CBS once called it.

Wu demonstrates this, over and over again, by using history as his guide. The telegraph monopoly was undone by the telephone. Broadcast oligarchs who sought dominance of the public airwaves replaced the tinkerers of early radio. These men, in turn, succeeded in squelching the upstart television for 20 years. Then the television execs put their energies into strangling the cable innovators in their cribs.

On and on it goes, Wu writes, in an anecdote-rich book that should be on every media scholars reading list this year.

Its just this sort of historical-legal work that should inform the media law scholarship of tomorrow. Media law is more critical to the undergraduate journalism experience than ever before, but its curriculum must be expanded even further, examining issues of ownership, media diversity and consolidation along with traditional First Amendment doctrine.

Charles N Davis is an Associate Professor at the Missouri School of Journalism. He teaches graduate seminars in media law, as well as the Schools introductory survey course, Principles of American Journalism.

O ve r p r o t e c t i n g F r e e S p e e c hC H a r l e s D a v i s

In the know . . . in the now. gatewayjr.org

I fell in love with journalism when I was 21. I stumbled onto the paper at my university after taking my first news-writing course as an elective. The smell of the ink and cigarette smoke, the clack of typewriters and a few keyboards (just arriving), along with the serious, likeable and intelligent students that worked there immediately grabbed me. I had only recently discovered I could be a decent writer, and I had always been interested in history and current events. Maybe most importantly, I had a chip on my shoulder and a problem with authority.

Many of these people toiling were misfits and mutants, fiercely dedicated to an ideal. That whole mystique of the press as an institution struck something deep in a young person looking for a calling. I loved the tradition of its people standing up and telling truth to power after being clever enough to ferret it out. I wanted to be one of them.

So, I went to journalism school and became a reporter. I worked as a journalist for 15 years. I kept striving to be one of those clever, plucky reporters I had admired in college. I risked my life a few times, going to very bad places and talking to people who had guns. I was threatened a few times and every mayor hated me. I learned public documents, the art of the interview and how to tell a good story in an economical way. I won awards and at some point along the way I realized I was the real thing a newspaper reporter.

I also realized it was time to get out. I realized my news judgment, as well as everyone in the news business, is biased. I also witnessed a distinct tilt to the left among many of my colleagues. I remained firmly rooted in my right-leaning views, which I kept to myself while making every effort to remain objective as a newsman.

And then the business hit hard times. The business end began intruding regularly into our news calculations. My company bought and sold papers. One day I woke up and found theyd sold mine. The business of news is not the same thing as being a news reporter. They dont teach you that in journalism school, you learn that on your own.

I loved my journalism education and on most days, I wouldnt trade it for anything. But would I send one of my children to a journalism school now?

I dont think so, at least if they want to be a journalist. A political science degree would do a much better job of enriching their knowledge of politics, even if those in political science also tend to lean too far to the left. A degree in business or in engineering would certainly give my children a better chance of securing a job in journalism because it would give them a specialty that they could cover as a journalist.

And how will a journalism school address the main issue facing journalists today that of lost credibility? Journalism may be suffering financially, but it suffers far more from a growing lack of credibility and intellectual honesty. The big institutions, can no longer get away with ignoring the issues of bias, context and inaccuracy in their news pages.

Pew research indicates that over the years there has been a growing disconnect between the public and the extent to which it believes what the media reports. The disconnect is even greater when split among political parties. Journalism is changing to a more advocacy-based model. New forms of media follow this new outline. It seems that much of the public, especially those who lean to the right politically, have decided to cash the new medias credibility checks, after having so many of the old medias bounce.

What can journalism schools do to address the perception that they teach journalists a liberal bias? How many journalism schools have at least one professor who hammers home the theories of Karl Marx in his or her classes? How many journalism professors preach objectivity out of one side of their mouth and then openly campaign for liberal politicians, often professing their personal opinions in class? How many journalism professors look at the financial success and rising ratings of conservative media and dismiss it out of hand as biased and not real journalism?

Point-of-view and advocacy journalism may not completely be the future, but it will most definitely be a part of the new media landscape. And until journalism schools take a deep look at themselves and examine how they prepare their students for this landscape, until they teach that a news story, no matter how objective, is just one persons understanding of how the news is presented, they will continue to send out students unprepared for the media landscape they face.

