5 Leading Institutions Start Journalism Ed. Effort(journalism "in crisis")

[DeepModem Mom]

New York Times:
5 Leading Institutions Start Journalism Education Effort
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Published: May 26, 2005


The leaders of five of the nation's most prominent journalism programs are joining in a three-year, $6 million effort to try to elevate the standing of journalism in academia and find ways to prepare journalists better.

The unusual collaboration, which has been developing for three years, involves Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University; Orville Schell, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley; Loren Ghiglione, dean of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University; Geoffrey Cowan, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California; and Alex S. Jones, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University.

Their goal is to revitalize journalism education by jointly undertaking national investigative reporting projects, integrating their journalism programs more deeply with other disciplines at their universities and providing a national platform to try to influence the discourse on media-related issues.

"Journalism as a whole is clearly in something of a crisis," Mr. Schell said. As journalistic scandals crop up with more frequency, surveys show trust in the news media eroding, newspaper circulation declining and young people disengaged from newspapers and television news.

"Those of us who run journalism schools are confronted with the prospect of ever fewer distinguished media outlets - especially in broadcast - to which we can aspire to send our students to work," Mr. Schell added. "So this is a time not only to try and make journalism schools as relevant as possible to the evolving profession, but also to have universities begin to weigh in on the debate about what happens in the media."...


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/26/business/media/26journalism.html

[MADem]

1. Where the hell were they EIGHT years ago?

When they did not speak up about this, and viewed it as par for the course that the corporate pigs would tell the newspapers and broadcast outlets how to do their jobs? But now, suddenly,

Their goal is to revitalize journalism education by jointly undertaking national investigative reporting projects, integrating their journalism programs more deeply with other disciplines at their universities and providing a national platform to try to influence the discourse on media-related issues.

"Journalism as a whole is clearly in something of a crisis," Mr. Schell said. As journalistic scandals crop up with more frequency, surveys show trust in the news media eroding, newspaper circulation declining and young people disengaged from newspapers and television news.

"Those of us who run journalism schools are confronted with the prospect of ever fewer distinguished media outlets - especially in broadcast - to which we can aspire to send our students to work," Mr. Schell added. "So this is a time not only to try and make journalism schools as relevant as possible to the evolving profession, but also to have universities begin to weigh in on the debate about what happens in the media."

Guess those "silly little blogs" and "advocacy sites" are pulling away a lot of reason for anyone to go into mainstream journalism, and a lot of these successful sites don't have a journalism major anywhere to be found. Talk about "a day late, a dollar short!"

I'm charging them some ONEROUS pyschic interest--it will be a long time before anyone takes what they say without a grain of salt...and it is all their fault, frankly. They sat silently by for too damn long.

[Demit]

8. So they shouldn't do it now because they didn't do it then?

It's a start. Plus, these are academics, beginning an academic initiative. You seem to be confusing the journalism schools with the business outlets that employ their graduates. It's all their fault? The academic institutions?

As the article quotes, "As news cycles have gotten faster and more bottom-line driven, there has been less inclination and capacity in media outlets to train, mentor and guide upcoming generations."

Seems to me that the J-schools are getting proactive and that's a good thing.

[MADem]

10. No, I am not saying that at all

I agree that it is a start. But I always wonder WHO BENEFITS? The schools are having problems filling those journo slots, because everyone is starting to think that journos are lower than used-car salesmen. It is impacting the profit line of the universities in question. And having a major in 'blogging' just doesn't seem to be a viable transition.

I'm not irritated that they are doing this, I'm irritated that it took them so damn long, that's all.

[Demit]

17. Now you sound like my mom, LOL, who, whenever I called her, would ask

how come I never called her.

The J-schools might be experiencing a drop in enrollment, I don't know, and I don't know that it's for different reasons than any other academic institutions, either. But people don't select journalism as a career the way they do accounting or investment banking. It kind of chooses them. They are writers starting from an early age. And they know going in that reporters don't make the kind of money that people in business majors will. So there's commitment there, to underlying principles. And the most committed are the best, and they aspire to--and get into--the best J-schools, which these are.

