Journalism And Mass Communication Research Articles

Embedded Remediation in Journalism & Mass Communication: Exploring Faculty Perceptions of an Experiential Approach

Little research exists about embedded remediation (ER) in college journalism and mass communication (JMC) programs. ER could support students who are underprepared for college-level writing. Because ER would affect faculty’s professional practice, this study explored its feasibility by investigating JMC faculty perceptions of ER and its feasibility. Qualitative inquiry via focus groups with a purposeful sample ( n = 17) was used to explore perceptions and barriers to implementation and a conceptual framework including Experiential Learning Theory and the Teaching-for-Learning model was used in analysis. Four themes were identified: (a) growing concerns, (b) externalizing remediation, (c) institutional challenges, and (d) taking action.

Improving the Creation of Social Science Theory in Journalism and Mass Communication Scholarship

Research into journalism and mass communication (JMC) theory use and creation suggests that scholars fall short of standards required for the scientific method to perform properly. Sociologist Gerald Hage said this reflects inconsistency among scholars in the use of language and a lack of tools used to create social science theory. To address these conditions, this essay draws on three books to provide a glossary of terms about social science theory and to develop a format for presenting such theory. The aim is to improve consistency and precision in the creation of JMC social science theory.

Spreadsheets, Software, Storytelling, Visualization, Lifelong Learning: Essential Data Skills for Journalism and Strategic Communication Students

To facilitate greater integration of statistical reasoning and data instruction in journalism and mass communication (JMC) college curricula, this research note advocates designing collective instruction for journalism and strategic communication students organized around the data literacy construct. It introduces a Data Project Lifecycle model that maps statistics, data, and computational skills discussed across the literature, and which can be used in instructional design. Input from 24 journalism and strategic communication practitioners with data experience identifies essential data skills for JMC graduates: spreadsheet wherewithal, fluency in industry-standard software, ability to tell compelling stories with data, visualization, and self-directed learning.

Designing and Delivering Experiential Journalism Tasks in Online Environments: A Framework Grounded in Cognitive Apprenticeship Theory

ABSTRACT Before the COVID-19 pandemic, journalism and mass communication (JMC) schools were increasingly integrating online educational delivery into their programming. The pandemic then forced instructors to transition all programming almost overnight to emergency remote teaching environments. This had an acute disruption on applied courses within JMC professions. As higher education pivots toward an uncertain future amidst a likely endemic COVID-19, JMC instructors will need access to evidence-supported pedagogy that can be contextualized across modalities. This five-round Delphi study featured a panel of 24 experienced online JMC educators, who co-constructed a framework of pedagogical practices and instructional design strategies for designing, delivering, supporting, and evaluating rigorous experiential learning activities in online environments. The resulting framework—called The EXCEL Online Framework—is comprised of 36 primary and 59 ancillary practices that JMC educators can contextualize to their online courses. Analysis revealed the primary practices aligned closely with principles of the Cognitive Apprenticeship Model.

The Attraction of Anti-intellectualism: Appropriation of Journalism Ideology in Media Education

This study considers the possibility that students are subversive actors in a hidden curriculum of anti-intellectualism. Mass communication provides the arena in which intellectuals are held up to public judgment, and consequently media education represents a promising context for observing the enculturation of resentment. The hidden curriculum framework incorporates three sources of influence: socio-demographics, student-oriented anti-intellectualism (impatience with education, disliking instructors), and three dimensions of journalism ideology: the consumer-oriented and loyal roles and accountability to the public. Data are drawn from questionnaires distributed to undergraduates at five U.S. colleges with comprehensive programs in journalism and mass communication (JMC). Republican identity, student anti-intellectualism, and journalism ideology predict support for news media exposing faculty as subversive. The study concludes with suggestions for future research on how JMC education, from a comparative perspective, could be vulnerable to anti-intellectual incursions depending on media system and populist climate.

