Journalism Programs Research Articles

Milwaukee’s Jesuit University: Marquette, 1881–1981 (review)

Reviewed by: Milwaukee’s Jesuit University: Marquette, 1881–1981 Thomas E. Wangler Milwaukee’s Jesuit University: Marquette, 1881–1981. By Thomas J. Jablonsky. [Urban Life Series, No.3.] (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press. 2007. Pp. 438. $40.00. ISBN 978-0-874-62080-1.) This handsome hard-bound publication is a centennial history of Milwaukee’s Jesuit Marquette University from its beginning in 1881 to 1981. It replaces the history written by Raphael N. Hamilton, S.J., The Story of Marquette University (Milwaukee, 1953). The book is intended to encompass three main areas of Marquette life—an administrative history, the history of student culture, and the way in which Marquette functioned as “Milwaukee’s University.” I would add to these stated goals an additional academic history of the university. The Jablonsky text is strongest as a critical narrative of primarily the institutional and academic history of Marquette, written for historians, rather than as a coffee-table volume used by former undergraduates who might want to recall their time at the Jesuit university. John M. Henni, the first Catholic bishop of Milwaukee, had envisioned a college for his diocese from the beginning of his tenure in 1843, but it would be almost forty years before that hope became a reality. The need to find a religious order to operate such an institution, create the lower schools to feed it, and locate funds for such an enterprise were some of the reasons for the delay. Finally by 1881 the Jesuits opened a liberal arts college in Milwaukee and, of course, followed their Ratio Studiorum. By 1887 five students graduated from the college program. A local medical college proposed an affiliation with Marquette, which launched Marquette into university status in 1907. This was followed by the purchase of a law school in 1908, the opening of a department of engineering in the same year, a school of business and a journalism program in 1910, and a conservatory of music in 1911. The Jesuits were not well prepared to integrate the addition of these “vocational” programs into the old Ratio, but attempts were made to weave rhetoric, literature, history, and philosophy into the new programs wherever possible. Large numbers of non-Catholic students, many poorly prepared in the liberal arts and studying vocational programs, and even the inclusion of women, made Marquette a different kind of institution from the traditional Jesuit college. But the Jesuit liberal arts orientation was not relinquished—by the 1920s students in the professional schools were required to spend their first two years taking liberal arts courses in the College of Arts and Sciences. So sooner had Marquette become a university when it began offering graduate education. By 1922 a formal graduate school headed by a dean came into existence. Five years later, master’s degrees, which were terminal degrees at that time, were available in chemistry, economics, education, English, German, history, Latin, philosophy, and physics. Within twenty years it was natural that doctoral degrees would be offered, especially in philosophy and biology, yet Marquette’s library and faculty were not perceived as equipped to take on the rigors of upper-level programs. Thus in 1940 the Association of American Universities recommended the termination of the Marquette doctoral [End Page 178] programs and the reduction of many of its master’s programs. It was not until 1957, with a new library and an improved faculty, that the university resumed the offering of doctorates in philosophy and biology, followed by theology in 1963 and many others in the years to come, making Marquette a respected international center of learning at the highest levels. Reaching this apex was the product of a long run of presidents, countless sleepless nights for administrators, financial ups and downs, the burden of two world wars, the great depression, the turmoil of the 1960s, and the generous contributions of many donors. The history of the university frequently reads like the history of the American nation with its financial and political booms and busts. The attempt at reproducing student “culture” is not as successful as the administrative and academic narratives. It is handled with the same professionalism characteristic of the rest of the book, but there is little by...

Between journalism universals and cultural particulars: challenges facing the development of a journalism programme in an East African context

Between journalism universals and cultural particulars: challenges facing the development of a journalism programme in an East African context

Cost effectiveness of journalism education in a small nation state

The article discusses the role of journalism as a discipline in a small nation state and provides analysis of the economic factors that influence the journalism programs. The article discusses some of the economic aspects of journalism education at the academic university and provides a case study on the basis of the two programs provided by the University of Tartu: Bachelor (BA) and Master’s (MA) programs. The curricula are held by the Institute of Journalism and Communication. Keywords: journalism curriculum, education, cost, small market. p>