Of course J-schools have to look to their finances. But I don't think this effort is directed at profits. I think they are addressing their very reason for being. I don't think too little too late. I think, better late than never.

[MADem]

19. Well, Mom is a woman with high standards!!!

...and I admit I work from the same mindset, especially when it comes to freedom of the press. And I concur, better late than never, but they aren't getting a pat on the head from me for finally getting around to what they should have been doing all along.

At best, they will get a "Now THAT's more LIKE IT!!" along with a "...and DON'T screw up again!!!!"

[mike_c]

2. this is interesting-- I've often wondered what journalism educators...

...think about what's happening to their profession.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend not long ago, in which I condemned television news as mostly horrible journalism. He replied "yeah but" nobody reads newspapers any longer, so TV news is what reaches people and keeps them informed. My response is that it has utterly failed that promise-- that most TV news viewers are better entertained than informed. That's what's happened to journalism-- much of it has become a tool for corporatist propaganda wrapped up in an entertaining package.

[Triana]

3. they don't need all that. they just need to

...get their whoring asses out of bed with the fed gov't and tell their repuke, corprat bosses and advertisers to shove it and start reporting THE NEWS and not just what they're told by CORPRATS and gov't (ie: the plutocracy).

That means they initially WILL LOSE MONEY as snooty, corprat, Repuke-loyal advertisers pull out and people get fired for not having their lips firmly planted on the corprat bosses and advertiser's butts and that is gonna be damn hard -- but this is where the paradigm shift HAS GOT to take place. The corprats will come back when they finally realize they have NO WHERE ELSE to take their advertising, or they'll be marginalized (not a bad thing if you think about it).

Everything else, is just fluff, demogogeury. They have GOT TO DETACH themselves logistically and financially from corprat ameriKKKa and the government and become servants of the PUBLIC instead. Duh.

INDEPENDENCE is the word, I believe, and they need to GET SOME or they're DOA, IMO and not a goddamned word they print or say is viable or reliable and they cannot be counted on or believed any further than the lot of them and their corprat slavemasters can collectively be tossed by my little 110 lb ass - and that isn't very damn far.

[SoCalDem]

4. Kind of too little..too late.

Where will these "new journalists" work if and when they are "schooled"?

Corporate-controlled media has little use for investigative journalism these days.. The "findings" can hit too close to home for the masters..

A glance at TV explains my issue.. NBC had many incarnations of "Dateline" (they toss one in whenever they want..used to be 3 a week at one point)...CBS and ABC have similar shows too. 48 Hours, 60 Minutes and I forget the name of the others.. These "shows" used to be (and should still be) the PERFECT venues to educate and enlighten people about the important things that affect us all, BUT they are just outlets for snipped together "investigative" reports on decades-old scandals and wife-murders (for the most part).

Each network should be REQUIRED to dedicate a certain number of PRIMETIME hours (The airwaves supposedly 'belong' to us)that would be programmed for REAL public information about policy. NOW is the ONLY program that regularly does this, and we all know how that's going:eyes:(shortened to 1/2 hr, and Moyers pushed out)

As long as 'journalism' is little more than parroting the parent-companies' jargon, and tippy-toeing around 'difficult' issues, it will remain marginal..

[Javaman]

9. Bandade on a broken arm

[KurtNYC]

5. This article talks about journalism SCHOOLS

They aren't the ones who sent Guckert to the WH.

The problem is corporate media and though there have been "scandals" (meaning made up stories and sources) that have helped erode confidence in the media, I think the bigger problem is the stories they don't cover. You could have great journalistic skills and investigate like crazy but if the MSM won't touch your story then it is all for nothing.

Randi Rhodes is on this all the time about how the media can't tell you that gas prices AREN'T high and even when they say the war in Iraq is going well, most people know it isn't. The corporate media undermines their own credibility hourly.

[MADem]

11. Excellent point, on target n/t

[SoCalDem]

12. Smart people go to school.. "Modern news" is about lipgloss & cleavage

...