قول الحقيقة للسلطة: مبادئ أساسية لتطوير تعليم الصحافة دوليًا

أدّى تظافر مجموعة من العوامل إلى الوصول بالصحافة وتدريسها إلى حافة الانهيار. ومن بين هذه العوامل صعود اليمين المتطرف، وتقدم التكنولوجيا الرقمية، وتدهور البنى الاقتصادية لوسائل الاعلام. وتقدم هذه العوامل متحدة مع تزايد عولمة الصحافة والاعلام تحدياتٍ وفرصاً جديدة للصحافة والاعلام مهنيا وتربويا. يقدم هذا البحث 10 مبادئ أساسية لتوجيه عملية تدريس الصحافة والاتصال دوليًا وتعزيزها. ونقدم أيضّا مبدأً ختاميًا لتدريس الصحافة والاتصال يمكن اعتماده أساسًا لتعليم طلبة الكليات على نحو عام.

Institutionalized Education: Journalism and Mass Communication Education in Pakistan

This article uses an examination of journalism and mass communication (JMC) education in Pakistan as a case study to explore the consequences of increased homogenization of JMC education around the world. Anchored by a qualitative method that relies heavily on actor-network theory, the study identifies key moments and people in the trajectory of five Pakistani programmes and explores the connection between these programmes and the larger JMC organizational field. The study concludes by questioning the efficacy of the current power structures within the supranational JMC organizational field before discussing how these influences could potentially be mitigated moving forward.

Speaking Truth to Power: Core Principles for Advancing International Journalism Education

A confluence of forces has brought journalism and journalism education to a precipice. The rise of fascism, the advance of digital technology, and the erosion of the economic foundation of news media are disrupting journalism and mass communication (JMC) around the world. Combined with the increasingly globalized nature of journalism and media, these forces are posing extraordinary challenges to and opportunities for journalism and media education. This essay outlines 10 core principles to guide and reinvigorate international JMC education. We offer a concluding principle for JMC education as a foundation for the general education of college students.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Attitudes and Practices of Mass Communication Programs Regarding Unpaid Student Internships

This survey of mass communication programs’ attitudes and practices found unpaid student internships are more likely at unaccredited programs and where the highest degree offered is a bachelor’s. Advisers at bachelor’s programs also are more likely to agree academic credit appropriately substitutes for monetary payment. Although most advisers support unpaid internships, they agree universities are ethically obligated to protect students from illegal ones. The study recommends steps for journalism and mass communication (JOMC) educators to engage in informed discussions and decision-making to arrive at ethically justifiable policies and practices governing internships where their students work for free, especially for academic credit at for-profit companies.

Developing Intercultural Communication Competencies Using Various Learning Methods at a Media Communications Study Programme

Various previous researchers of journalism and media communication education demonstrated the necessity and importance for media workers to be competent in intercultural communication (IC). Slovenian researchers do not discuss these topics, and IC themes are withal mostly part of a non- obligatory courses where usual teaching and learning methods are applied. To examine the effectiveness and usefulness of different teaching/learning methods in developing students’ intercultural communication competencies, an educational intervention research was suitable, as the method is being useful mostly to solve pragmatic issues. Additionally, the study aimed at determining outgoing students’ intercultural communication competencies (ICC) – knowledge, skills, attitudes, and awareness through their cognitive, affective and behavioural dimensions. Two theoretical approaches were used – one stating that ICC are developed by learning on the ground of our innate predispositions and character and the behavioural perspective. This qualitative-evaluative research was conducted within the International and Intercultural Communication course at the first year of Graduate Study of Media Communications at the University of Maribor. It was a trilingual intercultural situation where learning activities such as role-playing, pantomime, case studies, simulations, individual exploration, and reflection were implemented, since students were not used to them. Participatory observation, semi-structured interviews, qualitative questionnaires, evaluation of class activities and a final exam were used as main research methods. Even though the group adapted very soon, the nonverbal activities were most demanding, and individual activities at home the least accomplished. Although they had theoretical knowledge, experience in public speaking, proactivity and self-reflection skills at basic level, their abstract thinking skills, self-awareness and adaptation were medium. However, they showed a great deal of persistence and creativity as a part of a collaborative and cooperative activities. Therefore, focusing on the learning activities stimulating students’ ICC as a part of a real intercultural situation in journalism and mass communication (JMC) education is recommended.

