Revamping Journalism Education p.

By: M.L. Stein

Joint panel of professors and journalists offers ideas
JOURNALISM EDUCATION needs a
sweeping overhaul, including a totally
new curriculum, the elimination of
traditional faculty and becoming a cre-
ator of new ideas for newspapers in-
stead of the other way around.
J-students would be taught to be-
come multilingual, assigned to inner-
city internships and have cross-cul-
tural experiences in other countries.
Journalism schools and departments
would have much closer links to news-
papers.
"We don't speak the same lan-
guage," said Orange County Register
editor Tonnie Katz at a unique, free-
for-all think session that brought
together a delegation of American
Society of Newspaper Editors-spon-
sored newspaper executives and heads
and teachers of college journalism pro-
grams, who called for the reforms.
The 18 participants gathered for the
video taped workshop at the annual
convention of the Association for Edu-
cation in Journalism and Mass Com-
munication (AEJMC) in Kansas City.
The panel was moderated ? and
goaded ? by Jean Gaddy Wilson, ex-
ecutive director of New Directions for
News, the newspaper-sponsored think
tank based at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
The rationale for the conference is
that j-schools are not keeping pace with the powerful changes taking place
among newspapers and their readers.
"There must be ways for journalism
schools to access information much
more quickly," said John S. "Jack"
Driscoll, vice president and editor of
the Boston Globe. He suggested that
the schools and newspapers trade
equipment and interns.
At the same time, Driscoll asserted
that the prejudice many editors have
against j-schools is 20 years out of
date."
"We just need more mix," he added,
contending that the workshop was a
good start.
AEJMC president Tony Atwater, the
journalism department chairman at
Rutgers University, agreed, saying,
"We need a bold new alliance, and to
make it work."
Atwater said j-schools must share
some of the blame for the arms-length
relationship between them and the media.
"We have not done as much as possible in getting information out about
ourselves," he explained.
Calling for more broadly educated
students, David Lipman, chairman of
Pulitzer 2000 at the St. Louis Post-Dis-
patch and a journalism graduate, said,
"Journalism education is education,
period."
He urged journalism schools to "cre-
ate as well as collect knowledge" and
share it with the industry.
Katz advised j-schools to be risk-tak-
ers, commenting, "They should be
teaching us innovation."
The educators joined the chorus.
"Let's teach skills but cut across in-
dustry skills," said Lee Becker of
Ohio State University. "We don't have
to follow industry models."
"But we need industry partnerships
to allow us to transform ourselves," ob-
served Charles C. Self of Texas A&M
University.
There was a strong feeling among
both the teachers and newspaper rep-
resentatives that journalism students
should be reoriented to better under-
stand the society they will cover.
"We have to change their mind-set so they know the human side of what we are all about," said Thomas Greer, vice president and senior editor of the
Cleveland Plain Dealer. "Graduates
whose calling is a Pulitzer are coming
into the business for the wrong rea-
son."
Taking up this viewpoint, Dean Sha-
ron Murphy of Marquette University
suggested students apply for an intern-
ship with Mother Teresa "so they can
learn how it is to be poor and despised
and to cope with the world they live in."
"They could also learn a lot by working for [Mafia boss] John Gotti,"
cracked Everette E. Dennis, the Free-
dom Forum's media director and a for-
mer University of Oregon journalism
professor.
From their general discussion and
breakout sessions, the panelists came
up with these recommendations for re-
vamping journalism education:
? Replace professorship with
"teams" of experts in various fields,
not just journalism.
"The faculty reward system of tenure
and promotion has to go," said Carol
Oukrop, director of Kansas State Uni-
versity's School of Journalism and
Mass Communications.
? Change the present journalism curriculum to include a variety of information to give students "a better sense of reality."
? Newspaper companies should give
journalism schools "state-of-the-art
equipment."
? J-schools should develop stronger
ties with high school journalism teach-
ers and advisers so would-be journal-
ism majors are better prepared.
? Put more emphasis on critical
thinking in j-schools and pay more
attention to human values and less to
technology.
? Introduce courses in basic ethics.
"Business schools are way ahead of us
in teaching basic ethics," said Frank
Denton, editor of the Wisconsin State
Journal in Madison.
There was across-the-board agree-
ment that newspapers and journalism
education programs are too far apart.
"There is a lack of mutual respect,"
Katz stated. "We don't like each other
very much but we must cooperate with
the schools and vice versa."
This, she said, includes giving money to journalism programs in return for getting more knowledgeable and more thoroughly trained graduates.
The danger in not changing journal-
ism training is that "we will become an
anachronism," warned Tony Atwater.
The relationship between newspapers and journalism education also came under scrutiny at another AEJMC session.
"Why aren't we talking?" asked
Tonda Rush, chief executive officer of
the National Newspaper Association.
One subject that both newspapers
and the academy should be discussing
is how to make readers out of non-readers, she said.
Identifying the industry as the jour-
nalism schools' market, Rush stated
that newspapers make little effort to
work with the schools. The reason, she
said, is that "you're failing to reach your market" by not supplying what the papers need most: research with practical application.
Rush, who teaches journalism part-
time, said some j-schools furnish state
press associations with valuable press-
bar guidelines and provide editors with
helpful research on student aspira-
tions.
But, she lamented, the schools gen-
erally ignore studies on fairness and
balance in news stories and how news
affects events or vice versa. Also ig-
nored, Rush claimed, are studies on
how news content should be shaped.
The result is that newspapers turn to
other sources, such as professional re-
search organizations, for this kind of information, she noted.
The industry also wants effective
teaching, Rush went on.
"It pays taxes for that and sometimes endows chairs. It knows who the great, revered teachers are in your midst and wonders why there are not more. It wants the 22-year-old to emerge with some idea of how the world works, who can turn on a computer, find area codes in the phone book, hail a cab in the city, ask delicate questions without offending someone, and comb his hair before he stands in front of 500 people with a Nikon in his hand."
Also sought by editors are graduates who know about Watergate, the importance of Omaha Beach in World War II, how Congressional districts are setup and why names must be spelled correctly, the speaker told her mainly fa-culty audience.
"Neither the publisher nor the editor gives a damn about how many theories about electoral politics a kid
knows . . . or whether he thinks old-
growth forests are essential for sur-
vival," Rush continued. "They're
looking for pragmatists, not eggheads.
And finally, they want someone who
understands that journalism is a craft
and a business ? not a religion."
Journalism research should address
such industry needs as how to make
news more local, Rush contended.
Instead, she said, j-schools are
"soaking up tremendous resources
and intelligent peoples' time writing
things that the industry doesn't need."
Still, Rush said, the two sides must
cooperate with each other because
newspapers cannot afford to train graduates for a changing world.
However, she warned, "if the oppor-
tunity is to be seized, educators must
firmly claim the franchise and do it soon or the problems will be solved elsewhere."