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Skills, Concepts, and J-Schools Delicate Balance

Jamie Cole

JN 562 Contemporary Issues

Wm. David Sloan

April 19, 2010


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It was the shot heard round the journalism world. And it was a college president

who fired it.

In 2002, Lee C. Bollinger, then the new president of Columbia University,

suspended the search for a new dean of its Graduate School of Journalismrejecting

finalists already up for the joband formed a task force to revamp the entire program. 1

Bollingers shot rang loudly in the halls of the venerable school, which for decades

emphasized teaching the craft of journalismthe skills needed to succeed in the

practice.2

Bollinger, in a statement on the Universitys web site, cited Joseph Pulitzers

contributions to Columbia at the turn of the 20 th century that helped establish its

journalism program. At the turn of the 21 st century, he said, the media were even more

critical to society than in Pulitzers time. And so it seems timely to review where we are

and consider afresh how journalism education in a great university can contribute to the

process by which the media adapt to a new world. 3

Pulitzers name wasnt invoked lightly. Joseph Pulitzer isnt just the patron saint

of Columbias school of journalism; he also represents a school of thought on how

journalism should be taught based on its role in society. While he believed journalism

education should prepare its graduates for the workplace, that wasnt his ultimate goal.

The chief endwas the welfare of the Republic. It will be the object of the college to

1 Jaschick, Scott. Columbia Rethinks Journalism Education Inside Higher Ed, accessed online 15February 2010 at http://www.insidehighered.com/layout/set/print/news/2005/03/28/journalism .2 Babcock, William A. The j-school debate. Christian Science Monitor , 1 August 2002, 9.3 Bollinger, Lee. President Bollinger's Statement on the Future of Journalism Education. Columbia News,accessed online 15 February 2010 at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/03/04/lcb_j_task_force.html .


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make better journalists, who will make better newspapers, which will better serve the

public. 4

Bollinger reflected that philosophy in calling for change at Columbia. To teach

the craft of journalism is a worthy goal, he said in a memo to his colleagues, but clearly

insufficient in this new world and within the setting of a great university. 5

Bollingers bullet revived a debate as old as journalism education itself: Should

journalism education be skills-basedwriting, reporting, editing, the basicsor concept-

basedemphasizing academic coursework and theory? At one end of the spectrum are

schools such as Columbia and Missouri, whose skills-based professional masters programs have strong reputations among practicing journalists. Examples at the other end

are Stanford and Wisconsin, known for producing PhDs in communication. 6

Bollinger also reframed the skills vs. theory debate for the new century.

Reorienting the mission of Columbias j-school would mean theory and practice were no

longer mutually exclusive, but carefully balanced: practical training alongside

academically rigorous education. 7

Not every school strives for that balance. The direction a school tilts between

skills and theory is crucial, to everyone from the students to the educators to those in the

media industry looking for new hires. In his article On The Beat or In The Classroom

(2007), Stephen Cushion said transparency begins with the academy. Students need to

4 Sloan, Wm. David. Makers of the Media Mind. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990, 85 Adam, G. Stuart, Jannette L. Dates, Theodore L. Glasser, and Mitchell Stephens. Does JournalismEducation Matter? Journalism Studies 7 (2006): 144.6 Babcock, The j-school debate, 9.7 Kelley, Barbara. Teaching Journalism. Communication Research Trends 26 (2007): 4.


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know if they are paying for an industry-preferred qualification or an academic degree,

he says, clearly delineating between skills and theory. 8

The impact of a schools tilt is felt in the field, as well; survey after survey over

the years finds employers complaining about the quality of writing from new j-school

graduates, reflecting on a failure to master the skill set crucial to the job of journalism.

Often a tilt towards theory sends news organizations reeling. Mitchell Stephens, in his

piece A J-School Manifesto (2000), recalls a letter the former Columbia dean Tom

Goldstein once received from someone at a major news organization. Goldstein had

announced his goal was to produce thoughtful journalists, and the letter from the news professional said, The last thing we need is thoughtful journalists. 9 Yet as new

technologies emerge and the field continues to change, that may be exactly what non-

traditional news organizations want. A 2009 study of job postings for online news media

showed these outlets are looking for a broad body of knowledge, adaptive expertise,

rather than the technical skills favored more by traditional news outlets. 10

So even considering the technique needed to confront multimedia convergence in

the industry, the skills/concept debate lingers. Which teaching strategy works best for the

student and journalism at large?

8 Cushion, Stephen. On The Beat or In The Classroom? Journalism Practice 1 (2007): 4319 Stephens, Mitchell. A J-School Manifesto. Columbia Journalism Review , September/October 2000, 65.10 Carpenter, Serena. Nontraditional Online News Media Seek Employees with Adaptive Expertise . HotTopics, AEJMC web site, accessed online 31 January 2010 athttp://aejmc.org/topics/2010/01/nontraditional-online-news-media-seek-employees-with-adaptive-expertise/ .


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Origins of the Issue

Trying to define journalism education is as difficult as finding a working

definition of journalism itself. Is journalism a profession, on a level with law and

medicine, or a craft, a set of skills analogous to those of a plumber or a carpenter? Is it

both? Scholarly opinion mostly adheres to a strict definition of profession, as W.E.

Porter offered in The International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences (1968): By the

conventional definition of the word profession, the occupation of journalist is not a

profession at all, he said. 11 Porter points out that though its practitioners are trained in

the university, the training is not required for entry into the field as it is for medicine or law, nor is there formal licensure as there is in those professions. 12

Those who see journalism as a profession argue its merits on prestige. Walter

Williams, founding dean of University of Missouris j-school, calls journalism a

profession in his well-known Journalists Creed. Some at the school still refer to it as a

professional school of journalism. John C. Merrill, a 26-year professor at the school

and author of Viva Journalism! The Triumph of Print in the Media Revolution , called the

descriptive term professional meaningless. Referring to journalism as a profession is a

public relations ploy to ascribe a certain qualitative statusI have never heard of a

professional school of law or medicine, he said in Viva Journalism! 13

A distinction, however, between profession and craft is anything but meaningless

regarding how journalism is taught in the academy. Controversies related to the problem

of professionalization of journalism area valuable starting point, wrote Slavko

11 Porter, W.E. The International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences , 1968, 268, cited in Splichal, Slavkoand Colin Sparks. Journalists for the 21 st Century . New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1994, 3412 Ibid.13 Merrill, John C. and Ralph L. Lowenstein. Viva Journalism! The Triumph of Print in the Media

Revolution. Indiana: AuthorHouse, 2010, 144


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Splichal and Colin Sparks in their study Journalists for the 21 st Century (1994). (T)hey

are clearly related to the questions of journalism education and training. 14

Those controversies regarding the purpose of journalism training in the academy

date back to its earliest establishments. From the start, education administrators have

struggled to define journalism education, and practitioners in the field from then to now

have offered mixed reviews of it as well.