The Challenges And Successes Of Department Governance: A Look At HBCU Journalism And Mass Communications Unit Administrators

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are facing challenges to their continued existence on several fronts. One is fiscally, as federal funding for education has been cut and the responsibility for paying for higher education has been levied on students and parents. Another challenge is the amount of endowment dollars available to them and lastly, there are questions today as to if HBCUs are still needed in a society that has allowed African-Americans to enroll in Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs). Administrators of the 55 Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC) units at HBCUs have to lead with an eye on tradition while dealing with current financial issues. The administrators are faced with the personal challenge of tenuous term limits - served at the discretion of higher administrators - and teaching two or three classes. They work under larger units and have minimal authority over budgets, hiring, or strategic planning for their units. Their faculty work full course loads and few have tenure. How do they keep the institutions mission and move to the future of possible accreditation?

EXAMINING PROFESSIONAL AND ACADEMIC CULTURE IN CHILEAN JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION EDUCATION

This article discusses key findings from a survey of the professional patterns, scholarly productivity, and educational characteristics of Chilean Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC) educators, as well as documentary information about the schools where they work. The results reveal a weak academic culture that contrasts with a strong professional culture among the members of this community, but also the influence that both organizational and individual variables have on Chilean JMC educators' orientations. Specifically, the analyses indicated that the level of education, part-time/full-time commitment, and the type of university are the most influential factors in defining both the prevalence of a professional culture and the lack of research productivity. These findings support other international studies, indicating a global tendency across key variables that influence academic development in the field. Likewise, it shows how distant Chilean JCM educators are from the university-scholarly tradition.

We Have Problems

Robert W. McChesney. (2004). The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politicsin the 21st Century. New York: Monthly Review Press. 367 pp., ISBN 1-5836-7105-6.$16.95.A few weeks ago, I was reading Robert McChesney’s The Problem of the Media whilehaving lunch at a local restaurant. My waitress glanced at the cover, quoted the title, andthen said, ‘‘it should be a bigger book.’’ I laughed at her joke, but I silently wondered ifthe problems that she perceived in the media were the same ones addressed byMcChesney. I imagined that they might not be and considered that unfortunate,because the problems that he identifies are extremely important. In addition,McChesney suggest that his purpose in The Problem with the Media is to extend thediscussion about media beyond the walls of the academy. To this end, he has composeda very accessible book, one that marshals an impressive amount of evidence to supporthis claims. Although, in the preface, he debates whether the book is the work of an‘‘historian’’ or a ‘‘lawyer,’’ in the end it becomes the work of both because a good deal ofthe evidence that he uses is culled from the historical record. In other words,McChesney draws from the past to explain the present in a useful way.For example, McChesney provides a very detailed historical account of howprofessional journalism rose as a practice to counter the interests of cooperate mediaownership. Although he is critical of professional journalism as a practice, he alsoacknowledges its value and how it resulted in some exceptional reporting in the 1950sthrough the 1970s. He also argues that the potential of professional journalism hasbeen significantly eroded over the years by commercialization and corporateconsolidation. I have learned that many scholars in journalism share McChesney’sconcern. Recently, I have begun attending conferences held by scholars in mediamanagement and media economics. Many of the people that attend these conferenceswere trained in journalism programs, and many of them still teach in journalism andmass communication departments. I have seen several presentations at theseconferences bemoaning the erosion of professional journalism by corporate

