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JOURNALISM SCHOOL CURRICULUM ENRICHMENT

A Midterm Report of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Education

                 

Journalism School Curriculum Enrichment

A Midterm Report of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education

by

Wolfgang Donsbach, Ph.D., Dresden University

and

Tom Fiedler, Former Shorenstein Center Fellow, Harvard University

October 2008

This report was funded by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of in conjunction with the Carnegie-Knight Task Force on the Future of Journalism Education.

Table of Contents

Introduction...... 1

The Carnegie-Knight Initiative...... 2

Core Competencies of the Well-Trained ...... 3

Curriculum Enrichment at the Participating Institutions...... 5

A Comparative Look at the Program Initiatives...... 13

Thinking Ahead...... 15

A Final Issue: The Status of Graduate-Level Programs...... 19

Endnotes...... 21

The Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education

The Carnegie-Knight Initiative was launched in 2005 with the aim of developing a vision of what a journalism school can be at an institution of higher education. Two foundations, Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, joined together with five, then nine and now twelve universities. The founding deans were Geoffrey Cowan (University of Southern California), Loren Ghiglione (Northwestern), Alex Jones (Harvard), Nicholas Lemann (Columbia) and Orville Schell (University of California, Berkeley). The foundations contributed $6 million for the first two years and, in 2008, agreed to fund an additional three years. The universities, and their presidents, made their own commitments of institutional and financial support to more fully integrate their school of journalism into the intellectual life of the wider university. The Initiative has three parts: a curriculum enrichment effort to deepen the journalism curricu- lum; News21, an innovative reporting project for students that builds on intensive content- based coursework; and The Carnegie-Knight Task Force, which is the research arm of the Initiative. The Task Force has produced four reports on journalism and journalism education and coordinates group efforts by the deans to speak out on public policy issues affecting journalism and journalism education.

The participating institutions and their current deans are: , Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication — Christopher Callahan Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism — Nicholas Lemann Harvard University, Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy — Alex S. Jones Northwestern University, Medill School of Journalism — John Lavine , S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications — Lorraine Branham University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism — Neil Henry University of Maryland, Philip Merrill College of Journalism — Lee Thornton , Missouri School of Journalism — Dean Mills University of Nebraska-Lincoln, College of Journalism and Mass Communication — Will Norton, Jr. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Journalism and Mass Communication — Jean Folkerts University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication — Ernest Wilson University of Texas at Austin, College of Communication — Roderick Hart

Journalism School Curriculum Enrichment

A Midterm Report of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education

Introduction on CNN’s Crossfire a form of news? Are the interviews with Hollywood personali- The journalist Walter Williams founded ties on Good Morning America or Entertainment the world’s first journalism school at the Uni- Tonight news? . . . There are so many pretend- versity of Missouri in 1908. Since then, U.S. ers, and so few clear standards.”3 Downie and journalism programs have set the standard for Kaiser’s view is widely shared in the journalism university-based journalism training. In recent profession. According to a 2007 Pew Research decades, thousands of well-trained journalism Center poll, six in ten of America’s school graduates have joined the media work- believe that the news is going “in the wrong force each year. direction” and half say their organization’s top Throughout their history, journalism managers place more emphasis on financial schools have had to adjust to changing market performance than on the public interest.4 conditions and public concerns. Seldom have New forms of information delivery are the challenges been greater than they are today. also eroding the integrity of news, and even The traditional have lost a large what it means to be a journalist. According to share of their market. circulation a Harvard study, the audience of the websites has fallen sharply in the past two decades, as of non-traditional news disseminators—such has the audience for local and national broad- as news aggregators, bloggers, search engines, cast news. Only a portion of this loss social-networking sites and service providers— has been recaptured through cable and Internet is growing faster than the audience of the web- news outlets. Particularly unsettling is young sites of traditional news outlets.5 Bloggers and Americans’ interest in news. Only about a third public-relations specialists posing as objective of adults under 30 say they enjoy “keeping up sources of information have contributed to with the news.”1 public confusion about what the news is and As competition for a shrinking audi- who the journalists are. ence has intensified, the integrity of the news These threats to journalism are occur- product has eroded. As a McKinsey Report for ring at a time when the public’s need for qual- Carnegie Corporation noted: “[T]he quality ity journalism is perhaps greater than ever. of journalism is losing ground in the drive for America’s traditional institutions have weak- profit, diminished objectivity and the spread ened in the face of social, economic and politi- of the ‘entertainment virus.’ ” 2 Said Washing- cal change, which has reduced their capacity ton Post editors Leonard Downie and Robert to guide public opinion. Less by design than Kaiser: “So much news—but is it really news? by default, an increasing share of the burden … Are you watching news when you see stock for informing public opinion has fallen on the quotes streaming across the bottom of the news media. As the historian Stig Hjarvard screen while commentators trade gossip about wrote recently: “In earlier societies, social insti- companies and markets on CNBC? Are the po- tutions like family, school and church were the lemics huffed back and forth by politicians and most important providers of information, tra-

1 dition and moral orientation for the individual content to accept the standards of today’s mar- member of society. Today, these institutions ketplace. Carnegie Corporation also recognized have lost some of their former authority, and a gap between the aspirations and the realities the media have to some extent taken over their of journalism education in America. Although role as providers of information and moral journalism schools are attracting top students orientation, at the same time as the media have and have strengthened their curricula in recent become society’s most important storyteller decades, the transformation is incomplete. At about society itself.”6 many institutions, the journalism program Journalism might even be properly re- is not as closely tied as are other professional garded as the “new knowledge profession.” programs to the intellectual resources of the Before Gutenberg, the clergy and the state were university. Carnegie Corporation was con- the repositories of society’s knowledge. With vinced that a tighter link between journalism Gutenberg, librarians and teachers assumed programs and the broader university was a key this role. Although their contribution remains element in enriching journalism education. vitally important, it can be argued that, today, To these ends, Carnegie Corporation the media are the major storehouse and dis- invited the deans of four leading schools of seminator of society’s information, which journalism—those at Columbia, Northwest- makes the quality of journalism a central issue ern, the University of California-Berkeley, of democratic governance and of professional and the University of Southern California, as education. As Vartan Gregorian, president of well as the director of Harvard University’s Carnegie Corporation of New York, said re- Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and cently: “Journalism, the quintessential knowl- Public Policy—to take the lead in developing a edge profession, deserves the best-educated and journalism education initiative. The initiative trained practitioners.”7 was subsequently strengthened by the addition of the journalism programs at Arizona State, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, The Carnegie-Knight Initiative Syracuse and Texas. Launched in May 2005 in cooperation with the John S. and James L. Such considerations led Carnegie Cor- Knight Foundation, the project has several poration of New York to launch an initiative components including journalism practice, re- aimed at enhancing journalism education. Said search and education. its president, Vartan Gregorian: “Refining and The subject of this report is the Carnegie- reinvigorating the curriculum to better educate Knight Initiative’s curriculum enrichment journalists, who will be at the forefront of dif- program. The participating institutions were fusing knowledge to the next generations, is key provided modest curriculum grants to develop to strengthening our future as a democracy.” innovative approaches to journalism education. The initiative was premised on the notion Carnegie Corporation said: “The goal . . . is to that changes in news journalism are needed elevate journalism schools within university and that journalism schools must play a lead- communities and to integrate them into the ership role in bringing them about. In past life of the campus so that they will attract and times, the broadcast networks and a few top prepare the journalism leaders of tomorrow for set the standard for quality journal- a more complex and intellectually challenging ism, but their position has been weakened by industry. A key feature of the initiative is cur- competitive pressures and a fragmented news riculum enrichment, which demands a reinvig- system. As the of tomorrow’s journal- oration of the journalism curriculum to offer ists, the nation’s journalism schools cannot be students a deep and multilayered exploration of