The earliest college-level training was primarily skills-based, focused on the

technique of printing. Robert E. Lee, who became president of Washington University

(now Washington and Lee), first proposed scholarships for men who wanted a career in printing or journalism. 15 Journalist Whitelaw Reid of the New York Tribune offered his

approval of journalism education in an 1872 lecture at New York University, but with a

theory-based slant. His model curriculum included history, philosophy, economics and

politics in addition to professional skills. 16

Though Reids suggestions didnt take hold at NYU, Cornell Universitys

president proposed something similar three years later, combining liberal arts education

with training in the schools print shop. The program, however, was dropped after two

years. 17

The University of Missouri has the distinction of having the first officially

established journalism school, and gets credit for what evolved into the modern skills-

based pedagogy. The purpose of the school, said Walter Williams, was to train journalists

for practice. Williams, an experienced newspaperman who was named dean when the

14 Splichal, Sparks, Journalists , 415 Sloan, Makers , 316 Ibid., 617 Ibid., 7


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school was established in 1908, had only a high school education. He later became

president of the University. 18

Joseph Pulitzer helped invent Columbias journalism school beginning in the

1890s, more than a century before Bollinger proposed to reinvent it based on Pulitzers

original vision. Pulitzers idea to elevate journalism to an academic pursuit rather than a

trade didnt quite fit his reputation as a newsman; perhaps his high concept of journalism

education was meant to make up for the part he played in yellow journalism. 19 He tried

twice to donate money to start the school, though his vision didnt begin to see fruition

until after his death in 1912, when construction started on the building that would housethe journalism school. 20

That same year, the University of Wisconsin created a department of journalism

with even loftier goals than those of Pulitzer. William Bleyer, the founding dean, said

no other profession has a more vital relation to the welfare of society or to the success

of democratic government than journalism. 21 Bleyer deemphasized skills and instead

wanted students to understand journalisms role in a democratic society. He wanted his

graduates to do more than get jobs; he wanted them to be scholars. 22

Today, undergraduate journalism education remains essentially a nuts and bolts

training course; schools follow the Missouri model, rather than the Pulitzer/Bleyer

approach. The biggest changes have come at the graduate level, where theoretical

research has helped establish such concepts as gatekeeping and agenda-setting. 23

18 Ibid., 919 Ibid., 720 Ibid., 821 MacDonald, Isabel. Teaching Journalists To Save The Profession. Journalism Studies 7 (2006): 74722 Sloan, Makers , 1023 Ibid., 16


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Accredited schools must work to achieve a balance between core journalism

courses, many of them skills-based, and a wider liberal arts education. 24 And while the

skills and theory debate has evolved over the last decade into an issue of balancethe

question isnt really either/orthere is still this consideration: How much of each?

Teach More Skills

Media employersand employers in generaltend to favor candidates with skill

sets specific to the job. 25 No surprise there. Producing a marketable graduateone

ready for the workplace, trained in the latest technology, and possessing skills learnedonly through experienceis the bedrock goal of the skills-based journalism school, and

the embodiment of the Missouri model.

Basic Skills For Workplace Readiness

In spite of the widespread adaptation of the skills-based Missouri model,

practitioners have long complained that j-school graduates arent prepared for the

workplace. Pointed surveys of punchy print editors and broadcast news directors

decrying the perceived lack of basic journalism skillsled many educators to tip the

scales to teaching skills. Workplace readiness remains one of the loudest arguments for

the Missouri model.

24 ACEJMC Accrediting Standards. Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and MassCommunication, accessed online 18 March 2010 athttp://www2.ku.edu/~acejmc/PROGRAM/STANDARDS.SHTML 25 Lowrey, Becker, The impact of technological skill.., 766.


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In 1979 and 1980, after more than 75 years of the prevalence of the skills model,

two separate surveys of print editors still described journalism graduates as poorly

preparedeven unhireable. 26

The 1979 survey of magazine editors by Edwin O. Haroldson and Kenneth E.

Harvey of Brigham Young University found some magazine editors hiring English

graduates rather than j-school graduates. 27 The editor of Good Housekeeping , one of the

countrys top-circulating magazines, said in the survey that he wouldnt hire a j-school

graduate unless he or she were the offspring of my company president. 28 The main

complaints about j-school grads in the study were poor grammar and spelling, along with

a lack of self-editing prowess. The biggest single problem in magazine hiring today is

finding young people who can spell, punctuate, clarify, proofread and rewrite," said John

Fay, editorial director of the magazines Outdoor Life, Ski, and Golf . 29

The recommendations from newspaper editors in the 1980 study by Gordon Mills,

Leland B. Warnick, and Harvey of BYU again revolved around basic journalism skills,

and likely were in response to the emergence of theory-rich mass communication

programs in the 1970s. The newspaper editors called on j-schools to increase the credit

hours required in the program, and to attack the grammar problem, which topped the

list of editor complaints (graduates cant spell worth a damn and cant or wont open a

dictionary, said one newspaper editor in Kentucky). 30

Editors were also asked in the survey to rate four curriculum designs:

26 Mills, Gordon, Kenneth Harvey, and Leland B. Warnick. Newspaper editors point to J-graddeficiencies. Journalism Educator 35 (1980): 1227 Haroldsen, Edwin O., and Kenneth E. Harvey. Frowns greet new J-grads in magazine job market.

Journalism Educator, 34 (1979), 3.28 Ibid.29 Ibid.30 Mills, Harvey, and Warnick. Newspaper editors ..., 12


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1. Two years of newspaper training, followed by a one-year apprenticeship;

2. A full university program, but with less general education and more

journalism training;

3. Two years of newspaper training at a trade school;

4. The typical university journalism program, emphasizing liberal arts and

limiting journalism credits to 25% of coursework.

Not surprisingly, option 4 rated last, and some editors even admitted they were ready to

try the trade school route. 31

The intervening years havent changed opinion much on workplace readiness. In1990, the American Society of Newspaper Journalists published a report that again

emphasized basic skills. 32 And although the late 1990s and early years of the 21 st century

saw the emergence of new media technology, print editors still ranked basic skills above

new media knowledge in a 2007 survey by Tamyra Pierce and Tommy Miller of

California State University. The advent of the Internet changed the face of journalism and

forced journalism educators to re-evaluate what they are teaching their students, said

Pierce and Miller, but convergence didnt change the tenor of the skills argument very

much at all. Although computer skills rose in importance compared to the 1990 ASNJ

report, the basic skills of writing, spelling and grammaralong with critical thinking

all rated higher in the survey. 33

31 Ibid., 1332 Shot Across The Masthead, A. The Bulletin of the American Society of Newspaper Editors , September 1990, cited in Pierce, Tamyra, and Tommy Miller. Basic Journalism Skills Remain Important in Hiring.