Student-friendly Journals and Journal-friendly Curricula

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. …

Media Ethics Teaching in Century 21: Progress, Problems, and Challenges

What is the status of media ethics as a specialty in the journalism and mass communication (JMC) programs of North American colleges and universities at the turn of the century? This article is the fourth in a series in Journalism & Mass Communication Educator that addresses major parts of that question-the current goals, content, and key issues in media ethics instruction. The article also reports on classroom practices and summarizes the research and creative activities of media ethics teachers.1 More broadly, the series of articles has sought to serve as a continuing progress report on the academy's search for ways to develop applied ethics as a liberal arts component in the education of journalists and mass communicators. An important aspect of that effort is the status among JMC units of the separate course in media ethics. A new measure introduced in the current survey compares the perceptions that media ethics teachers and JMC administrators have of the standing of media ethics instruction and research and of the relationship of that academic specialty to the practice of journalism. The proximate audience for this fourth article is the readers of JMCE and the more than 400 journalism educators who have participated in the National Workshop on the Teaching of Journalism & Mass Communication, as well as readers of the Journal of Mass Media Ethics and Media Ethics, the Magazine Serving Mass Communication Ethics. It also is intended for the members of the Media Ethics Division and sister divisions within the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC)1 plus the small, but vitally important group of editors and reporters who seek to connect themselves actively with the ethics teaching movement in the academy. Literature Review The scholarly and professional work that most closely informs this and the earlier articles spans the twentieth century. A concern for the moral health and effectiveness of a democratic press infused Walter Lippmann's earliest books. In his 1922 classic, Public Opinion, Lippmann articulated the difference between news and truth and argued that neither the press nor major institutions of society-as then constituted-were offering the public the quantity or quality of knowledge which a democratic theory of the press demanded. Institutions were implored to interpose form of expertnoss between the private citizen and the vast environment in which he is ontangled.2 Seven years later, his A Preface to Morals drew upon philosophy, history, and the then nascent social sciences. The book reflects, among other goals, Lippmann's personal and passionate search for an ideal of journalism that would reverse the decline of journalistic standards brought on by the Jazz Age reporting of the 1920s. In an age when secularism seemed to be gaining new strength, he argued that the when custom is unsettled are necessarily ages of prophecy. Then he penned the following lines in his 1929 book, which some would say could have been written as easily for media ethicists working in our own pluralistic context of the early twenty-first century: The moralist cannot teach what is revealed; he must reveal what can be taught. He has to seek insight rather than to preach. The disesteem into which moralists have fallen is due at bottom to their failure to see that in an age like this one the function of the moralist is not to exhort men to be good but to elucidate what the good is.3 Christians noted that the book went through six editions in the first year, and described it as a rallying point... against the nihilism and despair usually associated with the twenties.4 Between the two Lippmann volumes at either end of the decade, professors of journalism themselves contributed to the national conversation about the press. Nelson Crawford outlined ethical standards and guidelines for journalism students; Leon Flint developed case studios of ethical decision making for the classroom. …

South African Journalism and Mass Communication Scholarship: negotiating ideological schisms

The history of South African journalism and mass communication (JMC) scholarship at university level stretches back to the 1960s. Five primary paradigms could be distinguished between 1960 and 1990. These were the German and Netherlands tradition (Zeitungswissenschaft and Perswetenschap, i.e. media history, law, ethics), positivist, functionalist, interpretative and Marxist. The last four approaches corresponded broadly to three sociological paradigms, namely: the positivist, idealist and realist. Different academic departments combined elements of the three approaches in varying proportions and combinations, each developing a preferred paradigm. This article begins with a cursory historical sketch of South African journalism, followed by a brief overview of JMC departments. The main trends in scholarship are then discussed against the backdrop of a qualitative analysis executed for this article. The authors conclude that theoretical and political rapprochement rather than division is occurring and evolving within post-apartheid JMC; that there is increasing co-operation and willingness to debate issues; that there is a recognition of the value of paradigm difference in debating issues, and that there is the need to locate South African JMC in an African and global context.

Journalism's Status in Academia: A Candidate for Elimination?