2 complex subjects like history, politics, classics based journalism education, although from the and philosophy to undergird their journalistic start the emphasis was on technique acquisition skills.” The Knight Foundation expressed the rather than knowledge acquisition. Because goal by saying: “In today’s changing world of these techniques could also be acquired on the news consumption, journalism schools should job, a journalism degree, unlike those in pro- be exploring the technological, intellectual, ar- fessions such as law and medicine, was not a tistic and literary possibilities of journalism to requirement for professional practice. Even as the fullest extent, and should be leading a con- late as 2000, more than half of America’s prac- stant expansion and improvement in the ability ticing journalists had either no college degree of the press to inform the public as fully, deeply or a degree in a field other than journalism. and interestingly as it can about matters of the Increasingly, however, a university-based highest importance and complexity.” journalism education has been the path to a This report is a midterm assessment of the journalism career. Between 1971 and 2002, Initiative’s curriculum enrichment efforts. The the number of practicing journalists with a report will begin with a discussion of some of journalism degree rose from 30 percent to 45 the issues surrounding journalism education, percent.8 Part of the change is attributable to including the relationship between journalism growth in the television industry, which prefers programs and the marketplace for journalism to hire entry-level journalists who are versed in graduates. The report will then outline the ob- the medium. For their part, newspaper employ- jectives of journalism education, followed by a ers, particularly in the smaller markets, have school-by-school description of the curriculum increasingly recognized the advantage of hiring enrichment efforts. The report will conclude entry-level employees with journalism training. with thoughts on curriculum reform that go Today, upwards of 80 percent of all first jobs in beyond the efforts to date. Because the Carne- journalism are awarded to journalism school gie-Knight Initiative is only at its halfway point, graduates. In the case of television, nearly all this report is intentionally modest in scope. A entry-level hires have a journalism degree. more comprehensive report will be released This development places a substantial upon the Initiative’s conclusion, which will oc- burden on journalism schools. As the educators cur in 2011. of the next generation of journalists, the quality In preparing this report, we relied on of their training will affect the future of Ameri- written documents supplied by the partici- can journalism. The Initiative’s participating pating institutions, as well as interviews with institutions embrace the notion that the qual- selected administrators and faculty. We also ity of journalism and the quality of journalism conducted brief site visits at four of the institu- education are now inseparable and that jour- tions. nalism education can and should be enriched. Carnegie Corporation’s Vartan Gregorian summarized this view in saying: “We need the Core Competencies help of journalists who are superbly trained, of the Well-Trained Journalist intellectually rigorous, steeped in knowledge about the subjects they report on, steadfast Journalism education began as vocational about their ethical standards and courageous in training and remains so in some European their pursuit of truth. . . . American journalism countries. There, journalism is a technique- schools are the key to enabling individuals to based trade taught in vocational or technical become the kind of journalists who will strive schools rather than in universities. The United to achieve those standards—indeed, who will States was the first country to offer university- require nothing less of themselves.”9

3 What type of training will enable journal- applying it to everything from challenging the ism graduates to meet these standards? One veracity of their sources to understanding the might start by considering how the Commit- behaviors and motivations of others. For most tee of Concerned Journalists (CCJ), a national students, this imperative is best met through group of practicing journalists dedicated to a liberal arts education. While acknowledging strengthening the profession’s values, defines a need for specialized training in journalism, the role of journalists: “The central purpose of Carnegie Corporation’s Vartan Gregorian journalism is to provide citizens with accurate notes: “But for greater understanding, we and reliable information they need in order to also need generalists, educated and cultivated, make informed judgments in a self-governing trained and knowledgeable in the humanities, society.”10 This definition assesses journalism arts, sciences and social sciences. The challenge from its end product—that is, what the profes- is to provide synthesis. We also need general- sion delivers to its audience. The quality of this ists’ help in creating a common discourse, a end product rests on the process through which common vocabulary for discussing various it is created. In other words, the competence of disciplines. Today, more than ever, we must try the craftsman directly affects the quality of the to balance technical studies in reporting skills product. According to the CCJ, the skilled jour- with a general and liberal education.” Gen- nalist is expected to be able to: eral knowledge, in Gregorian’s view, fosters a “moral balance … that teaches us the difference • Gather information on the important between making a living and actually living, events and issues of the day, analyze their between means and ends, and between the in- relevant aspects and relate them to other dividual and society.” 11 knowledge. In short, journalists help society to understand realities. 2. Practical Techniques. As in any • Report on those events in a way profession, journalism practitioners need the that maximizes the attention and practical techniques essential to performance. comprehension of the audience and A partial list of such techniques could include that minimizes the influence of non- deadline reporting, news photography, news- professional factors, such as economic paper headline writing, doing a television “live pressures, personal bias or peer pressures. shot,” recording a story with ambient In short, a good journalist tells a story sound, and posting a story on the Web. The in an engaging way and does it with techniques could also include ones that are integrity. less tangible, such as techniques for cultivat- ing sources or interviewing a hostile subject. If journalism students are to have this ca- Such techniques are as critical to a journalist’s pacity, we suggest that they need to acquire five success as surgical techniques are to a surgeon. competencies during their training: Moreover, the skill demands on journalists are increasing. With the technological changes 1. General Competence. In order to brought by digitalization, journalists must also assess the salience of events and issues and to learn to work across different media “plat- place information in context, journalists need forms” to convey their messages to the audi- a broad intellectual perspective. In addition to ence. The typical newspaper today operates a staying abreast of current events, they need to website capable of enhancing a text report with possess an educational foundation generally video and sound, often gathered by the same attributed to a college degree or its equivalent. reporter who wrote the report. They also must be adept at analytical thinking,

4 3. Process Competence. Journal- the right questions of the relevant actors, and ists should understand the influences that af- to resist infiltration of non-professional factors fect the news product, and the consequences in news decisions. While a journalist’s level of that can result. This competency refers less to substantive knowledge will rarely compare to basic techniques than to knowledge of how to that of a true expert in the field, it has to be apply the techniques for the purpose of avoid- sufficiently deep so that the journalist is able to ing unintended inaccuracies or consequences. exercise independent judgment about the news Take as an example the phenomenon of “pack event or situation. An example is the compara- journalism,” where the journalist’s indepen- tive advantage possessed by journalists with dent judgment is surrendered to a collective training in economics in making sense from the rush to judgment. A journalist who is trained outset of America’s sub-prime mortgage crisis. to recognize such a situation has at the least the possibility of a detached assessment. Process competence also includes an understanding Curriculum Enrichment of how audiences react to news presentation. at the Participating Institutions Studies have shown, for example, that when a story is told through video rather than through In developing their curriculum enrich- printed text it can have a different meaning and ment programs, the participating institutions significance for its consumers. concentrated on the last of the aforementioned competencies—subject competence. This em- 4. Professional Ethics. Journalists are phasis reflects a long-standing limitation on simultaneously private actors and public actors. journalism education. Journalism students With few exceptions, they work for profit-seek- have not been expected to have specialized ing organizations. At the same time, they have knowledge of the subjects on which they will be a public trust that stems from their privileged reporting. A lack of substantive knowledge can First Amendment position. Accordingly, they make the journalist vulnerable to the self-inter- are obliged to serve the public’s information ested claims of those with a stake in a public is- needs. There is no exact agreement on what sue. Without the knowledge to test such claims, this obligation entails but Clifford Christians, the journalist has little choice but to report as part of a Hastings Center ethics project, has them as presented—a type of journalism closer identified five educational goals that encompass to stenography than reportage. Some news most of it: (1) stimulating the moral imagina- stories consist of little more than reference to tion; (2) recognizing moral issues; (3) develop- a recent development and quotes from a few ing analytical skills; (4) eliciting a sense of mor- interested parties or experts. A weak knowledge al obligation; and (5) tolerating disagreement base can also stunt entrepreneurial reporting and ambiguity.12 because the journalist lacks the understanding required to fruitfully explore a story’s unexam- 5. Subject Competence. Increasingly, ined or suppressed elements. events and issues cannot be adequately assessed It is also the case that subject competence and analyzed without knowledge of the subject. is more naturally acquired within the university While this is most obvious for news coverage context than outside of it. The first of the afore- in areas such as law, foreign policy, science and mentioned competencies—a well-grounded business, it can also pertain to subjects such as liberal arts education—is also best acquired religion, travel and sports. Specialized knowl- within the university but is not the province edge enables the journalist to make sound judg- of the journalism program. The other three ments on the newsworthiness of events, to ask competencies—practical techniques, process