Newspaper Research Journal 28 (2007): 51.33 Pierce, Tamyra, and Tommy Miller. Basic Journalism Skills Remain Important in Hiring. Newspaper

Research Journal 28 (2007): 59.


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While a trade school model for journalism never caught on in the United States,

there has been traction globally. British journalism educator Stephen Cushion notes in his

2007 article On The Beat or In the Classroom that two-year vocational programs in

broadcast journalism at the British Columbia Institute of Technology often come with a

promise of employment, while the United Kingdom and Austria opt for apprentice-style

training with little or no academic input. 34 Canterbury Christ Church University in the

U.K. added a three-year, skills-based vocational journalism program to the catalogue in

2008. Our BA in multimedia journalism gives students the chance to build a broader

skill set, says David Bradshaw, head of the schools media department. The programsdirector, former BBC radio journalist Kate Kavanagh, says the professional skills will be

taught by practicing journalists, as well. 35

While practitioners say the basic skills remain important for workplace readiness,

they may not be enough in a competitive marketplace. Robert Niles, a web editor and

winner of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalisms Online Journalism Award, says

the Internet has changed everyday communication forever. Before, almost no one in

everyday life wrote much outside the classroom. Now, everyones a writer, employing

those basic journalism skills with regularity. Whats the value of doing journalism when

everyones a journalist? he says. A new set of skills needs to emerge beyond the basics

in journalism training, namely analytical skillsto make sense of datasets and find the

stories buried within them, he says. 36

34 Cushion, On The Beat, 422, 42735 Richardson, Sarah. Vocation, vocation, vocation. The Evening Standard , 26 August 2008, 51.36 Niles, Robert. Writing skill is no longer enough to sustain journalists. OJR: The Online JournalismReview, accessed online 20 February 2010 at http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/robert/201002/1820/ .


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Analytical training, combined with basic skills, even give journalism students an

edge in workplace readiness beyond traditional media. The most exciting career path of

all will be the one taken by aspiring journalists who don't land a job at an established

media outlet, says Kelly Toughill in an editorial for the Toronto Star . Toughill, a former

Star journalist, is an associate professor in the School of Journalism at the University of

King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They are the ones who are going to figure out

the business model and make it happen, she says. 37

The Emergence of ConvergenceIn light of demand from students and the marketplace for new media proficiency,

Columbias skills-and-theory crisis gets even more granular. Just deciding how much of

which skills to teach is enough of a dilemma. Columbia is of course not alone in this

boat; j-schools in general are in uncharted and constantly churning waters when it comes

to communication technology. Columbia journalism school dean Nicholas Lemann has in

still wrestling with this question, six years after his hiring in 2003. Theres this big,

huge, fundamental issue: How much of the skills do you teach? You can go to the

Learning Annex and take a Flash course, he told New York magazine in March of 2009.

I dont think what we should do is be replicating courses you can take at the Learning

Annex. Ari Goldman, a former New York Times reporter and coordinator of the

venerable RW1 program (the schools shorthand for its famed Reporting and Writing 1

37 Toughill, Kelly. Why keep studying journalism? The Toronto Star , 21 March 2009, A22.


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course and the ne plus ultra of skills-based pedagogy), was even more blunt, calling new

media education playing with toys. 38

Still, the impact of the convergent newsroom on journalism education cant be

overstated, nor can the constant need for revision in order to teach these ever-evolving

skills. Mitchell Stephensin an essay for the 2006 Journalism Studies compilation

Does Journalism Education Matter?said new media skills cant be taught as finished,

established forms. 39 Certainly, it is absurd to pretend we already knowat this very

early stage in its historyhow a blog should be written, how a video story for the web

should be constructed, he says.Ready or not, the demand for graduates with new media skill sets is tangible and

on the uptick. In December 2008, media employment hit a new 15-year lowaffected

mostly by the slumping newspaper industrybut Internet media companies showed a

13.4% jump in jobs that year. 40

A 2008 survey of online journalists by Shahira Fahmy, a journalism professor at

Southern Illinois University, helps explain the jump in jobs. More than 8 in 10 of the

respondents said circulation was steady or declining for their print component, but 9 in 10

said Web traffic was still on the rise. That can lead to financial gain, as well4 in 5 said

their Web sites were profitable. 41

The Fahmy survey also asked online journalists to predict what skill sets would

continue to emerge in importance over the next five years. Overwhelminglyand

38 Orden, Erica. Columbia J-Schools Existential Crisis. New York Magazine, accessed online 15February 2010 at http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/03/columbia_j-schools_existential.html .39 Adam, et.al., Does Journalism Education Matter? 152.40 Johnson, Bradley. Ad industry cut another 18,700 jobs in December; only online media and searchcompanies added staff at the end of 2008. Advertising Age , 12 January 2009: 18.41 Fahmy, Shahira. How Online Journalists Rank Importance of News Skills. Newspaper Research

Journal 29 (2008): 29.


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predictablyseven digital skills that reflect convergence journalism jobs ranked highly

in importance: shooting photos and video, multimedia delivery, multimedia editing and

production, capturing audio, animation and Flash and podcasting. 42 As one respondent

noted: As news and information companies, we need to focus on delivering content in

multiple formats and get away from the notion that we deal with a single deadline and the

most important thing is what hits the driveway every morning. 43

Wilson Lowrey and Lee B. Becker studied the impact of new media skills on job-

finding success in 2001. Skill with presentation technologydefined by Lowrey and

Becker as pagination, non-linear editing, photo-imaging, web design and illustrationsoftwarewas a significant predictor of job-finding success for journalism and mass

communication graduates, even when controlling for more traditional predictors such as

grades, class sequence, internships and campus media activities. Not surprisingly, these

skills were the strongest predictor of job-finding success for graduates seeking new media

jobs. 44

Convergence doesnt just mean a coalescence of media; it also means a

coalescence of jobs and responsibilities, especially in media organizations. 45 Journalists

have to wear many hats nowadays, said one editor who responded to the Pierce and

Miller survey. Copy editors are juggling design and Web duties. Reporters often have to

juggle blog-writing and Web story updates in addition to their typical plate of news

reporting. Journalism students need to learn to multi-task. 46

42 Fahmy, How Online Journalists, 31.43 Ibid., 34.44 Lowrey, Wilson, and Lee B. Becker. The impact of technological skill on job-finding success in themass communication labor market. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 78 (2001): 766.45 Ibid., 755.46 Pierce, Miller, Basic Journalism Skills, 60.