Journalism schools should teach students how to gather information, how to think critically, how to conduct an



The business end began intruding regularly into our news calculations.

How will a journalism school address the main issue facing journalists today that of lost credibility?

Why J-Schools Arent Doing the Job Theyre Supposed to DoWa l l y s p a r k s



interview and how to do the research necessary to tell a good story. They need to teach their students how to recognize their biases and live with them. Stories need to be researched, balanced and fair. Leave the bias out of it.

Right now, I dont think enough journalism schools are trying to do that. And until they do, I dont think I could tell

my child to go to journalism school, no matter how much I enjoyed my experience.

Wally Sparks is the pseudonym of a professional journalist who worked over 15 years in the news business as a reporter and editor. Sparks currently has a public relations connection to a University.

For the foreseeable future, college newspapers will continue to play the two roles they have played since their start: chronicling life on campus while providing a training ground for aspiring journalists.

If that seems like old news, think again. Today, the college newspaper must accomplish those tasks while working with undergraduate students who often have not been raised to be newspaper readers, much less reporters.

The college newspaper now also plays a third role: It must nurture a passion for news in its staff members.

Though there are exceptions to the generalizations I am about to make, for many students today, following the news means following their sports team or the latest celebrity scandal or, the latest sports-celebrity scandal. Journalism schools

and college newspapers must focus on teaching students to view the world as reporters and photographers and provide them with the

skills and knowledge they need to chronicle that world, but the college newspaper has the special task of training student journalists to make their coverage relevant under

real-world conditions.

If we hope to produce reporters and photographers who will sustain journalism, we must teach them to produce

newspapers that people want to read. We also need

to teach our readers that newspapers still have a vital role to play in American society. If the college newspaper does its job well, it can train students to become news consumers who will turn to newspapers throughout their lives.

How do we teach students to make coverage relevant? Student journalists must be taught to recognize all the possible ways to cover stories that will have meaning for their readers. Newspaper advisers must have a constant, boundless enthusiasm for the possibilities of news coverage and must pass that enthusiasm on to their students, many of whom cannot see those possibilities when a story idea is broached. Students covering their first budget, speech or meeting story are often overwhelmed just by the reporting.

The adviser (aided in large part, it is hoped, by the journalism faculty) must teach student journalists to show their readers how they will be affected by the story.

College Newspapers in the 21st Century: Nurturing a Passion for News is the Most Important Job Facing College Newspapers

l o l a b u r N H a m

The Problem with Teaching Current Events to J-School Students.



Advisers must teach students to think beyond the surface, to ask questions that will lead to the kinds of stories that will pull readers in and help them understand whats what. Advisers must teach students to be thinkers and diggers, not just stenographers. We have to ground our student journalists in the basics of newsgathering and story-telling and then give them the opportunity to practice, until those basics become second nature. Through that practice, reporting improves, organization improves and storytelling improves.

The college newspaper has lately been expanding its definition of the basics to include online reporting. Good reporting is good reporting whatever the medium, but good online reporting requires additional technical skills as well as the ability to think of alternative ways to tell a story. Some students today resist learning online skills.

Another large part of the advisers job is to help students recognize the importance of those skills, both to expand the newspapers coverage and to give students additional qualifications for their first jobs after graduation.

For us, online-only is not an option, nor will it be until our online news site produces income. College newspapers that want to break news online and follow it with print the next day also have to accommodate students class schedules. When students are working for little or no pay, how demanding can the newspapers publication schedule be?

College newspapers also face the question of whether or when to remove content from the Web site. Such requests come from former students who were the subjects of arrest stories but also from former staffers who want to have poorly written articles removed. Our policy is not to remove online content because we are the paper of record for our university. If we would not remove a less-than-flattering story about a former student who was not connected to the newspaper staff, should we consider removing less-than-flattering examples of a former staffers work?

These are only some of the issues unique to the online age that are facing the college newspaper. But just as 25, 50 or 100 years ago, the college newspaper must set the standard for reporting for the public good. In teaching our students to see journalism as a public service, we help to ensure that good journalism will have both practitioners and an audience throughout the 21st century.

Lola Burnham is an assistant professor of journalism and the editorial adviser to the Daily Eastern News at Eastern Illinois University.

