Student-friendly Journals and Journal-friendly Curricula

Abstract

Most journalism and mass communication (JMC) practitioners would likely agree that working in the profession involves much more than putting pen to paper. Judgments about ethical issues, questions concerning how published information will affect the public, and the larger role of mass communication in a democratic society are undoubtedly issues that practitioners grapple with on a daily basis. Interestingly, these same types of issues are ones that academics in JMC programs also entertain frequently in their own scholarship, with an enormous amount of literature generated on questions such as law and ethics, public opinion, media and culture, information dissemination, and media and politics, among others. Unfortunately, however, the literature generated by JMC academic scholarship and the day-to-day activities of JMC practitioners are often disconnected. There are a number of systemic and structural issues that need to be addressed for overcoming this disconnect, but we focus on one prominent product of academic work, namely scholarly journals. It is clear that the burgeoning numbers of journal articles are not being used to their potential in most JMC classrooms. What can be done to remedy this situation? We suggest two possible solutions. First, increase the relevance of journals to JMC education. second, explore ways to change the curricular focus to better accommodate journals in the classroom as well as the newsroom. Relevance of Journals in Graduate and Undergraduate Education The relevance of academic journals to graduate-level education is somewhat self-evident. One of the primary goals in many graduate coursesand particularly methodology courses -is to enable students to be literate of research presented in scholarly journals. Consequently, struggling through the dense prose that is commonly employed in journal articles, comprehending the often difficult-to-understand sections of methodology and statistical analyses, and amassing the vocabulary needed to follow the academic jargon that characterizes specialized areas of research are not only required of graduate students, they are often primary goals of graduate education. In addition, in graduatelevel courses devoted to theory, students are often at least minimally familiar with basic theoretical models (perhaps reading about them in depth from other sources or discussing them in seminars). Consequently, under these circumstances, journal articles often function as illustrations of how researchers in mass communication engage in theory testing and/or exploration, as details concerning the assumptions and nuances of theories themselves are typically not the focus or purpose of many articles. Finally, the relevance of journal articles to graduate education is evident in terms of the role that journals play in socializing students into the norms and practices of scholarly publication. That is, journal articles provide graduate students with models for how to present their own research ideas in ways that are typical of and will likely be well received by other scholars in the discipline. In contrast to graduate education, the relevance of journals to undergraduate courses is much less obvious. Except for courses related to research methods specifically, instructors often avoid assigning journal articles as part of course readings, opting instead for textbooks, book chapters, or popular publications or trade magazines. This state of affairs is, of course, unfortunate, as undergraduate students are left with little exposure to (and hence a dampened appreciation for) the scholarly activities that occupy a large percentage of their instructors' time, energy, and enthusiasms. Furthermore, the lack of familiarity with scientific and scholarly research in journals leaves students as mere consumers of scholarship rather than as critical readers who are able to engage in a dialogue with scholars, contribute in a meaningful way to research within their chosen field, or apply scholarly findings to their professions. …