5 competency and professional ethics—are less tive expertise to the coursework while journal- fully dependent on what the university can ism school faculty members supplied the jour- uniquely offer. Some top journalists excel in nalism content. these areas without having undergone journal- The Initiative has produced several ambi- ism training within a university. On the other tious offerings, among them a course taught hand, the bodies of knowledge that are the basis by an economist that engaged students in how of subject competence are found largely within to look at the problems of a city with greater the academy and can be taught most effectively depth; a course on Africa that included a in that setting. grounding in history and development; and a Accordingly, the participating institutions course on Central America that used several ac- chose to focus most of their Initiative-related ademics and specialists to prepare students for efforts on improving their students’ subject how to think of Central America in geopolitical competence. Each school was encouraged to as well as regional terms. Berkeley remade a experiment with ways of achieving the goal basic course on documentary -making into that made the most sense in its particular case. one with historical depth, and developed an- All schools were also encouraged to strengthen other course showing how seemingly abstract their ties to those units of their university that economic theory (taught by a former Treasury are the repositories of journalism-relevant sub- Department official) can translate into public- stantive knowledge. It is a pedagogical strategy policy making in Congress (taught by the team that other professional fields—for example, partner, a former newspaper congressional cor- medicine with chemistry, architecture with respondent). physics, business with economics, public health Most of these courses were designed to with epidemiology, and law with philosophy— produce works of journalism with the expecta- have pursued to considerable advantage. Jour- tion that a course’s greater depth would result nalism is a somewhat different case, because in deeper reporting. The news products created of the wide ranging subjects it addresses. But in these courses have included a prize winner (a the idea that journalism can be strengthened George Polk Award in 2006 for public service through heightened subject competence was journalism) and pieces that have appeared in, fundamental to the curriculum innovations of among others, the Washington Post and the the participating institutions. Christian Science Monitor, and on NPR and The following sections describe on a CNN. school-by-school basis the innovations under- Berkeley’s dean, Neil Henry, believes that, taken during the Carnegie-Knight Initiative’s even where outside scholars have not been first three years (Arizona State, North Carolina used, their contribution—a deeper form of and Nebraska joined the initiative too late to journalism rooted in substantive knowledge— participate fully in the grant’s first phase and has become an integral part of the program’s for this reason are not included in the summa- ethos. Dean Henry believes this is especially ries): important as Berkeley tries to incorporate new media, which, he says, “if handled poorly, can Graduate School of Journalism, easily become superficial and media lite.” University of California at Berkeley. The challenge of innovating in a new UC-Berkeley sought to deepen its course con- world and enriching a student’s intellectual tent by engaging knowledgeable scholars and grounding has pushed Berkeley to slowly but practitioners (the Carnegie Fellows) from completely revamp its basic reporting and writ- outside the school. Using a team-teaching ap- ing course. For the last two years, no student proach, these individuals contributed substan- has been able to graduate without being con-

6 versant in new media technology, and starting and attendance will be mandatory. Although this year, thanks to a new Ford Foundation J-School faculty will not teach, two are oversee- grant inspired in part by the ideals of the Car- ing the class. We expect the experts, including negie-Knight Initiative, all of Berkeley’s basic Laura Tyson and Robert Reich, to be engaging reporting and writing workshops—the first enough so mandatory won’t mean punishing, and most important courses students take in but we also wanted to demonstrate our com- the first year—will include multimedia assign- mitment to well-informed journalism.” ments focused on some aspect of the Bay Area. A positive effect of the Initiative has been Dean Henry notes: “Students will not only have to connect the journalism school more closely the skills to produce in each media, they will to the rest of the university. Says Dean Henry: learn how to give depth and texture to their “The Carnegie program has indeed raised stories; how to look at new media not merely campus awareness and engagement with our as visual goodies—any video will do—but program. It has exposed these scholars to the an opportunity to use its tools to engage the quality of our graduate students and faculty, viewer in a deeper understanding of an issue or and the exceptional value of what we do—and a story. So, this fall, viewers in West Oakland, aspire to do—in this dynamic and rapidly San Francisco’s Mission District, Emeryville changing field.” and elsewhere, will be engaged to view coverage of their neighborhood and to enrich and par- Graduate School of Journalism, ticipate in that coverage in ways that will make Columbia University. The Graduate School our local democracies increasingly transparent of Journalism at Columbia has implemented a and accountable.” new Master of Arts in Journalism (MAJ) degree Berkeley’s biggest frustration has been to run alongside its traditional Master of Sci- that some students have not received the ben- ence in Journalism (MSJ) degree. When it was efit provided by the outside scholars (each envisioned, the MAJ program was to offer an course enrolls only 8 to 12 students). To rem- additional year of study in four fields—arts and edy this, Berkeley experimented last year with culture, business and economics, science and another idea—a Key Issues class split into five politics—to students who had completed the topics, each taught by a specialist. Last year MSJ program. The MSJ was weighted toward the class focused on immigration, presidential providing students with the “how” of journal- politics, labor policy in a global world, educa- ism. The MAJ was to supply the “what,” there- tion policy and health care policy. Two of the by providing a type of training associated with topics were taught by journalism school fac- master’s degree recipients in other fields. ulty and the other three were taught by leaders That vision has been modified, primar- in their fields. Although the enrollment was ily because it collided with the desire of most nearly double that of the single-topic courses, students to complete their master’s work in a it still failed to attract the hoped-for number of single year. The MAJ, according to Columbia students. As a remedy, Berkeley has instituted Dean Nicholas Lemann, is now a more or less a required Key Issues class for all incoming “free-standing [one-year] program for early students. Dean Henry says this fall’s version career journalists.” The program enrolls stu- “will focus on California urban issues; the U.S. dents with some experience in journalism who economy; and U.S. foreign policy. Each section seek expertise in one of the program’s subject will be taught by a UC specialist and students areas. Students without journalism experience will be tested after each block. To avoid get- must enter the traditional MSJ program, which, ting caught in the mid-week busy schedule of as before, attracts people with a variety of un- incoming students, it will be taught on Fridays