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Make Time For Experience

Perhaps no group of students has a better opportunity to learn by doing than

journalism students. The entire skill set can be put to work on any number of projects on

almost any major university campusat the student newspaper, the campus radio station,

the departmental web site, etc. Success in the classroom aloneas Lowrey and Becker

indicatedisnt a solid predictor of success in the marketplace. The skills learned

through experience are solid predictors of success. 47

Some say the classroom itself should become the focal point for experience-based

skill-building. New York University journalism professor Mitchell Stephens, in his 2000article A J-School Manifesto, advocated experience through experimentation:

We know that we have to open up our introductory courses to seriousalternative approaches. Students should learn skills by experimenting with avariety of storytelling techniques in the classroom, be it written word, audio,video or digitaldepending on what best tells the story. 48

Ten years later, Stephens vision is gaining traction. Journalism and

communication schools across the country are adopting immersion learning into the

classroom, advocating an even stronger vocational bent when compared to basic skills

and an introduction to new media techniques. 49 Students at Northwesterns Medill School

of Journalism can choose cross-platform, experiential courses such as Multimedia

Storytelling. At University of North Carolina, the immersion experience is called

Communication, Business and Entrepreneurship. At the Walter Cronkite School of

Journalism on Arizona State Universitys Pheonix campus, classroom time is spent on

real-world projects for real-world consumption. An entrepreneurship course in the j-

47 Lowrey, Becker, The impact of technological skill.., 756.48 Stephens, A J-School Manifesto, 64.49 Stelter, Brian. Digital Defeats Newsroom? The New York Times , 19 April 2009, ED20.


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school teaches students to invent their own jobs, says Dan Gillmor, the instructor and a

former San Jose Mercury News columnist. The classroom project in the fall of 2008 was

a web site for local film producers. 50

While traditional syllabi train students in established story forms, students must

demand time and access to explore emerging forms, in social media and whatever else

they might dream up, said Web guru Robert Niles in his 2009 article Eight Things That

Journalism Students Should Demand From Their Journalism Schools. Niles called the

journalism classroom a place to hack, where students develop skills only experience

can bring.51

The classroom has become the newsroom, certainlybut its beyond that.The school is a microcosm of the media industry, graduating students prepared for the

communication business, or ready to go into business for themselves. 52

Teach More Concepts

Jim Carey had seen enough. After decades as a journalism educator, he famously

and controversially decried what he called the professionalization of journalism

education in a bold address as president of the Association for Education in Journalism at

the organizations 1977 gathering. Many in the audience, he knew, agreed with him, but

the media industrys demand for skill training in j-school graduates was strong and

influential. 53

50 Ibid.51 Niles, Robert. Eight Things That Journalism Students Should Demand From Their Journalism Schools.OJR: The Online Journalism Review, accessed online 21 September 2009 athttp://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/robert/200909/1780/ .52 Stelter, Digital Defeats Newsroom? ED20.53 Adam, G. Stuart. Jim Carey and the Problem of Journalism Education. Cultural Studies 23 (2009):159.


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He confronted his fellow educators with examining the inherent tension between

the university tradition and the practice of journalism, a tension that often puts us

between a rock and a hard place. 54 Carey was taking up the mantle of William Bleyer,

calling for an education beyond job preparation. Though the idea still meets resistance

from the industry, a concepts-based approach to journalism educationemphasizing

strong ties to the liberal arts and examining journalisms role in culture and societyhas

its believers. Some of them even say its the only way journalism education can stay

relevant.

Liberal Arts and the University Tradition

Understanding Careys appeal to adhere to the university tradition requires an

understanding of journalism educations perceived place in the academy, particularly as

viewed by other scholars. Journalism has long been the poor cousin on campus. In

scholarship, journalistic is a dirty word, said Peter Parisi, a professor of humanities

and communication at Penn State-Harrisburg, in his 1992 article Critical Studies, the

Liberal Arts, and Journalism Education. Decades of skills-based pedagogy stigmatized

journalism education as simple, practical and narrow, suppressing the intellectual

complexities of liberal arts such as literature, philosophy, and sociology. Vocational

training, in effect, divorces journalism education from the wider university tradition. 55

In contrast to vocation prep, the liberal arts educate rather than train. The

critical thinking installed by a liberal arts education is neutralized by journalism training,

say critics. Journalism holds objectivity as a central value, and events are defined by only

54 Ibid.55 Parisi, Peter. Critical Studies, the Liberal Arts, and Journalism Education. Journalism Educator 46(1992): 4.


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the measurable facts, says Parisi. Theres no critical assessment, just the five Ws and

H. Parisi says this is where journalism education loses its tie to the academy; its an

education in how not to think. 56

The reliance only on sources for truth compounds the issue. In the liberal arts,

the truth isnt out there ; truth is a social construct found through a wide body of

knowledge. 57 Reviewing liberal arts literature, Serena Carpenter of Arizona States

Cronkite School identified those wide knowledge areas as including the desire to address

social problems, leadership, creativity, critical thinking, openness to diversity, problem

solving, knowledge of multiple languages, and specialized knowledge areas outside of communication and journalism fields. 58

Students need that wider body of knowledge to perform well as journalists, and

they must go elsewhere on campus to find it, says Stanford Universitys Theodore

Glasser. The opportunities are there, particularly in accredited programs where the

majority of credit hours must come from wider liberal arts fields. Glasser makes it sound

simple:

If [journalism students] intend to cover government, they might take a course in political science; if they want to write about the environment, they can study inthe department of earth sciences; if they expect to report on the courts, they couldhead over to the law school and learn about the rules of evidence. 59

There is evidence that a liberal arts education pays off vocationally, as well,

perhaps even more so than a journalism degree. In 1984, Rodger Streitmatter was director

of the print journalism program at The American University in Washington, D.C.

56 Ibid., 6.57 Ibid., 758 Carpenter, Serena. An application of the theory of expertise: Teaching broad and skill knowledge areasto prepare journalists for change. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 43 (2009): 293.59 Adam, et.al., Does Journalism Education Matter?148.


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Environmental journalism had emerged as a hot button career path, and Streitmatter

conducted a study of environmental journalists practicing in the field. He concluded that

students who wanted to pursuer environmental journalism as a career shouldnt major in

journalism (or, for that matter, natural science), but should instead seek a wide liberal arts

education. Of 24 environmental journalists in his surveyrepresenting the largest

newspapers and TV outlets in the country at the timeonly four had journalism degrees.

Why the liberal arts approach, even for a specialized field of reporting? All thats

needed is a good sense of curiosity and perhaps basic physics and biology courses, said

William Cook, the Newsweek environmental correspondent who participated in thesurvey. More telling: Stay away from journalism school, said Mark Jaffe of the

Philadelphia Inquirer .60

Environmental journalism is but one example of specialization, though, and the

general field has changed much since 1984. Wouldnt the convergent newsroom increase

the demand for j-school graduates with new media skills? Carpenters 2009 study, An

application of the theory of expertise: Teaching broad and skill knowledge areas to

prepare journalists for change, reaffirmed the liberal arts payoff in the workplace. Her

content analysis of job postings for online news media showed these outlets are looking

for a broad body of knowledge, adaptive expertise, rather than technical skills, which

were favored more by traditional news outlets. Of the 664 job postings, almost 82%

stated a preference for new employees to have broad knowledge. 61 By comparison, less

than 65% of the ads called for technical expertise. 62

60 Streitmatter, Roger. Environment writers need liberal arts more than writing. Journalism Educator 39(1984): 40-43.61 Carpenter, An application of the theory, 294.62 Ibid., 295.