Enrollments Increase, with Slightly Higher Percentages of Male Students

Enrollments at journalism and mass communication programs showed significant growth in the autumn of 2007, following a year of almost no growth. The growth in enrollments at the schools closely aligned with the traditional journalism occupations as well as advertising and public relations largely reflected the growth in the overall population of communication programs around the country. While journalism and mass communication remains a field that is attractive to women, there is evidence that the growth in the percentage of students who are female has halted. The percentage of students who are labeled as racial or ethnic minorities also is not changing dramatically. The students enrolled in journalism and mass communication programs play an important role in the evaluation of the faculty in those programs. Student evaluation of teaching and publication in peer-refereed journals are the two most important criteria for promotion and tenure decisions by administrators of those programs

Open access and evolving scholarly communication: An overview of library advocacy and commitment, institutional repositories, and publishing in Canada

The open access movement in Canada is very active in many areas. This is not surprising; of the 16 people at the Budapest meeting which was the foundation of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), three were Canadians, all global leaders in this arena: Leslie Chan, Jean-Claude Guedon, and Stevan Harnad. The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) was among the earliest signatories of the BOAI, and quickly initiated a nationwide institutional repository program. The Canadian Library Association (CLA) recently approved an innovative “Position Statement on Open Access for Canadian Libraries,” calling for all libraries to participate in advocacy, educating patrons abut open access resources, and encouraging support for open access, including economic support. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) has an open access mandate policy, requiring open access to CIHR-funded research within six months. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) has an Aid to Open Access Journals program. Other funding agencies in Canada either have, or are developing, open access policies and support. This article presents an overview of CLA advocacy and open access in Canada, with a focus on initiatives with a strong library involvement or leadership.

“They're in for a Rude Awakening”

That's what a recent graduate of a Big 12 journalism school recently told me about graduates coming out of journalism programs these days-about their need to know about media management and economics. I think those of us who teach media management and/or media economics, and those of us who do not teach it but think they important for students to know, have been somewhat remiss in not pressing our case. And, like my Big 12 alumnus friend, I think the need for young journalists to know about and understand it is more important than ever. Media economics both allowing and forcing changes in media technologies, and media technologies both allowing and forcing changes in media economics. And a major reason why traditional news media, entertainment media, and other media companies threatened by new technologies is because of a great deal of bad management, especially but not only in the newspaper and broadcast television industries. Finally, if, how, and how well they responding also is due to the quality of management. I don't know about enrollments in media management courses at many other universities, although from what I hear, others in the same boat: when I teach Newspaper & Magazine Management at Point Park University, with its more than 550 undergraduate and graduate JM and sometimes have a passable grasp of ratings, shares, audited circulations, CPMs, and/or other quantitative information about mass communication, might realize that it is media management and media economics that will determine their fates, in addition to public needs and wants, professional standards and practices, and (at least with regard to all electronic media) government regulation or lack thereof. The most common reason I hear from print journalism students about why they don't take the course is that they don't think they will ever be in management, and some go so far as to say they don't want to be in management. (That today's young people claim to be nonmaterialistic might have something to do with this, but there many reasons to work in management besides having a higher salary.) If I had the opportunity to talk to each student who could take my Newspaper & Magazine Management course but doesn't, my first point would be that many newspaper editors, newspaper publishers, magazine editors, and magazine publishers (not to mention people in middle management) also at some point-perhaps for a long time-said and thought the same thing. (We all know this is true in academia, too: think about how many department chairs and deans long thought they would never be there.) I would add that some of them won't know whether they like being in media management, or if they're any good at it, until after they have done it, but that is getting even more speculative than making an are prediction to a student about ending up in management. But let's take the student at her word: that she doesn't want to go into media management, and thinks the odds slim that she'll ever be there in any case. Over the years, I've made a number of other arguments to print journalism students about why they should know something about media management and economics. …

The Use of Design Technology in U.S. Journalism Programs

This nationwide study examines the use of newspaper design technology in undergraduate journalism courses. In a survey of journalism educators who teach newspaper design (52.7% response rate), almost two-thirds report using Adobe InDesign. The study reports the perceptions of journalism educators toward implementing the software into their classrooms and if they think or observe a newspaper industry preference for their majors to know particular software. Differences between ACEJMC-accredited programs and non-accredited programs are compared.

Essay: If You Build It, They Will Come: Developing a Sports Media Major

Consumer demand for sports media has never been stronger, yet sports media studies have long been a low priority in traditional journalism programs. For some reason professional sports writing and sports broadcast production has long been looked upon as the strange cousin of journalism: not really news, not really promotion, and not really considered “real media” except through some bizarre DNA configuration. After several years of success with a strong sports broadcasting club, Oklahoma State University recently established a B.A. and B.S. in Sports Media through the School of Journalism and Broadcasting to train undergraduates to work in this growing field.

