When Sarah Golden applied to the University of Southern California’s graduate broadcast journalism program, she wanted to learn technical skills that would win her a job in the field she loves; she didn’t expect the program’s emphasis on storytelling and reporting. “I was under the naive impression that I could already kind of do those things,” she said.
“Since going to a program that has a strong writing and reporting curriculum, I now realize it is more valuable than I could have known.”
When officials at The University of Colorado at Boulder announced that it’s considering replacing its journalism school with an “information, communication and technology” program, they drew fire from journalism educators concerned that the new program will emphasize technological mastery over developing reporting and writing skills––skills seen by many journalism employers and educators as essential.
University officials say the move will better prepare students for jobs in information services, enhancing the value of their degrees and make them more qualified job seekers. But they have not given a clear outline of their plan for the future, and reporting and writing skill development are missing from their announcement.
Michael Bugeja, director of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State, worries faculty dysfunction and budget woes are more responsible for the potential restructuring of the journalism school than the push for a new model of journalism education, and that the new model will place technical knowledge ahead of writing and reporting skills.
Bugeja, in an article printed in the September 13 issue of Inside Higher Ed, wrote that Paul Voakes, dean of journalism at CU, rebranded the likely changes in his department as a transition and opportunity, rather than as a failure in order to “save face.”
Voakes wrote in an August 26 open letter to students and graduates that the University “has begun a review process that will enable our transformation into a truly cutting-edge program.”
Two separate committees have begun the “discontinuance” process that determines whether the University should close a department. CU officials expect the process to be completed by the end of the year.
Len Ackland, a professor at the University of Colorado and co-founder of the school’s Center for Environmental Journalism, worries that Voakes’ vision neglects reporting and writing education. “In these discussions about the closure of the journalism school, journalism education is missing from the pronouncement of the chancellor,” He said.
“The problem is, this process is really opaque. We don't know what this new thing looks like.”
Establishing a school of information and communications technology is not new to journalism and mass communication instruction. There are more than 30 similar programs at universities nationwide, including University of California at Berkeley, Cornell and Rutgers.
At the University of California at Berkeley, the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism is the only degree-awarding journalism education program on campus. Though it collaborates with the UC Berkeley School of Information––a program seen as CU’s model––the two programs have no formal ties.
The two schools are likely to remain separate. In a September 2 article in Inside Higher Ed, Berkeley’s journalism dean Neil Henry said of journalism education that, “We believe very strongly in the independent integrity of this enterprise on campus.”
Media employers like Mike Wagner look for applicants who have a mixture of storytelling, reporting and technical skills that will make them competitive in the workplace. As Manager of Information Content at SourceMedia Group News, Wagner looks for storytellers “you don't mind looking at and listening to as they tell a story,” but who “also need to have equally strong reporting skills.”
“You have to tell me a story about the facts instead of just puking out facts in a story.”
Shannon McDonald, an executive producer at the University of Iowa’s Daily Iowan TV, works with reporters and technicians with a range of skill levels and educational backgrounds. “You can essentially teach anyone how to use the camera,” she said.
But as the producer of a student-run television station, she prefers educated and experienced reporters, whom she says find and produce better stories. “You need to dig and look for the bigger story that may be hidden,” she said. Storytelling and reporting––“those are the skills you learn in the classroom.”
“You can’t develop the things it takes to become a really good journalist all on your own.”