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The Critical/Cultural Approach

Advocates of a critical approach to journalism study say liberal arts courses still

leave a gap between academic and vocational elements of a journalism program. 63 There

is plenty of conceptual knowledge to be mined within journalism itselfenough to build

an academic discipline. Journalism students need not only broad knowledge; they need to

know how their field contributes to society. 64 As Stanfords Glasser said in his essay for

Does Journalism Education Matter:

A formal education in journalism matters and succeeds as it engenders amongstudents a certain quality of thinking about journalism, a state of preparedness that

manifests itself in the eloquence students exhibit when called on to respond toquestions about the value and purpose of what they do as journalists. 65

Studies of communication theory and the ethics of journalism practice certainly fit

into this approach, but advocates say these already commonly studied concepts need to be

placed into their own historical, cultural, and philosophical dimensions, bringing depth to

journalism studies. The philosophical elements of journalism practice that inform the skill

setbut are rarely discussed in textbooks or classroomsinclude personalization,

dramatization, and fragmentation. These concepts inform the choices reporters make in

news writing and gathering, from how they decide what is newsworthy to how they

color the stories that are deemed so. 66

This critical/cultural approach to journalism has its practical side; namely,

journalisms role in a democratic society. In fact, Jim Carey once said journalism and

63 Reese, S.D., and Jeremy Cohen. Educating for Journalism: the professionalism of scholarship. Journalism Studies 1 (2000): 214.64 Skinner, David, Mike J. Gasher and James Compton. Putting theory to practice: A critical approach to

journalism studies. Journalism 2 (2001): 342.65 Adam, et.al., Does Journalism Education Matter? 149.66 Parisi, Critical Studies, 8.


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democracy and two words for the same thing. 67 Carey believed journalists have a

responsibility to not just report on the events in a community (random events of the here

and now 68), but to facilitate community-wide conversation and reflect on that

conversation. This theory of journalism and democracy, he believed, needs not just to be

taught be instructors but ingrained in journalism students; he worried this important

journalistic role was being lost because of pressure from the profession. Carey felt both

journalists and teachers of journalism have a moral responsibility to contribute to the

public consciousness, not just report on it. 69

Parisi saw practical application for the critical/cultural approach as well. He saidthis kind of education couldnt be taught in a series of critical/cultural courses, but

should change and inform the courses already in the catalog. 70 In reporting classes, for

instance, students should discuss sourcing, and how journalists typically source a narrow

spectrum of public officials and random quotes from the street. A discussion of the

effect of attribution and sourcing on news stories might open students to new story ideas

that will be appreciated later on the job. This isnt an idle, ivory-tower exercise, said

Parisi. Training students in a better sort of journalism than they see in actual practice can

enable them to suggest new story angles their busy editors will welcome. 71

Proponents of the critical/cultural approach also warn of the consequence of

failing to place journalism in its historical and cultural perspective, even at the

undergraduate level where skills-based training is the overwhelming norm. Skinner,

Gasher, and Compton, in their 2001 article Putting theory to practice: A critical

67 Adam, Jim Carey, 163.68 Ibid., 159.69 Ibid., 163.70 Parisi, Critical Studies, 9.71 Ibid., 10.


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approach to journalism studies, point to stereotyping as one negative by-product of

teaching how (skills) without the why (critical theory):

(W)e need only think about the stereotypes we regularly encounter in the news

media, stereotypes of Muslims, feminists, professional athletes, native peoples,welfare recipients, even university professors. In part this is due to time andspace constraints faced by journalists. In the face of these constraints they relyupon well-known narratives. But these misrepresentations are also the productof the fact that they are ill equipped to reflect on their practice. 72

Students perpetuate these misrepresentations and other less-than-ideal practices

because they too often learn by rote. 73

The Question of Relevance

In 2002, Betty Medsger, a former Washington Post reporter and chair of the

Department of Journalism at San Francisco State University, examined the backgrounds

of journalism award winners from the previous ten years. The results surprised her: 59

percent of print journalists who won Pulitzer Prizes never studied journalism; 75 percent

of broadcast journalists who won DuPont Awards never studied journalism; 58 percent of

journalists awarded Nieman Fellowships never studied journalism; 51 percent of

journalists awarded Knight Fellowships at Stanford University never studied journalism.

Besides that, not many had even come from elite liberal arts schools. It was a diverse

group, with a wide variety of educational backgrounds. The findings led her to wonder:

does journalism education get in the way of good journalism? 74

72 Skinner, Gasher, Compton, Putting theory to practice, 352.73 Ibid., 357.74 Medsger, Betty. Getting Journalism Education Out Of The Way. New York University Department of Journalism, Zoned For Debate, accessed online 14 February 2010 athttp://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/debate/forum.1.essay.medsger.html .


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The question of relevance has long haunted j-schools (and was exacerbated, yet

again, by the Columbia flap in 2002). While some point to new media technology as the

future of journalism practice, that technology is democratized; its available to anyone,

cheaply. Today, students come to journalism school having written blogs, edited audio

and shot video for years; every new computer comes with the requisite tools on board. 75

Even when Lowrey and Becker found that presentation skills were a good predictor of

job-finding success in their 2001 study, they admitted the study didnt address where

graduates actually learned those skills. They may have learned them in classes, in

internships, in campus media activities, or even in the privacy of their dorm rooms, saidthe report. 76

Journalism schools cant keep up. As soon as we could get course about Web

design on the books, we had to worry about blogs and then Twitter, said Elliot King of

Loyola University-Maryland in a 2010 article, The Challenge We Face Today. As soon

as we got non-linear editing suites, we had to worry about mobile devices. The academy

simply isnt positioned to teach the skills in demand, he said. 77

So what is the academy positioned to do well? Some argue conceptual, theory-

based teaching is the only way journalism schools can stay relevant. Lana F. Rakow, a

professor of communication at the University of North Dakota, noted the continuing

influence of the media industry on journalism education while emphasizing the relevance

of democratic theory in an essay for the 2001 symposium Journalism and Mass

Communication Education at the Crossroads. We can race to keep up with teaching

75 Niles, Writing skill, http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/robert/201002/1820/ .76 Lowrey, Becker, The impact of technological skill.., 767.77 King, Elliot. The Challenge We Face Today. Hot Topics, AEJMC web site, accessed online 18 March2010 at http://aejmc.org/topics/2010/03/the-challenge-we-face-today/ .