Graduate Education at AEJMC Schools: A Benchmark Study

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Board of Directors charged the Standing Committee on Teaching to devise a set of metrics for assessing doctoral programs in journalism and mass communication. This directive was made with the strict proviso that the goal would be to offer suggestions for improvement—that is, how we can better prepare future faculty who may one day teach in journalism or mass communication programs. Exploring what schools are currently doing was a first step. The survey reported here covered the three primary areas important for tenure-track faculty—research, teaching, and service. It builds on the Task Force on the Status and Future of Doctoral Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.1 The article includes suggestions for metrics and student-learning outcomes.

Medill 2020: 411 or 911?

Editor's Note Who would have guessed that journalism curricula could be so controversial? First, there was a president at Columbia University, himself a noted First Amendment scholar, who a few years ago halted a journalism dean search, which led to the appointment of Nicholas Lemann and then a second master's degree program there, various M.A. degrees to go along with the traditional M.S. More recently and still going on is controversy about what the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University is calling Medill 2020, a new curriculum that supposedly prepares students for what journalism jobs will be like in 2020. Northwestern Magazine's Fall 2006 issue told alums and others, realities of today's media environment require an education that incorporates elements of both [journalism and integrated communications] traditions, [Dean John] Lavine says. In a world of abundant choice for consumers and fierce competition for their time, journalists need to learn how to reach their audience with compelling stories and presentation, while marketers and communication students must understand how to think and write with the clarity of journalists, according to Lavine. The magazine continued, Our students need to understand the experiences that motivate and inhibit media usage,' Lavine says. 'How do you involve and engage an audience?' Lavine's goal: Train all Medill students to create 'relevant, differentiated storytelling and messages that engage the audience.' That's the key, Lavine says, to capturing the attention of very busy people-and to stemming the tides of circulation loss for newspapers and declining viewership for broadcasting. The magazine also pointed out that during a fifteen-month-long strategic planning process involving the Medill faculty, Audience understanding led the list. After a detour to mention the need to teach technological multitasking to journalism students, Northwestern Magazine noted, Not all alumni and students share his [Lavine's] excitement about a new curriculum that more tightly weaves the and journalism programs together, Lavine acknowledges. Some have been skeptical, others upset. That last sentence certainly was and is true. One need only quickly search the World Wide Web to find various posts by persons who are or at least claim to be Medill students, Medill alumni, and in various journalism jobs to find comments that the new curriculum ruins Medill's curriculum, dramatically damages its reputation, causes prospective students to consider not attending there, etc. Let's forget for the moment that the new curriculum, instituted this last fall, was achieved quickly, if at all, by suspending Medill's faculty governance. Also forget the various other recent controversies at Medill that, while not completely unrelated to the new curriculum, are mostly not about the new curriculum. Forget that one rationale for the new curriculum was evaluations of old curriculum by an Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) site team and apparently by others, whose conclusions/recommendations have been summarized as saying the old curriculum was broken. (ACEJMC site teams usually are not that blunt. And if North western's old curriculum, in place through Spring 2007, was broken, what would that site team say about the curricula of many other j-schools?) Finally, also forget that no one knows what U.S. news media will be like in 2020. One criticism of Medill 2020 has been, essentially, that journalists don't and/or shouldn't take marketing issues into consideration when they are practicing journalism. While I certainly agree with some critics that journalists shouldn't pander to certain segments of the audience, to suggest that newspaper, magazine, and/or broadcast journalists don't take audiences into account is absurd. Magazines, for instance, are the original niche media product, with magazine design and content historically and still shaped by who the audience is, and the audience sorting itself between one magazine and its competitors based on what the design and content are (and, of course, to some extent on what the subscription and single copy prices are, which are factors also closely linked to audience). …

An Evaluation of Team-teaching Models in a Media Convergence Curriculum

This article evaluates team teaching models of new media convergence curriculum at a small, undergraduate journalism program. In the models, degrees of faculty collaboration vary depending on course level and goal. Students in first-year, basic journalism classes benefited from a lower level of collaboration than those in second-year classes where advanced cross-platform, integrated knowledge, and skills were needed. We suggest that team teaching and teaching media convergence go hand-in-hand; however, a successful program depends on administrative support and the willingness of instructors to collaborate and learn new skills and knowledge across media platforms.