7 dergraduate degrees who seek a journalism or vised by professors inside and outside the jour- journalism-related career. nalism school. Some of them get prominently Like other Initiative programs, Columbia published. Lemann wrote in the alumni maga- has used its Carnegie-Knight support primar- zine, 116th and Broadway, that the journalism ily to pay stipends to faculty from outside the program as a result of the Carnegie-Knight Ini- journalism school, mostly Arts and Sciences tiative is “getting a level of attention from the faculty. These scholars co-teach with journal- likes of top philanthropic leaders and university ism instructors who devise assignments that presidents that we haven’t often had before.” weave journalistic techniques into the subject matter. The Philip Merrill College of Students in the MAJ take four or five Journalism, University of Maryland. courses per term, of which at least one has to Maryland’s journalism school was among the be in another school at Columbia University. institutions that joined the Initiative a year Columbia’s approach also contains several after its inauguration. As other participants features that distinguish it from others in the have done, the school defined its central goal Initiative. For example, some of the MAJ stu- as creating stronger links with other disciplines dents are required to take two courses outside across the campus. Thomas Kunkel, who was the journalism school alongside students seek- the journalism dean at the Initiative’s outset, ing degrees in that field. A student specializing said the school felt it was important to use the in science may have to take a course intended funding to build on the school’s strength as a for biochemistry graduate students. MAJ public-affairs-centered school of journalism students must also complete a thesis that is (the university’s College Park campus is near advised jointly by a journalism instructor and Washington, D.C.). a discipline-area instructor, such as a science As part of the Initiative, two courses were professor. added to the master’s program, now referred to Columbia has also devised an Initiative- as the Carnegie Seminar and the Carnegie Sem- related course: Evidence and Inference. The inar Practicum. The initial content is broadly course is intended to impart skills such as criti- conceived as drawing on distinguished profes- cal thinking that will serve a journalist well sors from other fields to educate students on throughout a career. Students are expected to topics they are not likely to encounter in their enhance their ability to obtain and understand typical coursework. Topics have included glob- complex information, and to understand cru- al threats, war and peace, politics and policy cial concepts like facts, truth and proof. They and urban affairs. Although they are taught by are being trained to distinguish what can be professors from outside the College of Journal- proven to be true from what one thinks may be ism, a journalism instructor participates in the true. In the second mandatory course within classes and assigns students a significant jour- the school, students study the historical and nalism project based on the material. ethical context in which contemporary jour- The outside instructors are drawn from nalism takes place. Although both courses are faculty in such fields as history, sociology and pedagogically sound, some Columbia students education. Each professor spends four weeks have mixed feelings about the course content, with the journalism students with the goal of preferring generally to study and discuss works broadening their understanding of the subject of journalism. issue. As described in the syllabus, the course Dean Lemann believes that his students’ aims “to broaden and deepen journalism stu- projects have already gained respect within the dents’ understanding of contemporary society greater university because they are jointly ad- by exposing them to instruction from lead-

8 ing experts in other fields at the University of and thus did not launch its initial effort—an Maryland.” According to Deborah Nelson, the Arts-in-Depth Program—until the spring se- director of the Carnegie seminars, the course mester of 2007. The goal of the program was is meant to demonstrate that there is usually to provide journalism students with a deep much more “underneath the iceberg” of topics engagement with the arts and an understand- and issues. The course should “blow apart the ing of their role in society, using their interest students’ preconceptions,” Professor Nelson in journalism as a motivator. The idea was to said. The course is not mandatory (for logisti- provide a coherent and holistic understanding cal reasons) but is strongly recommended and of the arts through rigorous interrelated cours- will be required for prospective News21 partici- es—an alternative to the disjointed, course-by- pants. (News21 is an inter-institution program course general education approach common in of the Carnegie-Knight initiative—see major universities. The experiment may lead to news21project.org.) others in the sciences or social sciences. The Maryland seminar differs from those The Arts-in-Depth Program is built on a at some other institutions in that it addresses new partnership with the College of Arts and several related topics, each for a four-week pe- Sciences, which has assigned several full-time riod, rather than a single topic. The Maryland faculty members and one adjunct to teach approach is also distinguished by a follow-up courses overseen by a journalism instructor. seminar. The Carnegie Seminar Practicum The program has been solidified by the arrival comes after the substantive seminar and is de- at Missouri of Professor Andrea Heiss, a former signed to encourage the students to think criti- journalist and Ph.D. in American Studies, who cally about the seminar’s subject matter and to now coordinates it. Students study the arts in attack it as journalists. The practicum is taught the classroom and are assigned to attend and by Professor Nelson, the program director and report on shows or performances. The courses a former investigative reporter. are taught by the faculty members in theater, According to Tom Kunkel, the Col- music and arts; the journalism faculty member lege has also built cross-campus relationships advises on and evaluates the journalism prod- through teaching journalism-related courses ucts. to non-journalism students. Among these are Esther Thorson and Brian Brooks, two courses on news literacy and on the press’s of the school’s administrators, said that the role in the civil-rights movement (the latter program is meeting at least two benchmarks is taught by legendary editor Gene Roberts). established by Carnegie: bringing journal- Carnegie-Knight funding helps the College ism education into a closer relationship with free top journalism professors to teach non- scholarly bodies of knowledge and enhancing journalism students, which contributes to the students’ critical-thinking capacity. Another goal of connecting the School to the rest of measure of the program’s success has been the the university. (News literacy courses taught enthusiastic response of students. According to non-journalism students could possibly, if to Thorson and Brooks, the courses have been extended throughout the American college sys- “oversubscribed,” increasing the likelihood that tem, increase public demand for higher-quality the program will become a permanent part of news.) the curriculum.

Missouri School of Journalism, Medill School of Journalism, North- University of Missouri. The Missouri western University. At the Medill School of School of Journalism joined the Carnegie- Journalism, Northwestern University, Carne- Knight Initiative as part of the second group gie-Knight funded classes have helped inspire

9 some of longer-term changes to the School’s need for a sequence of classes in national and new undergraduate and graduate curricula that homeland security and civil liberties, which will were introduced just as the first three years of be offered starting in 2009. curriculum enrichment were ending. Dean Lavine emphasized that the cur- The goal of one of the classes, Statistical riculum has to be responsive to the realities of Methods, was to teach undergraduate students the digital age which include fragmentation the relevance of statistics to reporting and of audiences and content, new channels of in- journalistic writing without watering down the teraction and intense audience competition. statistics content -- to cover the same basic sub- While journalists need to acquire depth of un- ject matter addressed in introductory statistics derstanding of topics, they also need to be able courses throughout the university but to have to communicate to their audiences in engaging students learn the subject matter in a journalis- and innovative ways, he said. Students must tic frame. learn about the audience they are trying to The course initially paired a mathematics reach, the media that it uses, and the storytell- department professor with a journalism faculty ing approaches that appeal to it. “If we don’t member. Medill Dean John Lavine said jour- understand our audience it doesn’t matter what nalism students struggled with the material, we [journalists] write or shoot,” he said. particularly in understanding the mathemati- cal underpinnings of statistics and using SPSS Annenberg School of Communica- and Excel, and then applying the knowledge to tion, University of Southern California. journalism. However, experience with the class Starting in the fall of 2008, the Annenberg illustrated the value of quantitative literacy in School at USC will offer a new Master of education and the need to empha- degree in “specialized journalism.” Students size it throughout the curriculum. Faculty sub- combine advanced journalism courses with sequently developed a numeracy “learning lad- graduate-level classes in the schools of Educa- der” that is distributed in modules and classes tion, Policy, Planning and Development, and across the undergraduate and graduate curri- Letters, Arts, and Sciences. The new degree cula. In the graduate program, for instance, all program is primarily designed for mid-career students are now required to take a new class, journalists, but recent graduates are also admit- Journalism by the Numbers, in their first quar- ted. ter of study. Former dean Geoffrey Cowan said that The second course examined the relation- the new program’s philosophy is “that qual- ship between the press and the Pentagon. It ity journalism today requires subject-matter was designed to help students understand the expertise, advanced reporting skills and knowl- unique roles of the two institutions, the ten- edge of how new communications technologies sions between them, and the impact on public are changing the ways that people learn, think knowledge and the public interest. The course and behave.” Those aims dovetail with the evolved to include issues arising from such mil- Carnegie-Knight Initiative, which has helped itary practices as press pools and “embedding,” fund participation by faculty from other pro- as well as how First Amendment freedoms grams at USC. may conflict with the military’s mission. It was The program consists of 34 units taken taught by journalism and political science pro- over the course of a year. Students take 18 units fessors. in the journalism program and 16 units out- Based on experience with this class and side. The M.A. program will provide individu- another, Covering Conflicts, which is offered alized courses in such fields as science, religion, at Medill Washington, the School recognized a immigration, education and urban ecology.