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these new skills, said Rakow, or we can look for the enduring principles of service to

the public's right and need to speak and be heard, to hear and be informed, to discuss and

decide. 78 Later in the same symposium, John Maxwell Hamilton, Dean of the Manship

School of Mass Communication, Louisiana State University, agreed: Learning to think

about the media is as important to undergraduates as mastering skills if they are to bring

best practice to the unprecedented new opportunities that are arising. 79

Motives for theory and concepts-based education dont have to be

decommercialized, though; the relevance extends to the marketplace. Philip Thickett of

the University of Central Englands media department believes theory itself is atransferrable skill. He sees relevance of theory beyond the communication industry, as his

media studies graduates often land jobs in other fields. The theory side has created

people who can think and take a problem and solve it. That may be how to create a radio

show or a marketing strategy for public relations, he told the Birmingham Post in 2006.

Someone taking on one of our students for management of a small engineering

company, for example, would find they have a lot of the skills they need. 80

Strike A Balance Between Skills and Concepts

One of the great ironies of the revival of the skills and theory divide in light of

Columbias crisis was that its president, Lee Bollinger, wasnt necessarily calling for a

tilt in either direction. For all the upheaval within Columbias j-school and the debates

78 Cohen, Jeremy. Symposium: Journalism and Mass Communication Education at the Crossroads. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 56 (2001): 14.79 Ibid., 18.80 Naqvi, Shahid. Why media studies has such a vital role to play. Birmingham Post , 21 August 2006, 6.


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sparked nationwide, Bollinger didnt advocate a new theory-based paradigm to replace

real-world journalism skills in the school. What he called for was balance.

In a statement on Columbias web site in 2004, Bollinger outlined certain basic

capabilities that a j-school must instill in its students: a foundational introduction to the

skills of writing and reporting; an intellectual ability to deal with new situations as

working conditions shift over time (in other words, no matter what the medium, students

must learn to think like a journalist); a understanding of how journalism developed, its

history, great figures, and the trends that are shaping it today; and a sense of the moral

and ethical standards that guide journalism practice.81

Columbia did revamp its journalism curriculum, though not at the expense of its

traditional, skills-based M.S. program. Instead, a second year was added, a one-year M.A.

that draws on liberal arts and allows for specialization in areas such as government,

science, economics and business. 82

Some voices in journalism education, though, call for something beyond balance,

seeing integration as the loftier goal. There is much to reconcileteaching methods, fast-

paced technology, and an often indifferent media industrybut ideas abound.

Problem-Based Learning

Problem-based learning (PBL) is nothing new; it has been practiced in education

for fields as diverse as architecture, teaching, nursing, management, social work, and

81 Bollinger, President Bollinger's Statementhttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/03/04/lcb_j_task_force.html .82 Jaschick, Columbia Rethinks, http://www.insidehighered.com/layout/set/print/news/2005/03/28/journalism .


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mathematics. The key characteristic PBL hopes to instill is thinking in action. 83 Consider

the experienced journalist whose actions on the job are so automatic and instinctive that

they defy explanation; they just know what to do without thinking. Can students emerge

from j-school with that kind of intrinsic knowledge?

Gilbert Ryle wrote about the ideas behind PBL in his 1960 work Dilemmas and

demonstrated how it bridges the gap between theory and practice. 84 Ryle writes of

knowledge developing in three stages, which Lynette Sheridan Burns applied to

journalism in her 2004 article, A reflective approach to teaching journalism. Ryles

first stage of knowledge is knowing what. This is simply the ability to identify, as inrecognizing the product of journalism. Stage two is knowing how, or the ability to

repeat procedures and skills; think writing, reporting and editing in journalism. Stage

three is being able to do. This is the evidence of knowledge, the crucial intellectual

process of identifying, gathering and evaluating information. 85

PBL helps students reach stage three by working through a reflective model

based on journalistic scenarios. First, students encounter a problemsuch as an

incomplete piece of information that may be developed into a news story. After

determining what more they need to know from a newsgathering perspective, they then

discuss the larger implications of the story, such as its public interest and ethics

implications. Already the students are drawing from a wide body of knowledge and skill

to solve the problem, while at the same time executing an actual news item. The

teacher helps provide resources, but the problem-solving is self-directed or group-

83 Burns, L.S. A reflective approach to teaching journalism. A rt Design & Communication in Higher

Education 3 (2004): 5.84 Ryle, G. (1960), Dilemmas , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, cited in Burns, A reflectiveapproach, 5.85 Ibid.


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oriented. These journalistic scenarios are often taken directly from real-world

situations. 86

PBL, say advocates, helps students develop a process for understanding not just

what they do, but why they do it, effectively closing the skills and concepts divide. When

applied to journalism, PBL guides students to execute work while considering it critically

in light of commercial and ethical concerns, just like in the real world. 87 Shannon

Mattern, of the media studies department at New York Citys The New School, describes

it practically:

Our production courses are framed so that they are not about video productionor ProTools or web design. Rather, we encourage our students to think firstabout what communications problem they want to solve, then ask them toconsider which media would best enable them to accomplish their goals. Our students can select from many hybrid courses that combine theory and productionin the classroom. 88

New Media, New Paradigm

In spite of the challenges of keeping up with technology, many new media

programs are setting the standard for balance. In his 2009 study Teaching Button-

Pushing Versus Teaching Thinking for the journal Convergence , Edward Huang found

68% of the faculty at U.S. new media programs believed they balance skills and concepts

very well. 89 Without technology and equipment, the art form ceases to exist, but

emphasizing the mere technique and operation of equipment often results in artistically

and emotionally flat work, Professor Denise Bennett from University of Idaho said in

86 Burns, A reflective approach, 12.87 Ibid.88 Huang, Edgar. Teaching Button-Pushing versus Teaching Thinking. Convergence: The International

Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 15 (2009): 245.89 Ibid., 241.


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the Convergence article. You can teach monkeys to type Hamlet but that doesnt make

them Shakespeare. 90

How do these new media instructors achieve balance? Huang evaluated faculty

teaching strategies and found the teaching of technical skills and thinking skills were

integratedtaught one before the other or side by sidein 32% of the course offerings.