2006 Enrollment Report: Enrollments Level Off; Online Instruction Now Routine

Journalism and mass communication enrollments increased only slightly in 2006, and the increase was brought about by the addition of new programs, rather than growth at existing programs. The slowdown in enrollments is not unprecedented, and enrollments have declined in the recent past. Growth in enrollments at the entry level in 2006 and the expectation that university enrollments will increase generally in the next five to ten years suggests the likelihood of continued growth in journalism and mass communication enrollments in the next few years. The curricula of journalism and mass communication programs have changed in response to changes in the technologies used by the communication occupations. While fewer students are enrolled in the four traditional areas of advertising, journalism, public relations, and telecommunications than in the past, journalism continues to attract the largest number of students.

EDITORIAL: A better media deal?

As this edition of Pacific Journalism Review went to press, Fiji was in the throes of conducting a census. Technology is helping the process. Technology is often associated with democratising the political proc- ess, decentralising the status quo, upholding free speech, promoting direct democracy and amplifying voices that often remain silent. Regardless of the potential of technology to deliver these freedoms, the issues that existed before the advent of the internet, e.g. access to technology (affordability and availability, including the issue of electricity in developing nations), user motivation and skill in using these new gadgets still stand. This edition, jointly produced with University of the South Pacific media staff, publishes a series of articles addressing these issues. On Media Freedom Day, 3 May 2006, the Fiji Media Council, assisted by USP’s regional journalism programme, organised a panel on ‘Media and alleviation of poverty’. The panel—men from the developed world who were either connected to the media industry in Fiji, or owned a great stake in it—talked about everything but the media’s role in alleviating poverty.

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

Experiential learning and journalism education

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to detail research into experiential learning and journalistic practice in the Department of Journalism Studies at the University of Sheffield.Design/methodology/approachThis paper explores a range of themes and issues stemming from the application of an experiential learning approach to postgraduate journalism education at the University of Sheffield. Following the experiential learning exercise, a number of semi‐structured interviews were conducted with students and teaching staff in order to get an insight into their perceptions and experiences of the learning exercise.FindingsThe development of experiential learning programmes within journalism education provides valuable experiences that simulate the real world of journalism practice. Further reflective research work would be required to embed such learning approaches within journalism practice modules across the UK.Practical implicationsEmbedding experiential learning exercises within vocationally orientated MA programmes requires reflective and ongoing curriculum development. Moreover, the establishment of more reflective elements within programmes will aid the research process in future explorations of this type.Originality/valueResearch on experiential learning on postgraduate journalism programmes within a British context is minimal. The research hopes to stimulate further work in this area.

Accredited and Nonaccredited Media Writing Programs Are Stagnant, Resistant to Curricular Reform, and Similar

A journalism program's accreditation status is arguably a factor in institutional reputation and student recruitment. Researchers were interested in exploring any differences in media writing course pedagogy between accredited and nonaccredited journalism programs. A secondary objective was to assess evidence of curriculum innovation in light of emerging issues, such as convergence and cross-platform media writing instruction. A comprehensive national study of media writing instructors revealed that accredited and nonaccredited schools are similar in their approaches to the teaching of media writing, that writing courses are structured similarly, and that faculty qualifications and faculty attitudes toward media writing are very similar. While highlighting the need for continued innovation in the teaching of writing, the study reveals evidence of systemic resistance to curriculum reform, notably in accredited programs, where ACEJMC standards may limit creative educational approaches.