The college newspaper must . . . [work] with undergraduate students who often have not been raised to be newspaper readers

For many students today, following the news means following their sports team or the latest celebrity scandal or . . . the

latest sports celebrity scandal.

The college newspaper must set the standard for reporting for the public good.

What a great gif t ! Give a subscr iption, get a discount. gatewayjr.org



A Former Students Perspective: J-Schools Cant Replicate Covering a Beat

a N D r e W s m i t H

Almost 25 years ago, when I emerged from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication at Syracuse University with a shiny new journalism degree, there was a debate in the business about whether a reporter needed such an education to succeed. Some things never change.My first job was at the Times-Picayune in New Orleans. After a couple of stops in California and Syracuse again, Ive been at Newsday on Long Island for the past 18 years. In addition to many co-workers educated at various journalism schools, Ive also worked with math majors, English majors, law school grads and a few with no college education at all. Its been clear to me that you can be a terrific reporter or editor without a journalism education.

That said, I wouldnt trade my education at all.

I went to a journalism school because even before I got into high school, I knew I wanted to be a reporter - and nothing else. I was going to do anything I could do to make that happen at a high level as quickly as possible. I didnt consider applying to any university without a respected journalism school.

Like those without journalism educations, many of the most important things Ive learned I picked up on the job. There is no substitute for just doing it. However, a good journalism school makes you do actual journalism. In my sophomore year, I covered a presidential primary and got my work published. By the end of my junior year, I was working more than 20 hours a week at the Post-Standard in Syracuse. That grew out of an internship I got through the Newhouse school. Without the experience and clips from that part-time job, there is no way I would have started my career at the Times-Picayune.

Besides practicing journalism, the main advantage students have is they learn why theyre making the choices they make and examine what they do before, during and after they do it. They routinely get the kind of guidance they might get from an excellent editor, if she or he had time on a particular day to talk about the craft. You learn the trade faster in a j-school.

When I walked into the newsroom in New Orleans, I knew how to write a lead. I knew how to mine the clips and fully report a story. I knew how to make use of public records. I knew how to get people to talk to me. I knew how to observe details and use them. I knew how to function on deadline. Sure, I could have learned all those things on the job, and many people do. But I didnt have to. I was already a reporter.

However, I didnt learn everything. Theres no way for a journalism school to replicate covering a beat day in and day out. Its difficult to teach how to develop sources. Those were things I had to figure out on my own.

J-school isnt for everyone. My belief in the value of journalism school is probably best expressed by the fact that I teach at the one at Stony Brook University. I see there that students who are focused on being journalists get value from such an education and get a head start in the business, just as I did in the 1980s. But I also see that those who drift into the journalism school, unsure of what they want, get washed out quickly.

Those students would be even more unlikely to see the inside of a newsroom with a degree in anything else.

Just as you go to engineering school if you know you want to be an engineer and just as you go to medical school if you know you want to be a doctor, you go to journalism school if you know you want to be a reporter. If youre not sure, a liberal arts education is perfect. Journalism school is for journalists.

Since graduating from Syracuse Universitys S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication in 1986, Andrew Smith has worked at several newspapers, including Newsday, for the last 18 years. He was part of the staff that won the Pulitzer Prize for spot news reporting on the crash of TWA Flight 800, and he won a White House Correspondents Association prize for national reporting for his work on a series about nuclear waste. He also lectures at Stony Brook Universitys School of Journalism.

I could have learned all those things on the job, and many people do. But I didnt have to. I was already a reporter.

Even before I got into high school, I knew I wanted to be a reporter, and nothing else.



I first came to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis because of its reputation for having a good journalism school and a good swimming team. The people were friendly and it was located relatively close to home. I had been active in high-school journalism, and I knew without a doubt that I wanted to study journalism in college.

The cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul were themselves a media draw. Few other cities in the country could boast of two major daily newspapers, a large alternative publishing community that included magazines such as the Utne Reader, the literary influence of Garrison Keillor and a plethora of public radio stations that could raise thousands of dollars in 15 minutes of a pledge drive.

This rich media market also had another benefit: Many of my instructors at the University of Minnesota were current or former journalists, including Pulitzer Prize winners.