Projects, often exhibiting the characteristics of PBL, made up another 28% of faculty

teaching strategies. Self-critique, extensive research, and peer reviews were among the

other teaching ideas mentioned. 91 Overall, only about 12% said they believed they taught

nothing more than skills, and 20% said they taught nothing more than theory.92

Practitioners and Professors Meet in the Middle

Ironically, while media practitioners say some journalism schools dont meet their

needs with work-ready graduates, many journalism instructors bemoan the heavy

influence of the industry on curriculum. Often that influence is cited as a tilt toward

skills, while practitioners perceive a shift toward theory. 93

If ever the twain shall meet, the result would likely be more mutually beneficial

than either side realizes, noted Charles OverbyChairman and CEO of The Freedom

Forumwho believes journalists should draw more on relevant communication research

from journalism educators to help solve questions facing mainstream media. Overby said

in a 1999 editorial:

[Those questions] cannot be answered solely by gut instincts or a committee of newsroom staffers who go on a retreat for a day or two. How did we get to the

90 Ibid., 242.91 Ibid.92 Ibid., 241.93 MacDonald, Teaching Journalists, 747


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place where many, if not most, news professionals don't consider journalismschools a major source of information and long-term assistance to the newsmedia? 94

Often the flow of information moves in the opposite direction. J-schools have

long called on those with practical experience in the field to teach and lead at the

academy. The risk, say critics, is that you get neither the best scholars nor the best

practitioner-teachers. 95 It was a risk worth taking when Columbia finally hired Nicholas

Lemann as dean in 2003. From the outset, Lemann was a practitionera former New

Yorker correspondentwho strove to bridge the divide between his vocation and his

academic calling. He never attended journalism school himself, and before accepting the

job had taught only one journalism course. 96 The primary driver here, Lemann told The

New York Times in 2003, was me stumbling through life as a journalist and keeping an

inner tally of things I wished I knew. 97

Journalists, say some educators, need not wish to know. As in professions such

as law and medicine, theory at the academy can enrich practice in the industry.

Journalism professors Stephen Reese and Jeremy Cohen called for a professionalization

of scholarship in a 2000 piece for Journalism Studies , saying media industries needed to

be partners with academia, rather than clients. 98 John Maxwell Hamilton agrees. For

generations now, media professionals and professors have been intellectually disengaged

from each other, he said in the symposium Journalism and Mass Communication

94 Overby, Charles L. Educators, journalists can work together. The Freedom Forum, accessed online 14February 2010 at http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=6638 .95 Cohen, Symposium, 7.96 Arenson, Karen W. Driven By What He Wishes Hed Learned. The New York Times , 14 May 2003,B6.97 Ibid.98 Reese, Cohen, Educating for Journalism, 227.


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Education at the Crossroads. While the cost of these missed opportunities once may

haven been tolerable, they are not now, he continued. Both sides need each other. 99

Assessment: Both Sides Now

Robert Niles point shouldnt be lost on journalism educators: in the new media

age, everyone is doing journalism in one form or another. To remain relevant, the modern

j-school has to produce graduates who do it better .

To that end, let us place John Maxwell Hamiltons mantraBoth sides need

each otherin the context of the skills/concepts debate. What elevates everyday journalism and the routine technical expertise described by Niles to a higher plane? The

concepts must inform the skills, or there is no difference betweenfor instancethe

user-generated content on a newspaper web site and the newspaper content itself.

The necessity of integration is what makes problem-based learning (PBL) such an

attractive solution in the journalism curriculum. While students need familiarity with the

technology for execution of the ideal storytelling method, educators cant rely on

teaching software proficiency and computer literacy alone. Just as learning how to

navigate a word processor doesnt make one a good writer, learning pagination software

doesnt make one a designer; knowing every capability of video editing software doesnt

make one a producer.

As for the basic skills often cited as most importantand lacking in recent

graduatesby practitioners: are they really journalism skills, or are they language arts?

Shouldnt a studentparticularly one with a propensity for storytellingemerge from

high school with the ability to write a serviceable sentence, one with proper structure and

99 Cohen, Symposium, 12.


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all the words spelled correctly? Perhaps journalism practitioners have it right when they

require grammar and spelling exams to screen potential employees; thats not a bad idea

for j-schools, either, lest journalism educators spend an inordinate amount of time

teaching remedial grammar rather than the more pertinent legal, ethical and social

implications of high-level reportage.

No one will deny the importance of learning the basicsreporting, writing,

editingor that the basics must now include a modicum of technical expertise. These,

combined with a wide liberal arts backgroundmake for the adaptive expertise that is

marketable in the media business. Too often this is where the typical journalism studentends formal education, with a four-year degree and an entry-level job that may or may

not set him or her on a rewarding career path. Technically, the undergraduate may have

the skills for a job in the media business, but still be lacking the conceptual knowledge

and cognitive depth for long-term success. A balanced, well-rounded education requires a

time commitment from the student beyond those four years.

While masters programs often do a very good job of introducing and instilling

concepts, there is very little incentive for a student to continue education beyond a four-

year degree. There is no requisite financial benefit, no bestowing of professional

credentials, no bar to pass. Meanwhile, the technological bar inches lower as more and

more would-be journalists enter the fray, establishing blogs and launching web sites that

rival established media in functionality and immediacy, but lack the depth that comes

with a conceptual understanding of newsgathering.

If the academy is to commit to a complete education that begins at the

undergraduate level with skills and problem-based learning, and continues at the graduate


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level with essential concepts, then practitioners must respond in kind by placing real

value on graduate degrees. John C. Merrill believes that journalism will necessarily

emerge as a licensed professionrather than a craftover the next few decades, if for

no other reason than to bring order out of the chaos of new media. Law and medicine

historically evolved this way, and if students are going to invest the time and effort for a

balanced, well-rounded education, they should emerge from graduate j-school with the

same highly-valued professional credentialsthereby transforming an industry whose

practitioners are too often scribes rather than scholars.


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Suggested Readings

Adam, G. Stuart, Jannette L. Dates, Theodore L. Glasser, and Mitchell Stephens. Does

Journalism Education Matter? Journalism Studies 7 (2006): 144-156. In this collection

of essays, various journalism educators present idea about the future of j-schooleducation, arguing both for balance between skills and concepts, an immersion in the

intellectual culture of the University, and an understanding of journalisms essential place

in democracy.

Adam, G. Stuart. Jim Carey and the Problem of Journalism Education. Cultural Studies

23 (2009): 157-166. In this analytical examination of the Jim Carey essay A Plea for the

University Tradition, the author concludes that Careys vision wasnt to eliminate skills-

based education but to circumscribe it, allowing for more critical understanding of

society, culture and the democratic process through liberal arts study.

Arenson, Karen W. Driven By What He Wishes Hed Learned. The New York Times ,

14 May 2003, B6. Nicholas Lemannthe dean of Columbias journalism schoolsays

graduate study in journalism, especially at an Ivy League school, is a different beast.

Students at his school will be leaders in the profession and should be trained in

analytic modes rather than just reporting and writing.

Babcock, William A. The j-school debate. Christian Science Monitor , 1 August 2002,

9. The author of this opinion piecethe chair of the journalism department at California

State University says we need to frame the skills and theory debate in terms of what

journalism really isa trade, a craft, a profession. The key, he says, is in balance

between vocational and academic studies.

Bollinger, Lee. President Bollinger's Statement on the Future of Journalism Education.

Columbia News, accessed online 15 February 2010 at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/

news/03/04/lcb_j_task_force.html . The university presidents formal statement was

published in 2003. His delayed appointment of a new dean in Columbias j-school and

his call for changes in the schools curriculum reinvigorated the skills vs. theory debate.