10 The students are free to choose courses from important, yet largely unfamiliar to journal- outside the Annenberg School, although these ists. The choices were also pragmatic; the then courses will not be structured to accommodate Newhouse dean, David Rubin, reached out to the particular needs of journalism students. As qualified faculty members who were interested in the Maryland case, each field of specializa- in developing the new programs. The two pro- tion is represented by a member of the journal- grams are intended primarily for undergradu- ism faculty, who brings journalism-related per- ates and are designed as minors. (The programs spectives and assignments into the instructional are also open to graduate students, but their mix. one-year curriculum does not easily accom- The program includes several new courses modate the additional requirements.) Because within the journalism department, including the participating professors teach the courses a seminar that is comprised of weekly sessions as part of their regular teaching load, the Initia- with prominent journalists, scholars, executives tive grant has been used primarily to pay for and political leaders; an intensive, three-week program-related special lectures and resource course titled Journalism and Society; and a development (technology). course titled Research Methods for Journalists. The two offerings have had mixed success, The Journalism and Society course includes according to Dean Rubin. In the first phase of evidence from communication research as it the Legal Reporting minor, the school cooper- relates, for example, to journalism ethics and ated with University College, the extension media economics. There are also newly de- school of Syracuse University. After taking a signed reporting courses in the different fields gateway course offered at Newhouse, students of specialization. At the end of the program, were expected to complete the minor through students conduct a journalism-centered mas- night-school classes. They would also have ex- ter’s project using their preferred medium or posure to legal segments taught to all majors in mediums. the intermediate and advanced news-reporting Professor Cowan likened the new USC classes and to public lectures on law and the program to a “Nieman fellowship with a de- media. While 20 students took the gateway gree.” Like Harvard’s Nieman program, it em- course, only two journalism students followed phasizes interdisciplinarity—that is, students up on the minor. are encouraged to take courses from a variety of The extension school arrangement was specialized fields. In creating the new courses, discontinued and replaced by cooperation with the Annenberg School was aware that reaching the university’s College of Law and the Maxwell out to other units in the university is a major School of Citizenship and Public Affairs within goal of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative. These the College of Arts and Sciences. The new new connections have enabled Annenberg to 500-level course, Law, Politics and the Media personalize the curriculum for the students and (the first cooperation between the law school give them some unique credentials in their spe- and Newhouse) enrolls students from three dis- cialty areas. ciplines—law, political science and journalism. The initial offering was disappointing. Only S.I. Newhouse School of Public two Newhouse students enrolled, and they were Communication, Syracuse University. greatly outnumbered by law school students Within the framework of the Initiative, the eager to learn about the media. Student interest S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communica- in legal reporting appears somewhat limited. tion has added two programs: Legal Reporting The school has not pursued a hands-on legal and Religion Reporting. These subjects were reporting class because it does not expect there considered by the faculty as being increasingly to be enough demand. Nevertheless, the New-

11 house School is developing a new Legal Studies by circumstance (faculty interest) as by design. minor in cooperation with the College of Arts Moreover, the decision initially to link the Le- and Sciences that will include a “journalism- gal Reporting program with the less-selective friendly track” starting in the fall of 2009. There extension school ran counter to an aim of the will also be a Legal Reporting Fellowship Pro- Initiative—to link the journalism school to gram, which pairs Newhouse students, as re- academically strong units of the university. It search assistants, with working journalists who should be noted, however, that the Newhouse are reporting on the law. It was launched in the School has long cooperated with other units fall of 2008. at Syracuse University (an example is the Gol- The School has employed a success- dring program in arts journalism, which is ful “module” approach since fall 2006 to give based on cooperation with architecture, drama, legal-reporting lectures to several hundred and arts and sciences). Newhouse journalism majors in every sec- tion of its existing upper-level news reporting School of Journalism, University classes (NEW 305 and 405). These lectures are of Texas at Austin. The Texas School of given by Professor Mark Obbie, the director of Journalism joined the Initiative as part of the the Carnegie Legal Reporting program (http:// second group. The program’s director, Lor- newhouse-web.syr.edu/legal/faculty.cfm). The raine Branham (who has since been appointed effort is intended to start a conversation—in dean at Syracuse), indicated that the school and out of the classroom—about the quality of wants to raise journalism’s visibility and status journalism focusing on the justice system, law- within the broader university. “We have faced yers and the law. an ongoing battle to get people to take us seri- Religion and the Media is the Initiative’s ously,” Professor Branham said. second offering. This minor is housed within The Initiative has led the school to devel- the Religion and Society Program in the Col- op and offer three elective courses for journal- lege of Arts and Sciences. The minor is open ism and liberal arts undergraduate majors and to any university student, but is specifically journalism graduate students. Each course has designed to meet the needs of journalism stu- a different aim. One course focuses on Latino dents. A total of 41 students enrolled in the culture in the , seeking to deepen program’s gateway course in the fall of 2007, of students’ understanding of the challenges fac- which 14 were Newhouse students. Of those 14, ing the Latino population. A second course 10 enrolled in the follow-up capstone course, focuses on new technology, attempting to pro- American Religions and the News Media. It vide future journalists with the ability to adapt had a total enrollment of 44 students, of whom to technological change. These two courses, 21 were from Newhouse. Professor Gustav Nie- said Professor Branham, were regarded as buhr, the program director, expects that 10 or “logical” because of Texas’s large Hispanic pop- so students will complete the minor. ulation and Austin’s high-tech economy. The The minor has resulted in the creation third course is titled Journalism, Society and of one new course and the updating of anoth- the Citizen Journalist. It teaches undergradu- er. The gateway course has been offered twice, ates about journalism’s place in a democratic including the fall 2008 semester; the capstone society. Professor Branham indicated that three has been offered once. Total enrollment in the additional courses are being considered. three courses has been 130 students. The grant funding has been used to bring Although both specializations can be faculty experts from outside the journalism justified, Dean Rubin acknowledges that the school to deliver guest lectures on subjects school’s choice of the two was driven as much tied to the courses. Course assignments are

12 completed in a journalistic style with a strong • Co-teaching: Are lecturers from other emphasis on writing; the work is evaluated by disciplines in the university partnered journalism faculty. with journalism faculty? Professor Branham said the course on • Required or elective: Are the new Latino culture, despite attracting expert lectur- offerings incorporated in the curriculum ers from the university’s Department of Latin as required courses or are they treated as American History, has fallen short of enroll- electives only? ment projections. In contrast, enrollment in • Undergraduate/graduate students: Are the Journalism, Society and the Citizen Jour- the Initiative courses offered to graduates, nalist course has exceeded expectations. The undergraduates, or both? course on new technology has also been popu- • Enrollment: How high is the enrollment lar. She is optimistic that the three courses will in the new course offerings? eventually win enough support to make them • Export of journalism courses: Has the sustainable when the Initiative ends. school created a course intended for the enrollment of students from outside journalism? A Comparative Look • Focus of grant: For what has the grant at the Program Initiatives money been used? • Sustainability: Have the offerings The foregoing school-by-school summa- been successful enough to warrant tions describe the various curriculum efforts. continuation after the expiration of the An overview of these efforts is provided in grant? Table 1, which is based on the programs’ re- • Effect on reputation: Have the curriculum sponses to a set of questions: amendments had the desired effect of raising the stature of journalism • New specialized courses/programs: What education within the university are the other disciplines or fields that have community? been brought into journalism curricula? • New general courses: Has the school As Table 1 indicates, the programs have developed new courses teaching general overlapping features. Although the curricu- analytical or research skills? lum innovations go beyond subject-intensive • Involvement of non-journalism faculty: coursework, most of the innovations are of this Does the school cooperate with faculty type. These offerings are distinguished by a true members from other disciplines in the interdisciplinarity—the reliance on outside university? faculty for substantive expertise and journalism • Course focus: Are the courses that faculty for translating and applying this knowl- are led by faculty members of other edge to journalism practice. Although differ- disciplines specifically designed for the ences in the schools’ institutional locations and journalism students, or must journalism operating conditions make exact comparisons students attend existing courses in other difficult, their efforts would appear to justify a disciplines? few conclusions about “best practices”: • Single lectures vs. coherent course: Is the Initiative funding used to invite 1. Teaching in Interdisciplinary single lecturers or to create a coherent, Teams. The initiatives aimed at deepening semester-long course? substantive knowledge seem to have worked best when undertaken within team-teaching