Because of the size of the university, the journalism program was able to offer specializations such as broadcast or written media, advertising or mass communications.

Courses included news-writing, magazine publishing, page lay-out, photo-editing, and classes that required us to read some of the great literary journalists of the past and present. Most importantly, there was a heavy emphasis on the quality of writing, a skill that is useful no matter the profession in which we ultimately ended up.

A news-writing course that included twice-weekly quizzes on the A.P. Style Book and Libel Manuel certainly paid off when I passed the A.P. test only three months after graduation. I had not heard about wire services in journalism school, but was instead introduced to the A.P. because the local bureau shared an office with my hometown newspaper (where I worked at the time), and I was invited by the bureau chief to take the test.

Working for the A.P. was a challenge and a great deal of fun. Because of the wider scope of its coverage, I was able to cover everything from the South Dakota Legislature and

the landing of Air Force One during a presidential visit to the heart-breaking stories of drought-ravaged communities, which had been overlooked by government officials.

Eventually, I decided to leave journalism and have since pursued a Ph.D. in medieval archaeology at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

The change of discipline did not make my journalism skills any less relevant. Proper writing skills made writing my dissertation much faster for me and less painful for my supervisor, as she had to spend much less time editing my grammar and could concentrate on the content.

In addition, the research skills gained through years of working in journalism made finding sources and hunting down information much easier than for those with less experience. I have not abandoned journalism all together but plan to continue in some form in the future, perhaps by writing about archaeology or doing other freelance work. Writing skills are like riding a bike they may need to be polished after a period of disuse, but the right training guarantees that these skills will stay with you forever.

Individuals serious about pursuing a career in journalism should study at a large university with a journalism program that will allow them to specialize in a particular interest area and to intern with a well-respected media outlet.

The generic English or mass communication degrees offered at smaller colleges, which may offer only one news-writing course among a variety of media classes, do not always give students the strict instruction in writing and production they will need if they hope to succeed in larger media markets.

Journalism can be incredibly fun and allow a person to see a side of society normally hidden from everyday life. For many it becomes a passion as much as a profession, and that is something no university can teach.

Elizabeth Pierce is a 2001 graduate of the University of Minnesota and worked for several years as a journalist. She is currently finishing her Ph.D. in medieval archaeology at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

A Former Students Perspective: From J-School to Archeology, Ph.D.

e l i z a b e t H p i e r C e

Writing skills are like riding a bike they may need to be polished after

a period of disuse, but the right training guarantees that these skills

will stay with you forever.

Proper writing skills made writing my dissertation much faster for me and less painful for my supervisor

My interest in journalism started when I was around 8 years old and I read a childrens story about muckraker Nellie Blys undercover reporting from Bellevue Mental Hospital. I was amazed that someone could effect such important changes by investigating an issue and writing about it. As the years went on, I was convinced being a journalist was one of the best jobs on the planet. In 2002 I began college at California State University, Long Beach, and, to no ones surprise, majored in journalism. Upon graduation, I was accepted as a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Copy Editing Intern, and completed my internship at The Fresno Bee. I went on to be a copy editor and city editor for the Los Angeles Times Community News, a subsidiary of the Los Angeles Times. In 2009, I served as a volunteer English teacher in Peru.

I now work as an editor/writer for a long-term health study and sonn will return to school to study public health, with a special interest in the role media have in fostering positive behavioral health changes in society.

While attending j-school at CSU Long Beach, I received an excellent education in the foundations of what makes ethical, intriguing and useful journalism. A large focus was placed on a journalists responsibility to be accurate, responsible and unbiased - to not just follow stories, but to be a news leader by investigating overlooked angles. We were encouraged to think critically about our coverage and ensure it was fair and legal.

The fact that the school had three on-campus student publications meant there were several venues for students to practice skills learned in the classroom. Undoubtedly, the most valuable part of j-school was being heavily involved in these publications. This is where I learned the inner workings of a newspaper/magazine, including how to generate interesting stories, how to collaborate with an array of clashing personalities, and most importantly, how to meet deadline.