[KurtNYC]

14. True, I half expect to flip past Fox in the near future

and see the "news" being delivered by naked, silicone-breasted women slithering on fire poles.

[leveymg]

6. You can't "teach" courage to take career-threatening risks. You can't

"teach" people to defy their editors and publishers. You can't "teach" the sort of radical skepticism needed to pursue stories that question the integrity and legitimacy of elite institutions and leaders.

Until they recruit students and professors who can, "elite" J-schools will be little more than assembly lines for overpaid corporate propagandists, and mercenary apologists for mass murder. The mainstream news media has been recognized for what it is - utterly corrupt and distrusted by the public, politically irrelevant, and ultimately closed down as cost-ineffective by the very market-driven logic they glorify.

The Deans are part of the problem for which there is no solution except the extinction of the commercial enterprises they help manage and the rise of a democratic, grassroots, participatory form of mass communications. Something like DU.
:eyes:

[Demit]

13. I think this is an attempt to create a groundswell.

Or work on the farm system, like in baseball. What you teach them on the farm teams, they'll take with them when they get to the majors. Yeah, present editors & managers at the news outlets won't be changed by this, but gradually, if this initiative works, the journalists coming up in the ranks will begin to have an effect.

Two of their focuses: investigative reporting projects, and curriculums that pair students with scientists, historians, economists and other scholars on campus.

The J-schools involved are the cream of the crop. I'm really heartened by this project.

[leveymg]

20. Attended Boston Univ J-School. I also took many classes w/Howard Zinn.

I'll tell you, the former experience was meaningless without the latter. The combination of the two made me utterly unemployable in MSM. I didn't want to write to their specifications, and they (usually) didn't want to publish my critical material.

The purpose of American mass media -- $$$$ worship and $$$$ power -- is, by and large, incompatible with my personal conscience.

The rapid rise of new interactive news media is amazing, especially considering that few people are really making any money from it. Maybe that's why it's still free and open. I hope they don't find some way to change that part.

[bemildred]

7. Bah, it's not the schools that are the problem. nt

[expatriot]

18. yes and no

True, that schools are a reflection of the larger society and schools naturally strive to create a product that will be consumed by the business world, but the schools could do a better job of planting seeds of critical thought and the idea of the fourth estate as the ultimate check on power.

[bemildred]

24. That's nice, but it isn't what I meant.

You can twiddle with the schools all you want and it won't change a thing.
The problems in Nazi Germany or the USSR were not due to bad journalism
schools.

[triguy46]

15. At our local state university

the journalism department is focused on turning out local news readers for tv. Kind of a contradiction in terms, journalism and tv news.

[expatriot]

16. When I was in the university, journalism majors were the most

unquestioning, naive and corporatists. Not a critical thought in the whole bunch. I was an English Lit major and took a lot of courses with the journalism majors, i don't want to stereotype but it seemed like this.

[Demit]

22. Maybe, if this initiative by the top J-schools works, it will filter down

to the smaller schools. Maybe there's even a tidal shift in attitude coming anyway, as kids look and see that the present systems are deteriorating & failing all over the place. Maybe the "greed is good" era will come to a close. I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful that there will always be people who have principles, and this initiative is giving them an opening. It looks like an attempt at encouraging real journalists to get back to their core values.

There was an explosion in the number of media outlets in the last 20 years, with cable and hate radio. It was like expansion in baseball, it watered down the quality of the players. Maybe this new focus in academia will help reintroduce some excellence. If kids start being taught that there's more to journalism than hairdos & mimicking Rush Limbaugh, then eventually we might start seeing less poufing & yelling. It's worth their trying, at any rate.

[Lorien]

21. I'm glad that they're taking action

and a little baffled by the overwhelming negativity from my fellow DUers on this story. I think it's great that they are calling it what it is-a crisis-and doing what they can from their end to help change what they can.

[GoldenOldie]

23. Carefully planned manipulation to destroy US investigativ e journalism

I can only speak from my years of observation and the little interaction that I have had with the few Journalism students from the University of Arizona in Tucson. The Journalism Prof Jacquelyn Sharkey and her classes were considered to be excellent because she taught from the wealth of her own personal experience as an investigative reporter. She had been fired for exposing numerous local corruption cons performed by some highly placed influential citizens. She resigned under extreme pressure and went on to become foreign reporter in South American and exposed further corruptive practices of the US and various SA Countries.