13 U.S. Latino Community and Technology Innovation Journalism, Society and the Citizen Journalist Likely External lecturers, travel N/A Good Undergraduate, Undergraduate, graduate No Yes No None • • • Yes (open) Yes Full lectures Some Texas Legal reporting Religion and media Likely Program Program developers No Low/high Undergraduate Yes, as minors Yes, Yes Yes None • • Some Both Some Syracuse Journalism and Society Research Methods for Journalists Science Religion Immigration Education Urban ecology Yes External lecturers N/A N/A Graduate Yes, new M.A. Yes, “specialized journalism” (2008) Yes • • Yes • • • • • Yes Full courses USC N/A Statistics/ quantitative methods Statistical Methods in Journalism Pentagon Press, and Public Likely External lecturers, travel No High Undergraduate, Undergraduate, graduate Electives Statistics: No more Yes Conflict: • Yes • • Yes Full courses Northwestern Some (significant curriculum changes underway) are Theater Music Art High Likely External lecturers, travel, events No High Undergraduate Yes Yes None No Arts-in-depth program • • • Yes Missouri Full courses Politics Nuclear Proliferation Immigration Terrorism Climate change Race, U.S. demographics Crime Particularly media- through literacy course Likely External lecturers Yes Low Graduate No Yes None Yes • • • • • • • Yes Maryland Four weeks in each fields of the three Table 1. Overview of the Curriculum Enrichment Efforts Evidence and Inference History/ Princeples of Journalism Arts and culture Arts and culture Business and Economics Science Politics Some At stake External lecturers No Good Graduate (“early journalists”) career Yes (new M.A. Yes degree) Yes • • Full courses Yes • • • • Some Columbia Politics Urban studies Economics Low At stake External lecturers, travel No Low Graduate No Yes (plus external Yes specialists) None Both (depending on subject) Yes International Reporting • • • • Berkeley Yes Effect on Reputation Sustainability Grant used for Export of journalism courses Attendance Undergraduate/ graduate students Incorporated in curriculum Non-journalism faculty involvement New general courses Single lectures/ coherent course Co-teaching other/ Journalism Specialized courses/ programs Special offer to students? journalism

14 models where faculty from other disciplines principle: the advantage of embedding practical partnered with journalism school faculty. In techniques training in courses that are designed addition to making the content relevant to also to teach other competencies. The stove journalism students, the journalism faculty piping of either techniques training or other members introduce assignments that require training denies students the opportunity to the use of journalism techniques. This co- recognize the connections between journalism ordination can occur in one semester where competencies and to learn that reporting can substantive learning and journalistic practice be strengthened when approached as a multi- run parallel (as in the Columbia case), or it can layered task. happen in consecutive semesters (the Mary- land model). Either way, the joint presence and 5. Developing Critical Thinking instruction by faculty from both fields seems Skills. Few skills, if any, are more important to desirable. the success of a journalist than critical analysis. The journalist is obliged to test claims and to 2. Offering a Coherent Curriculum. seek verification. Reporting assignments that Regular classes within a coherent curriculum, are disciplined by a substantive body of knowl- led by one or a few professors from fields out- edge help students to strengthen their critical side journalism, appear to be more effective thinking skills. Their knowledge of a subject than a series of loosely combined lectures by compels students to scrutinize the validity of invited scholars. Bodies of knowledge are suf- their claims and those of sources. ficiently complex to require systematic teaching structure, which is difficult to achieve without 6. Connecting the Journalism instructor continuity. School to Other Parts of the University. Although journalism programs in some in- 3. Integrating Knowledge and stances might want to entrust their own faculty Techniques. Projects that created the op- with the task of layering disciplinary substance portunity for students to engage other disci- into a subject-competence course, or might plines—for example, international studies, choose to hire faculty for that purpose, there anthropology, sociology, politics, foreign lan- are clear institutional and intellectual advan- guages, foreign cultures—along with journal- tages to assigning the task to faculty from other ism, as the Berkeley program has done with its parts of the university. Such arrangements con- Central American content, fulfill many of the nect the journalism school and its faculty and Initiative’s goals. These programs draw on the students to the intellectual resources of the uni- resources available in other departments of the versity, which serves purposes that range from university, but combine that with a journalistic raising the visibility of the journalism school exercise. Students acquire substantive knowl- within the university to deepening the resource edge as they work also to refine their practi- base for journalism education. cal techniques. In a sense, the subject-matter expertise, besides its inherent value, is an ex- tended applications exercise, in which students Thinking Ahead “learn how to learn” complicated material as well as mastering a particular subject. In gathering information from the partic- ipating schools, we were struck by their interest 4. Embedding Techniques Train- in strengthening journalism education. At the ing. A related lesson from the integration of same time and in most cases, the innovations knowledge and techniques is a more general to date are exploratory and relatively modest in

15 scope As the Initiative moves forward, there are Berkeley and Maryland courses in which stu- several lines of inquiry that could be explored dents are exposed during the academic term to by the participating institutions, as well as by several substantive areas rather than just one. other journalism programs. This model might be the better one for many and perhaps most journalism students, Subject Competence: Substance particularly at the undergraduate level. The low or Method? A basic issue is what students are enrollment in some of the Initiative courses expected to learn from a team-taught course could reflect students’ uncertainty about the with a journalism professor and a substantive desirability of concentrating on a particular expert. Is the goal that of making the student substantive area at any early point in their a “near expert” in the subject? If this is so, the training, especially if they believe such a choice effect might be fleeting. Exposure to a subject is a career-determining one. For students who area through a course or two is not likely to are not ready to adopt a specialty, general produce expertise of a deep or long-lasting coursework aimed at giving them the ability to nature. Fuller immersion in the subject area, apply substantive knowledge to reporting situa- along the lines of the Syracuse minor or the tions would seem advisable. Columbia MAJ, would seem necessary if that Given the value of substantive subject result is to be achieved. And if more is better, competence (as opposed to a qualitative meth- should journalism programs at the undergrad- odology skill that facilitates the use of a body of uate level require a double major of any student knowledge), we believe that journalism educa- who seeks to be certified as a subject-competent tion would be enhanced if nearly every journal- journalist? Many journalism programs already ism graduate acquired subject competence in urge their students to consider a second major their reporting area. This competency could (the combination of journalism and political be achieved by any of several paths: an integra- science is relatively common). The underlying tive dual major at the undergraduate level; an logic of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative would undergraduate journalism degree followed by suggest, however, that a dual major in itself graduate work in a substantive field; an under- would be insufficient. Dual majors should also graduate degree in a disciplinary field followed be required to take an interdisciplinary course by graduate work in journalism; graduate train- or courses—much like the new courses at the ing in both journalism and a substantive field participating institutions—that will enable (for example, completing both the MSJ and the them to more fully integrate their majors. MAJ at Columbia); or mid-career subject-area The curriculum implications are different, training for practicing journalists. however, if the major purpose of a team-taught Such training would educate journalism interdisciplinary course is to teach students students to be truth-seekers in the scientific how to deepen their reporting through use of sense. This emphasis would make explicit a body of knowledge. In this case, the instruc- what is implicit in the Carnegie-Knight Initia- tional benefit is the acquisition of a qualitative tive’s subject-centered courses—namely, that methodological skill—learning how to bring journalistic explanations need to be rooted in substantive knowledge to bear on a reporting evidence and tested against alternative explana- situation. If the purpose is to teach this skill, it tions. The University of North Carolina’s Philip might not matter whether the student takes a Meyer has long argued that journalists need to course in economics or foreign policy or reli- apply the logic of the scientific method to their gion. In each case, the student will have been work—for instance, applying the technique of instructed in the process of knowledge-tested replication so that other journalists can “get reporting. This pedagogy is represented by the the same answer.”13 As in the sciences, “true