In 1983, Dennis warned that journalism education appears to be on the ragged edge of being so hopelessly outdated that its usefulness may soon be severely questioned. 1Since then, other authors have asked whether journalism education is becoming endangered species.2 The question arises because journalism and mass communication (JMC) programs are experiencing multitude of problems. At the same time, severe financial pressures have forced colleges and universities to cut back, even to eliminate some programs and faculty members.3 To learn more about JMC's ability to survive in an era of retrenchment, the authors surveyed more than 600 academicians from all disciplines and all types of colleges and universities. The authors asked the respondents about cutbacks at their institutions, about problems that might justify program's elimination, and about which programs they would eliminate. The results reveal more about JMC's status in academia, the reasons for some of its problems, and the support it can expect from colleagues in other fields. The era of retrenchment. Beginning in about 1990, huge deficits and myriad of new demands forced legislatures to reexamine their priorities and to insist that every state agency, including colleges and universities, increase their accountability and productivity. Private institutions, too, experienced cutbacks. By 1996, Newsweek estimated that only 20 percent of the nation's colleges and universities were healthy financially, and that 60 percent were struggling to adjust.4 Colleges increased their productivity by increasing teaching loads and class sizes, freezing or eliminating some positions, and - in extreme cases -- eliminating entire departments. Examples include: The University of Virginia's 15-campus system eliminated 49 degree programs and hundreds of faculty members. The president of Northwestern eliminated programs in geography, nursing, and evolutionary biology after deciding they could never be first-rate.5 The University of Rochester announced plans to reduce its student body by 20 percent and faculty by 10 percent.6 The University of Pennsylvania eliminated the departments of American civilization and regional science. A third department, religious studies, was also threatened.7 Problems and status. Journalism and mass communication programs face serious internal problems, including low budgets; large enrollments; scarcity of jobs for their graduates; technological changes that require expensive new equipment; and professionals who, at times, seem impossible to satisfy.8Some critics also dislike JMC's structure. Traditionally, programs have offered sequences in reporting, broadcasting, advertising, public relations, photojournalism, magazines, etc. Blanchard and Christ warn that universities with limited resources will no longer tolerate duplicating specializations with separate courses such as writing for television, writing for newspapers, writing for public relations, and writing for advertising. Blanchard and Christ add that the communications revolution (the media's convergence and related trends) is making traditional sequences obsolete.9 Other critics, especially media professionals, dislike journalism and mass communication's emphasis on Ph.D.s and research. Many want schools to hire only experienced practitioners and to place more emphasis on skills courses.10 Some faculty members, on the other hand, warn that JMC's status in academia is dangerously low, and that efforts to implement the professionals' demands may aggravate the problem. To survive and prosper, McCall believes, journalism and mass communication must become a more active partner, even an intellectual leader in the university. McCall explains that universities expect every field to contribute to the academic environment of the entire campus, and that, Typical J-school skills courses directed at vocational preparation can hardly meet this challenge. …

Faculty's Degrees, Experience and Research Vary with Specialty

as long as colleges have offered courses in journalism - more than 100 years -- professionals have insisted that faculty members need some professional experience. 1 Increasingly, however, debate seems to oversimplify issue. Increasingly, some demands seem to be based on considerations and situations from past - considerations that may no longer be relevant. example: only 10.2 percent of students in journalism and mass communication (JMC) programs are now enrolled in traditional news/editorial sequences, and some may spend their lives working online rather than in older newsroom roles. Critics often suggest that faculty members need a minimum of 10 years of professional experience, but rarely present any evidence to justify that figure-or acknowledge possibility that different faculty members with different specialties may benefit from different types of experience. Yet faculty members who teach communication law may benefit more from three years in a law school than from 10 in a newsroom.2 Similarly, faculty members in some of journalism and mass communication's other specialties may also benefit more from other types of training and experience. Critics seem to be primarily concerned with faculty members who teach journalism's courses, such as reporting, editing, and photography. Yet few studies have isolated those faculty members, examining their characteristics or comparing them to other faculty members. Similarly, critics condemn universities' emphasis on Ph.D.s and research but never define In view of field's increasing diversity, this study separates and compares faculty members in journalism and mass communication's largest specialties. This study also examines charge that universities require every faculty member to have a and to conduct scholarly research. Most previous studies have found that faculty members have, on average, many years of professional experience. The studies and their findings include: 1. A 1982 survey by American Society of Journalism School Administrators (ASJSA) found that faculty members had a mean of 7.4 years of newspaper experience, with a range of 5.9 for those with a doctorate to 8.5 for those without a doctorate. 1 2. Also in 1982, Fedler and Counts surveyed 200 assistant professors, 200 associate professors, and 200 professors, and found that average respondent had 12.5 years of professional experience.' 3. In 1988. Weaver and Wilhoit found that only 13 of 893 faculty members they surveyed (1.5%) had no media experience. The range in years of experience was from 1 to 50, with a median of 7 and mean of 9.3. For those holding Weaver and Wilhoit said, the mean numher of years of media experience was 6.5, compared to 12 for those without Ph.D., offering no support for often-heard charge that Ph.D.s in our field have little or no media experience.3 Only ASJSA study separated and compared faculty members in journalism and mass communication's different specialties. The ASJSA study found that fewer than 40 percent of faculty members with doctorates listed skills courses as their primary teaching areas. More than 60 percent listed non-skills or concept areas such as law, history, and theory. 6 Critics, however, continue to insist that every faculty member needs significant professional experience,often 10 years or more - and that many of today's faculty members have little or no experience: 1. In 1982, MacDougall complained that in some places it is easier for a Ph.D. communicologist with no experience to get a job than it is for an experienced journalism professional.7 2. In 1990, Bagdikian said: Another endemic journalism education problem is irrationality in faculty appointments. The demand that a senior appointment for teaching journalism be a is silly, but common. …