If there is any area of j-school I might have benefited from that was not present, it would be evaluating recent historical data on attempts to gain readership. As newsrooms struggle to entice readers of all ages, more of an emphasis should

be placed across the board (in and out of j-school) on the question, Is this the best use of our time and resources? Just because the New York Times is doing something edgy does not mean that (1) it is actually catching on, and (2) it is right for your readership. Tactics for distinguishing

predicted value for readers should be a key component of every j-schools curriculum.

To those considering j-school, I would offer up three bits of advice. First, gain as full of an understanding of the industry that they can

obtain to ensure journalism aligns with their skills and areas of interest. I met many students who said they got into journalism because they loved to write. However, they were not passionate about going after stories. A love of the written word is important, but this will not carry someone through a career in journalism. Students need to make sure they have enthusiasm for informing others.

I also advise those considering j-school to double major. Students should develop expertise in an area outside of journalism. This gives students an edge when they are reporting (especially if reporting on science and technology).

Finally, once students have enrolled, I advise them to be open to every job at the student newspaper. Do features, hard news, write opinions, design a front page spread, copy edit, take photos and ask for more work. Not only will

this exploration help you decide which areas you excel in, but it will give you an appreciation and understanding of the roles of each department of a publication. As someone who has a passion for educating the public, I am

very happy I was able to attend a j-school. I learned what constitutes worthwhile journalism, and just as I suspected as a child, the power it has for lifting society. I plan to take these lessons with me in future roles, and I am grateful for the opportunities my j-school education has given me thus far.

Jennifer Frehn lives in Southern California. She is currently a project editor for the Adventist Health Study-2, a long-term study funded by the U.S. National Cancer Institute exploring the links between lifestyle, diet and disease.

I received an excellent education in the foundations of what makes ethical, intriguing and useful journalism.

I learned what constitutes worthwhile journalism



J e N N i F e r F r e H N

A Former Students Perspective: Study at a Large University



I chose to enter the journalism school for my bachelors degree at Southern Illinois University Carbondale because it felt like my element. I was hired at the student-run newspaper, the Daily Egyptian, before I had even stepped foot on campus more than a couple times. Now, as a senior nearing graduation, Ive done enough time in the news writing world to know that yes, I am cut out for it, but it just might not be in my heart to love doing it.

I realized this new, exciting world I had jumped into interviewing new people every day, communicating with advertisers, meeting deadlines, and mastering the plethora of multitasking that encompasses it I wanted to stay. That is, at least for a while.

At the Daily Egyptian, I began writing at least three stories a week; all as a full-time student. I still loved it. I loved the journalism classes even more. Everyone involved in the journalism school and the newspaper had that never back down passion, and we all fed and still feed from that. I have never walked out of a journalism class feeling uninspired. I have never turned my ears off when a journalism professor or fellow journalist speaks.

However, I burned out (as did my grades) and I became too frustrated my second semester to want to work for the campus newspaper the next year. The one thing I learned specifically about news writing is that the news always needs a journalist and a journalist can never turn it down. I wasnt too sure I wanted it to be that way. It was a its not me, its you break-up situation.

I doubted I would be able to continue battling and quelling this never-ceasing, magnificent monster that is the news, at least while attending college. Someone suggested changing my major. Thus begins that classic mid-college crisis where the student asks him or herself, What the hell am I doing here?

I howled back, Journalism! This year is when I realized I made the right decision in not changing my major to what? English? Art?

I have learned so many things in my journalism education that I would not have learned in any other major. I was never able to communicate with such ease, write quality work under pressure or feel so accomplished every day. The greatest thing I learned is that all of my abilities are vital for any professional career. Im looking at graduate programs in mass communications, and internships and careers in public relations, where I find myself on the backwards end of the journalism spectrum. Still, I will proudly carry the title of Journalist after earning my bachelors degree even if I never find myself working for a newspaper.

J-Schools Open Other Doorse r i N H o l C o m b



When Southern Illinois University became the host of the St. Louis Journalism Review, now the Gateway Journalism Review, we had a few goals in mind.

The first was to expand the coverage area of the original St. Louis Journalism Review. That led to the change in name. The most important thing we wanted to do was add a Web site that we felt would give us the opportunity to expand our coverage. Without the Web site, the Gateway Journalism Review wont survive.

Our first attempt at a new Web site didnt work. We just didnt like it. So we talked with Aaron Veenstra, an assistant professor at SIUC, and ask

gateway journalism review issue 321

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