16 objectivity,” Meyer says, “is based on method, Practical Techniques. Although the not result.”14 The latter is what Bill Kovach and practical techniques of journalism are not a Tom Rosenstiel had in mind when, in The Ele- focus of the initiative, they are an ever-present ments of Journalism, they argued for journalism consideration in any significant curriculum based on “verification” rather than “asser- reform. In most journalism programs, they tion.”15 (The Shorenstein Center, as part of the account for the lion’s share of course credits. Carnegie-Knight Initiative, is developing an in- Stanford’s program, with its emphasis on the- structional resource that can contribute to this ory and methods, is a rare exception. If other goal. The Shorenstein Center’s new website, competencies are to receive greater emphasis which will be operational in early 2009, will in journalism programs, some reduction may link reporting subjects with bodies of knowl- be required in practical techniques training, edge and provide instructional aids that will though the Carnegie-Knight Initiative provides assist journalism educators in the classroom a fruitful alternative—the participating institu- use of the material.) tions’ new courses are models of how, simul- taneously, to teach techniques and substance. The Other Competencies. Although The Carnegie Seminar at Maryland and the the curriculum efforts of the participating in- Arts track at Missouri are among the examples. stitutions have concentrated on subject compe- In any event, the logic of the Carnegie-Knight tence, the other competencies—general compe- Initiative would suggest that techniques train- tence, practical techniques, process competence ing, whenever possible, should occur within and professional ethics—deserve further men- the context of other journalism competencies. tion in this report. Some journalism schools already take this ap- General Competence. The issue of gen- proach, but we recommend that it become the eral competence extends beyond journalism norm. schools to the university as a whole. In an era Journalism programs should also evaluate of specialization, the issue is whether college the goal of their techniques training. If the goal graduates in large numbers will continue to get is simply to provide techniques training in the the broad education that is essential to enlight- latest technology, the training may ultimately ened citizenry. As specialized units within the fail because media technology is constantly university, journalism programs have a respon- changing. The instructional goal should the sibility to guide their students’ choices outside strengthening of students’ adaptive capacity— their major. We agree with the late Columbia coursework that will enable them to respond University professor James Carey, who said: effectively to changes in technique, platform “[T]he natural academic home of journalism and perspective. Medical school training is an is among the humanities and the humanistic instructive example. Although medical students social sciences. Journalism belongs with politi- are properly taught the latest techniques, their cal theory, which nurtures an understanding of training centers on the acquisition of knowl- democratic life and institutions; with literature, edge that will enable them to adjust to whatever from which it derives a heightened awareness changes occur in medical technology and prac- of language and expression and an understand- tice. ing of narrative form; with philosophy, from Heightened emphasis on critical thinking which it can clarify its own moral foundations; skills is also warranted. As Walter Lippmann with art, which enriches its capacity to imag- observed, the core skill of journalism is the ine the unity of the visual world; with history, ability to distinguish “truth” from “opinion,” which forms the underlying stratum of its con- in one’s own assertions as well as those of oth- sciousness.”16 ers.17 Yet, as a recent classroom experiment

17 revealed, many journalism students are unable newspaper editors indicates that most of them to critically assess news messages. They tend to are out of touch with their readers, know little treat what they see, hear and read in the news about their readership’s composition, and are as “reality,” rather than as a refracted version of uninformed about their readers’ motivations, reality that highlights those developments that including the reasons for their interest or lack are timely, dramatic and compelling. Some of of interest in particular types of news content.20 them even fail to make distinctions by source, Although process competence could be trusting equally “news from an obscure Web taught in the abstract, journalism programs are site, an entertainment magazine, of the New likely to find that student interest and learn- York Times.”18 ing are enhanced when the course is taught in Process Competence. Imaginative in- the context of practical journalism exercises structional approaches to process competence that require the student to take process into ac- could also combine training in that competen- count in creating news products. Such courses cy with training in practical techniques. Doing could be taught by teams of journalism faculty so would help bridge the long-standing rift in and mass communication faculty, much in the many programs between the journalism faculty manner of cross-department courses that are and the communication research faculty. For currently part of the Initiative. reasons too complex to explain here, there has Although the thrust of the Carnegie- often been a lack of communication (and even Knight Initiative to date has focused on getting appreciation) between the two camps, even journalism students to apply to their practice in the nation’s top programs. Such divisions the research knowledge of other disciplines, may be diminishing. Tom Kunkel, the former research on journalism has increased exponen- dean at Maryland, believes that the divide is tially in recent decades and now constitutes a not as deep as in the past, due to the continu- substantial body of knowledge. Journalism is ing maturation of communication research and distinctive in that it is aimed at a non-expert a new generation of practitioner faculty that audience, whereas most professions are en- has a larger understanding and appreciation of gaged in expert-to-expert communication. scholarly research and theory. Journalists thus bear a double burden. They In any case, communication research- need to possess expert knowledge but they ers are the source of most scientific knowledge also must be able to translate that knowledge about the news process, such as the non-jour- in a way that makes it accessible and useful to nalistic factors that can influence news deci- the audience. To do this, journalism students sions and the way in which audiences attend to should be aware, for example, of findings that and respond to news content. In most journal- relate to media uses and effects. ism programs, this knowledge is not a substan- Instruction in process competence is in tial part of the curriculum. We examined the principle available to all journalism programs course offerings at a random sample of twenty that include communication as a discipline. Of U.S. journalism programs and found that most the participating institutions, Northwestern ap- of them do not offer a single course that in- pears to be making the greatest effort to bring structs students on the factors that affect jour- process competence into its curriculum. The nalists’ decisions or audiences’ receptivity of new curriculum will include audience study, news content.19 This omission would be incon- reflecting Dean John Lavine’s belief that jour- sequential if journalism students and practitio- nalists’ understanding of their target audience ners routinely acquired this knowledge through is critical to successful news communication. other means. There is little evidence that they Medill’s implementation of what it calls its do. For example, a recent review of surveys of storefront reporting program incorporates the