Journalism Educators Making International Declarations

In June, I attended and participated in the first World Journalism Education Congress, held with the 16th AMIC [Asian Media Information and Communication Centre] Annual Conference, in Singapore. The United States and AEJMC were well represented by AEJMC President Wayne Wanta, various journalism & mass communication school deans/directors, senior scholars in international communication and journalism education, scholarly journal editors, and others. Just three days before the conference started, the Chronicle of Higher Education published an article headlined, Practicing Guerilla Journalism in Singapore, which mentioned-among other points-The media-watchdog group Reporters Without Borders rates Singapore at the same level as the military dictatorship of Myanmar when it comes to press freedom. Thus, picking that country for a journalism and/or education conference seems like an odd choice if that choice itself were not meant as a political statement. (It doesn't seem to have been, and there were reports that various potential attendees stayed away precisely because of the conference location.) However, the Congress was informative, thought-provoking, and otherwise useful in many ways. Just reading the English-language Straits Times every day demonstrated through that newspaper's relentless pro-social content what some would like U.S. news media to be, if not also packed with Singapore's equally relentless pro-business content. Here and in at least the Autumn 2007 JMCE, I am reporting key presentations, debates, documents, and other international developments at and since the Congress. On its first day, representatives from national and regional journalism education associations convened and drew up a Declaration of Principles of Journalism Education. After reportedly intense debate (I was not in the room) about various concepts and even individual words, the delegates produced: We, the undersigned representatives of professional journalism education associations share a concern and common understanding about the nature, role, importance, and future of journalism education worldwide. We are unanimous that journalism education provides the foundation as theory, research, and training for the effective and responsible practice of journalism. Journalism education is defined in different ways. At the core is the study of all types of journalism. Journalism should serve the public in many important ways, but it can only do so if its practitioners have mastered an increasingly complex body of knowledge and specialized skills. Above all, to be a responsible journalist must involve an informed ethical commitment to the public. This commitment must include an understanding of and deep appreciation for the role that journalism plays in the formation, enhancement, and perpetuation of an informed society. We are pledged to work together to strengthen journalism education and increase its value to students, employers, and the public. In doing this we are guided by the following principles: 1. At the heart of journalism education is a balance of conceptual, philosophical, and skills-based content. While it is also interdisciplinary, journalism education is an academic field in its own right with a distinctive body of knowledge and theory. 2. Journalism is a field appropriate for university study from undergraduate to postgraduate levels. Journalism programs offer a full range of academic degrees including bachelors, masters, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees as well as certificate, specialized, and mid-career training. 3. Journalism educators should be a blend of academics and practitioners; it is important that educators have experience working as journalists. 4. Journalism curriculum includes a variety of skills courses and the study of journalism ethics, history, media structures/institutions at national and international level, critical analysis of media content, and journalism as a profession. …

Becoming a journalist

In the last 30 years there has been a transformation in the way in which young people in the UK have become journalists. Not only has journalism become a graduate occupation but there has also been a steady increase in the number of university journalism courses and degrees. This development has been greeted with both scepticism and anxiety by already established journalists, who argue that universities are unsuited to prepare new entrants for the `realities' of journalism as an occupation. This article reports on a survey of graduates from journalism programmes in Scotland. The evidence of this survey is, first, that a journalism degree is, in fact, an effective preparation for a successful journalism career and, second, that graduate journalists absorb news-room culture without difficulty, to the extent of discounting the value of their own `academic' journalism training. There is some evidence, though, that graduate journalists do bring a new perspective to the assessment of journalism as a career.

Between the Newsroom and the Classroom

This study surveyed a convenience sample of journalism educators at Arab universities and journalism practitioners at daily Arab newspapers in Egypt and Jordan to determine the degree of alignment between journalism theory and practice in both countries. The researcher adapted, with some modifications, three scales by Dickson and Brandon to compare the perceptions of educators to those of practitioners regarding the importance of the following aspects for preparing journalism graduates for entry-level journalism positions: types of media-related courses, journalism competencies, practices adopted by academic journalism programs and qualifications of journalism faculty. Results showed that while educators agreed with professionals on most journalistic competencies and practices that ought to be taught by academic journalism programs in Egypt and Jordan, educators' rankings of courses on media theory, journalism skills and ICT were significantly higher than those of professionals. The study also revealed that most journalism educators and practitioners believed that there was a gap between journalism education and professionalism in Egypt and Jordan. Respondents' answers to the open-ended questions suggested some ways to bridge this gap.

West African journalism education and the quest for professional standards

The rapid growth of the media sector in West Africa over the last ten years has fuelled a major demand for trained journalists and other media practitioners. This demand-supply pull has meant a remarkable expansion in the number of journalism and communications training institutions and programmes in the region. However, many questions of the last decades remain unresolved with respect to the quality as well as rigour of journalism and communications training in the region. As is shown in this brief survey, although there is sensitivity to improving the quality of journalism training in the region, little information is available publicly about how the training programmes are organised, what they offer, the sequencing of curriculum and practical internships, graduation requirements, the numbers and profile of faculty and information about accreditation standards or requirements. It is argued furthermore, there is no meaningful information about the alumni of the programmes, especially regarding their post-graduation job placements.