Role of the Media Ethics Course in the Education of Journalists

The number of separate, free-standing media ethics courses increased by 56 percent in schools, departments, and programs of journalism and mass communication (JMC) over the past decade. The number of JMC units offering modules on ethics in conceptual and courses increased almost tenfold.Seventy-eight percent of ethics instructors responding to the survey were male and 22 percent were female. Seven percent were minorities. Among those ethics instructors hired within the past 10 years, however, 36 percent were female and 12.5 percent were minorities.These were among the key findings of a 1992-93 survey of JMC units and their ethics instructors. Of 325 journalism and mass communication programs surveyed from listings in the 1992-93 AEJMC Directory, 260, or 80 percent, responded.Specifically, the number of ethics courses increased 56 percent--from 117 to 183 since the last tally in 1984. The increase reaches 84 percent--from 117 to 216--if the total includes 33 courses the 1992-93 survey identified as planned to be offered in the next year or two.When the comparison is based on a benchmark study in 1977 sponsored by the now-defunct Ethics Committee of AEJMC the growth is even more dramatic.(1) In that year, 68 courses were reported. Thus, the number of courses has tripled since 1977.In 1992-93, 132 schools, department or colleges offered one media ethics course 21 units offered two courses and three other units each taught three ethics courses for a total of 183 media ethics course taught by 158 schools. Two schools offering ethics courses did not indicate the number of courses they offered.Even more expansion occurred in schools reporting modules on ethics taught in either or conceptual courses in mass communication. They jumped from 24 of 238 schools in a survey by Clifford G. Christians in 1984(2) to 222 of 260 schools in our most recent study, almost a tenfold increase.Growth in coursesIn 1984, Christians reported that schools requiring ethics of undergraduate majors were exceptions. In the 1992-93 survey, 66 units say a media ethics course is of majors. In addition, 28 other units include the ethics course on a list of courses from which students may choose. This represents an apparently significant increase in as much as 94 schools, departments and colleges--or 61.4 percent of the 158 units which report having ethics courses--either require them of majors or make the course an option on a required list.Nonetheless, a total of 102 schools, or almost 40 percent of those responding, say they do not offer a separate course on ethics. Among the multiple reasons, the most frequently mentioned were first, Ethical issues are discussed as they arise in other courses, 71.3 percent; No room in the curriculum, 33 percent, and Insufficient budget, 15.9 percent.The emphasis placed on ethics by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications seemed apparent in the fact that almost 70 percent of the accredited schools (60 of 86) responding to the survey reported offering an ethics course. By comparison, about 57 percent of the non-accredited members of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication (47 of 82) reported having an ethics course. Not far behind were the institutional respondents that were neither accredited nor members of ASJMC. Of these units, about 55 percent (51 of 92) said they offered ethics courses.Course contentAfter the academic units were surveyed for administrative data on ethics instruction, questionnaires were sent to the ethics instructors themselves to identify teaching goals and approaches. As Table 2 clearly shows, fostering moral reasoning skills and surveying current ethical practice were the course objectives most frequently checked by the 164 instructors who responded.(Table 2 omitted)Instructors of the separate, free-standing ethics course appear to subordinate the evaluation of collective media performance and key media-and-society issues to the cultivation of individual critical-thinking skills. …