18 essential topic of audience research, something arose as to whether there is any appreciable dif- that is often omitted from journalism curricula ference between undergraduate- and graduate- and relegated to communication research or level journalism training. At most institutions, media theory. As Dean Lavine told the authors, there is not much difference. In fact, graduate it is useless for a journalist to produce informa- training in some programs is less substantial tion if it is not done in a way that the intended than the undergraduate training as a result of audience can understand and receive it. time constraints—most journalism master’s Professional Ethics. Professional ethics programs are but a year in length. And because is now as much a part of the training at leading the large majority of journalism graduate stu- journalism schools as it is at the top medical, dents had some other major as an undergradu- law and business schools. Few faculty members ate, the emphasis is largely on practical tech- at any of these schools would conclude, how- niques. In other disciplines, graduate education ever, that ethics training has reached maturity, is designed to take the student to a level of which is not surprising in that it is a relatively training beyond that provided by the under- recent addition to curricula. There is consider- graduate program. With the exception of a few able work yet to be done in making determina- programs, that’s not the case for journalism. tions about the efficacy and best practices of As the importance of journalism grows ethics instruction. There is also a collective eth- and its task of explaining the world to the pub- ical issue that stems from journalism’s dual na- lic becomes more complex and demanding, ture as both a private pursuit and a public duty. we believe that journalism educators should What obligations do journalism schools have reevaluate their graduate-level journalism pro- in speaking out against news organizations and grams. Such an evaluation might lead to the practices that clearly undermine the journal- conclusion that the status quo is the preferred ism profession? Journalism schools are not as option. At a minimum, it provides university- accustomed as are medical and law schools to based training to students who, for whatever setting their profession’s standards or acting as the reason, decide to enter the journalism field its guardian. But if they do not assertively do after completing their undergraduate work in so, can they reasonably expect their students to another area. For those students who acquired internalize their ethics training? a journalism-relevant expertise as a result of their undergraduate major and seek to pursue a specialized journalism career in that area, A Final Issue: The Status graduate training in journalism skills will posi- of Graduate-Level Programs tion them for just such a career. This approach would mean, however, that The Carnegie-Knight Initiative began graduate-level journalism training would con- with the participation of four journalism tinue to be nearly indistinguishable from un- schools that are noted for their graduate-level dergraduate journalism training. Alternatively, training. In fact, two of the founding schools— a graduate degree in journalism could be envi- Columbia and Berkeley—offer journalism edu- sioned as an advanced degree with its holders cation only at the graduate level. In contrast, positioned to be leaders in their field, a chal- several of the schools that subsequently joined lenge consistent with the claim that journalism the Initiative are known primarily for their is the new knowledge profession. undergraduate programs, though they, like all Given the wide variation in graduate of the participating schools, also offer graduate- journalism programs—they differ in their lo- level training. cation within the university structure, in their As the Initiative progressed, the question facilities and resources, in their importance

19 relative to the undergraduate journalism pro- substantial transformation to occur. gram, and in the strength of the other academ- This report is not the place for a full-scale ic units within the university from which they proposal of what the elements of enhanced can draw intellectual resources—it is unlikely graduate-level journalism education might that all such programs could respond effective- be, though it would certainly be rooted in the ly to the challenge, or would have an interest core competencies of journalism, be guided by in doing so, at least in the near term. But some the innovative efforts of the Carnegie-Knight graduate journalism programs are positioned participants, and be informed by the graduate- to take up the challenge, which is as much a training models of other professional disci- conceptual one as an implementation one. plines, such as business, architecture, library Most of the stronger graduate-level profes- science and public health. In thinking about the sional schools have tended more often to rea- potential of advanced graduate-level journalism son forward from the research university into education, Columbia dean Nicholas Lemann the profession than to reason backward from evoked the success of graduate schools of busi- the profession into the university. That has not ness. The MBA, he said “is required nowhere been the model for graduate-level journalism but has a highly meaningful credential value education, but likely would be required for a everywhere.”21

About the authors

Wolfgang Donsbach is professor of communication and founding director of the Department of Communication at Dresden University of Technology, . He has been a visiting professor at Syracuse University, Harvard University, University of Navarra in , and has taught at the universi- ties of Dortmund, Mainz and Berlin in Germany. He was president of the World Association for Public Opinion Research (1995–1996) as well as president of the International Communication Association (2004–2005). Donsbach was managing editor of the International Journal of Public Opinion Research between 1999 and 2007 and is the general editor of the 12-volume International Encyclopedia of Com- munication. In 2007 he received WAPOR’s Helen Dinerman Award for extraordinary achievements in public opinion research and in 2008 the David Swanson Award in Political Communication sponsored by ICA’s Political Communication Division. His main research interests are in journalism, political communication, public opinion, and exposure to communication. He has served on journalism school accrediting and evaluation teams in the United States and other countries.

Tom Fiedler was appointed Dean of Boston University’s College of Communication in the summer of 2008. In the preceding year, he was a Goldsmith Fellow at Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy and served as the Visiting Murrow Lecturer of the Practice of Press and Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In 2007 he retired after a 35-year career at the Miami Herald. His coverage for the Herald of the 1988 presidential campaign received the Society of Professional Journalists’ top award. In 1991 Fiedler was part of a team of Herald reporters who received the for their series on an extremist cult. During his time at the Herald Fiedler worked as an investigative reporter, political , editorial-page editor and, ultimately, as the newspaper’s executive editor.

20 Endnotes

1 The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press (2006): Maturing Internet News Audience—Broader Than Deep. Washington, D.C. 2 Carnegie Corporation (2005): Improving the Education of Tomorrow’s Journalists. New York, p. 4. 3 Downie Jr., Leonard and Kaiser, Robert G. (2002): The News About the News: American Journalism in Peril. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 4 The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press (2008): The Web: Alarming, Appealing and a Challenge to Journalistic Values. Financial Woes Now Overshadow All Other Concerns for Journalists. http://people-press.org/reports/ pdf/403.pdf (accessed March 20, 2008). 5 Joan Shorenstein Center for the Press, Politics and Public Policy (2007): Creative Destruction: An Exploratory Look at News on the Internet. 6 Hjarvard, Stig. (2008). The Mediatization of Religion: A Theory of the Media as Agents of Religious Change. In Northern Lights 2008. Yearbook of Film & Media Studies. Bristol: Intellect Press. p. 7. 7 Gregorian, Vartan. Introduction. In: Gorney, Cynthia (ed.): The Business of News: A Challenge for Journalism’s Next Generation. A Report of Carnegie Corporation of New York. pp. v-xi. 8 Weaver, David H.; Beam, Randal A.; Brownlee, Bonnie J.; Voakes, Paul S.; and Wilhoit, G. Cleveland (2007): The American Journalist in the 21st Century: U.S. News People at the Dawn of a New Millennium. London and Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, p. 44. 9 Carnegie Corporation of New York (2006): Journalism’s Crisis of Confidence: A Challenge for the Next Generation. http://www.carnegie.org/pdf/journalism_crisis/journ_crisis_full.pdf (accessed March 20, 2008), p. vi. 10 http://www.journalism.org/resources/principles. 11 Gregorian, Vartan, op. cit., p. ix. 12 Christians, Clifford G. (2008). in Education. Journalism & Mass Communication Monographs, Vol. 9, No. 4, p. 211. 13 Meyer, Philip (2004a): Journalism Must Evolve—and Quickly. USA Today, Sept. 23. See also Meyer, Philip (2004b): The Next Journalism’s Objective Reporting. In: Nieman Reports, Winter, p. 54. 14 Meyer, Philip (2004b): The Next Journalism’s Objective Reporting. In: Nieman Reports, Winter, p. 54. 15 Kovach, Bill; Rosenstiel, Tom (2001): The Elements of Journalism. What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect. New York: Crown Publishers, p. 78. 16 Cited in Gregorian, op. cit., p. ix. 17 Lippmann, Walter (1922): Public Opinion. New York: Free Press. Ch. 24. 18 Schneider, Howard (2007): It’s the Audience, Stupid! Nieman Reports, Vol. 61, No. 3, pp. e9-e13. 19 The lack of such courses is a reason that most journalism programs are not accredited. Although it is unusual, say, for a law school to be unaccredited, the opposite is true of journalism schools—only about one in four is accredited. The Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications’ accreditation criteria include standards relating to coursework in theory, scientific methods and critical thinking. 20 Bernt, Joseph P.; Fee, Frank E.; Gifford, Jacqueline; and Stempel III, Guido H. (2000): How Well Can Editors Predict Reader Interest in News?” Newspaper Research Journal, 21, No. 2, pp. 2-10. 21 Carnegie Corporation of New York (2006), op. cit., p. 19.

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