When Columbia University president Lee C. Bollinger suspended the search for a new dean for the university’s prestigious school of journalism, requesting that the university first step back and evaluate the way journalism should be taught at a major liberal arts university, he lit a powder keg in the profession. His request mirrors an issue currently being discussed in the personnel departments of the nation’s top media organizations. What makes a good journalist?
The SMU Division of Journalism believes that reporters with the skills to recognize a story, interview sources and write well will be prepared to succeed in the field. Those that are capable of transitioning easily between broadcast, print and Internet media will have a competitive edge. But today’s journalism majors are largely not happy with the way the division is headed. Complaints about repetitive classes and faulty equipment are thrown around the halls of Umphrey Lee faster than bad copy.
The chance to use newsroom equipment can only go so far without proper training, especially when journalism students are combined with film majors in the class that teaches them how to use it. With the new equipment in the Belo funded digital newsroom, some of this might change, but equipment can only go so far without a solid curriculum to back it up.
Before broadcast journalists even pick up a camera, they should be taught the basics of writing a news script. Students who move on from basic reporting and writing classes should have those skills mastered before beginning other advanced courses.
The division’s leaders must rethink what can be taught in the workplace and what should be taught in the classroom. Classes at SMU are primarily oriented around writing different styles of stories – from news to features to editorials. But many of these classes are redundant and superfluous.
If SMU’s program wanted to be truly progressive, they would transition the coursework to include classes from all disciplines. If students were required to take classes in a wide variety of liberal arts disciplines or choose a minor and focus on a specialty area such as political science, the economy or the arts, they would be able to provide context to their stories that would make them more intelligent and provocative.
After all, the skills of a good writer are wasted if he has nothing to write about.