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Burns, L.S. A reflective approach to teaching journalism. A rt Design &

Communication in Higher Education 3 (2004): 5-16. This approach to theory-based

teaching focuses on critical reflection as a crucial step in conjunction with learn by

doing (skills).

Carpenter, Serena. An application of the theory of expertise: Teaching broad and skill

knowledge areas to prepare journalists for change. Journalism & Mass Communication

Educator 43 (2009): 287-304. A 2009 study of job postings for online news media

showed these outlets are looking for a broad body of knowledge, adaptive expertise,

rather than technical skills, which were favored more by traditional news outlets.

Cohen, Jeremy. Symposium: Journalism and Mass Communication Education at the

Crossroads. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 56 (2001): 4-27. At the

beginning of the new century, nine communication educators examine the state of

journalism education. Many emphasize the synthesis between skills and broader

education.

Cushion, Stephen. On The Beat or In The Classroom? Journalism Practice 1 (2007):

421-434. The author looks at journalisms role as a trade or profession and the issue of

workplace preparedness, and concludes institutions need to be transparent about whether

they are offering academic study or industry-preferred qualification.

Fahmy, Shahira. How Online Journalists Rank Importance of News Skills. Newspaper

Research Journal 29 (2008): 23-39. Even online journalists rank traditional skills

highly as hiring criteria, underlining the importance of skills-based teaching. Still,

multimedia skills are growing in importance.

Huang, Edgar. Teaching Button-Pushing versus Teaching Thinking. Convergence: The

International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 15 (2009): 233-247. The

authors study findings support Columbia University president Lee Bollingers insistence


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that a truly educated new media graduate must have both technological skills and

critical thinking skills, while noting the new game for journalism education is finding the

right balance.

Kelley, Barbara. Teaching Journalism. Communication Research Trends 26 (2007): 3-

25. This journalism educator argues that the last decade has seen a shift from the skills vs.

theory debate to a more nuanced and balanced approach.

Lowrey, Wilson, and Lee B. Becker. The impact of technological skill on job-finding

success in the mass communication labor market. Journalism & Mass Communication

Quarterly 78 (2001): 754-770. The authors find that proficiency with presentation

skillspagination, non-linear editing, photo-imaging, web design and illustrationsoftwareis a significant predictor of job-finding success for j-school graduates.

MacDonald, Isabel. Teaching Journalists To Save The Profession. Journalism Studies 7

(2006): 745-764. Though the author agrees with the critical theory approach to teaching

journalism, she says it is likely to meet significant resistance, especially from the media

industry.

Medsger, Betty. Getting Journalism Education Out Of The Way. New York University

Department of Journalism, Zoned For Debate, accessed online 14 February 2010 at

http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/debate/forum.1.essay.medsger.html . The author, a

reporter turned educator, calls for an intense senior year introduction to journalism for

skills education. This allows students who want to practice journalism a more

interdisciplinary approach to learning with journalism faculty as the gateway to the rest

of the University. The masters program would focus on the professional journalist,

already in the field, who wants to draw on University resources to solve specific

problems.

Mendez, Teresa. Journalism students ask: Why am I here? Christian Science Monitor ,

26 October 2004, 12. Recent graduates are interviewed about their experiences in


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journalism school, concluding real-world experience is better than a graduate track in

the field. This article also mentions Columbias j-school crisis and the decision to add a

second year of graduate study focused on specialization to its venerable journalism

program.

Merrill, John C. and Ralph L. Lowenstein. Viva Journalism! The Triumph of Print in the

Media Revolution. Indiana: AuthorHouse, 2010. The authors make predictions about

where j-schools and journalism in general are heading, and say that as technology

continues to evolve, journalism will become a certified profession, if for no other reason

than to bring order out of the information chaos.

Niles, Robert. Eight Things That Journalism Students Should Demand From Their Journalism Schools. OJR: The Online Journalism Review, accessed online 21

September 2009 at http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/robert/200909/1780/ . The author argues

j-schools should provide students with a broad range of mentoring and experience outside

the classroom and even outside the field.

Niles, Robert. Writing skill is no longer enough to sustain journalists. OJR: The Online

Journalism Review, accessed online 20 February 2010 at

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/robert/201002/1820/ . While superlative writing skills will

always be marketable, the author advocates a different skill setsuch as statistics

training for analyzing data setsand says the era of journalist as mere scribe is over.

Orden, Erica. Columbia J-Schools Existential Crisis. New York Magazine, accessed

online 15 February 2010 at http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/03/columbia_j-

schools_existential.html . The venerable magazine provides a somewhat raw look at the

changes at Columbias journalism school. Includes a rather candid assessment of

journalism education within the skills vs. theory debate by famed instructor Ari Goldman,

who characterizes new media skills as playing with toys and an experimentation in

gadgetry.


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Overby, Charles L. Educators, journalists can work together. The Freedom Forum,

accessed online 14 February 2010 at

http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=6638 . The author,

CEO of the Freedom Forum, calls for more open discussion in the skills and theory

debate between professional and academic ranks.

Parisi, Peter. Critical Studies, the Liberal Arts, and Journalism Education. Journalism

Educator 46 (1992): 4-13. This author advocates using critical and cultural perspectives

to link journalism education more firmly to the liberal arts, seeing journalism less as a

stenographic craft but adopting a more literary approach.

Pierce, Tamyra, and Tommy Miller. Basic Journalism Skills Remain Important inHiring. Newspaper Research Journal 28 (2007): 51-61. This recent survey of newspaper

editors places a heavy emphasis on old-school skills and also ranked some law and

theory concepts above computer-assisted and web-based skills.

Ryan, Michael, and Les Switzer. Balancing Arts and Sciences, Skills, and Conceptual

Content. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 56 (2001): 55-68. This research

looks at the history of the skills and theory debate in journalism education and asks j-

school administrators to evaluate their curricula and its balance between the two

concepts.

Sloan, Wm. David. Makers of the Media Mind. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum

Associates, 1990. The author lends historical perspective to the debate on how to teach

journalism, explaining the differences between the Missouri model and the Pulitzer-

Bleyer philosophy and noting that more schools have adopted the skills-based Missouri

model.

Splichal, Slavko and Colin Sparks. Journalists for the 21 st Century . New Jersey: Ablex

Publishing Corporation, 1994. The authors examine modern attitudes towards journalism

and find there are no objective criteria to place journalism in the same professional


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ranks as doctors and lawyers, and that controversies related to professionalization in

journalism are clearly related to questions of journalism education and training.

Stelter, Brian. Digital Defeats Newsroom? The New York Times , 19 April 2009, ED20.

Skills-based journalism education, especially curricula designed for workplace readiness,

must be in a constant state of revision.

Stephens, Mitchell. A J-School Manifesto. Columbia Journalism Review ,

September/October 2000, 63-65. This journalism educator says j-schools place too much

emphasis on the basics, and not enough on experimentation or intellectual challenge.

skillsconceptsj-schoolbalance

Documents