She returned to Tucson, her home town, to become Prof of Journalism at the UofA where students were eager to take her class. You could find her students at the local school board meetings all the way up to the Governor's office/sessions. Tucson was one of the very first cities that used teenagers, elderly citizens, business's to initiate smoking bans within restaurants, control the sale of tobacco to children, etc., meet the attack of the tobacco industry with their on-slaught of high priced attorney's, etc., etc. At each and every one of these events, you could be sure that UofA Journalism students would be their prowling for interviews. These students did independent investigations and made sure that the public was aware of what was actually happening. The oppositie was true of the local paid media. After being present at many of these events and turning on the local news and listening to their 1-minute synopsis of the event, it was difficult to beleive that we were both at the same event.

It didn't take long for the money-people to discover that the Prof and merry band of Journalism students were a threat to their power base and so the attack to destroy and disband the Journalism class to obscurity began. The media started reporting that due to the smaller class's for Journalism, and the budget crisis, they would have to cut the Journalism class.

We now have a media of Law students/lawyers, who have been taught and trained to either prosecute or defend. They take one-side and argue only the one-side/opinion. They interview guests with questions with only their already defined opinions and question as an attorney so as to defend their own set opinions.
We only have to look at Tim Russert, as the prime example of this modern media form of "journalism," It is apparent that these "lawyers," were unable to make the kinds of money or become the top entertainers that they have become with the skill of their law abilities. They don't even have to do the grunt work that a lawyer has to do to practise thier profession. They use what has been handed down by the WH or just use the work done by others.......why is this not called plagerism?

[AlGore-08.com]

25. Am I the only one seeing the irony in Kit Seeley covering this story?

She's done more to destroy modern journalistic standards than anybody else at the NYTimes, which is saying a lot.

If Wolf Blitzer also covers this, my head may explode...

[DeepModem Mom]

26. I saw it --

that's why I like to know the writer of a story.

[sweetheart]

27. I have an idea for them

You guys should start a journalism correspondence course for bloggers.
This should include the basics of journalism, that we might work for
mainstream publications in their online groups. As well, your course
might include the "amateur" option, explaining how to make a blog
more authentic and effective.

The mainstream medium is dead from too much editorial noose, whereas
the growth that is needed comes from people like the writers here at
DU, many of whom are amateur inspired journalists who might become
excellent professional ones were your schools to provide education in a
way that your "customer" would be best suited.

Distance learning journalism, with intensive "session" classes for
a few days on site might be just the trick. This would keep your
classrooms empty for your full-time tracks, AND help out this dying
profession with some new blood.

[DeepModem Mom]

28. Excellent idea! Train a new generation of net journalists...

who are completely web-oriented, plus some "oldies" already blogging --

On edit: I wonder if you could communicate this idea to this group.

[sweetheart]

29. Those universities are the problem

They are the core of "elitism" in journalism, as getting in to those
schools requires money and a pedigree, whereas, internet journalism and
the truth have no elitism in them... and doubtless, they're really
perturbed about how to concentrate and keep their grip on supplying the
pinnacle of media-lies, when the ground has moved beneath them.

Likely they'll have to be upstaged by more innovative schools that are
hip to what journalism has become in our new internet era. If the
schools are smart worthy of those damn fees, then they'll sort it out,
but i won't shed a tear if they close their journalism schools...what
they've created is an embarassment, not jouralism... and they should
be ashamed to be associated with american jouranlism given that they
are collectively supposed to be the best and brightest behind the charade.

I hope some hungry universities that thrive on truth and knowledge, not
pedigrees and bullshit, that those hungry and intelligent schools kick
some elite-ass by training the internet. As much as i'd share the idea
with them, its bleedin' obvious if they actually wanted to help out
journalism.

[shantipriya]

30. Journalists

Nothing is going to change as long as the Corporations control the media.