Skills, Concepts, and J-Schools Delicate Balance

Jamie Cole

JN 562 Contemporary Issues Wm. David Sloan April 19, 2010

It was the shot heard round the journalism world. And it was a college president who fired it. In 2002, Lee C. Bollinger, then the new president of Columbia University, suspended the search for a new dean of its Graduate School of Journalismrejecting finalists already up for the joband formed a task force to revamp the entire program.1 Bollingers shot rang loudly in the halls of the venerable school, which for decades emphasized teaching the craft of journalismthe skills needed to succeed in the practice.2 Bollinger, in a statement on the Universitys web site, cited Joseph Pulitzers contributions to Columbia at the turn of the 20th century that helped establish its journalism program. At the turn of the 21st century, he said, the media were even more critical to society than in Pulitzers time. And so it seems timely to review where we are and consider afresh how journalism education in a great university can contribute to the process by which the media adapt to a new world.3 Pulitzers name wasnt invoked lightly. Joseph Pulitzer isnt just the patron saint of Columbias school of journalism; he also represents a school of thought on how journalism should be taught based on its role in society. While he believed journalism education should prepare its graduates for the workplace, that wasnt his ultimate goal. The chief endwas the welfare of the Republic. It will be the object of the college to

Jaschick, Scott. Columbia Rethinks Journalism Education Inside Higher Ed, accessed online 15 February 2010 at http://www.insidehighered.com/layout/set/print/news/2005/ 03/28/journalism. 2 Babcock, William A. The j-school debate. Christian Science Monitor, 1 August 2002, 9. 3 Bollinger, Lee. President Bollinger's Statement on the Future of Journalism Education. Columbia News, accessed online 15 February 2010 at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/03/04/lcb_j_task_force.html.

3 make better journalists, who will make better newspapers, which will better serve the public.4 Bollinger reflected that philosophy in calling for change at Columbia. To teach the craft of journalism is a worthy goal, he said in a memo to his colleagues, but clearly insufficient in this new world and within the setting of a great university.5 Bollingers bullet revived a debate as old as journalism education itself: Should journalism education be skills-basedwriting, reporting, editing, the basicsor conceptbasedemphasizing academic coursework and theory? At one end of the spectrum are schools such as Columbia and Missouri, whose skills-based professional masters programs have strong reputations among practicing journalists. Examples at the other end are Stanford and Wisconsin, known for producing PhDs in communication.6 Bollinger also reframed the skills vs. theory debate for the new century. Reorienting the mission of Columbias j-school would mean theory and practice were no longer mutually exclusive, but carefully balanced: practical training alongside academically rigorous education.7 Not every school strives for that balance. The direction a school tilts between skills and theory is crucial, to everyone from the students to the educators to those in the media industry looking for new hires. In his article On The Beat or In The Classroom (2007), Stephen Cushion said transparency begins with the academy. Students need to

4 5

Sloan, Wm. David. Makers of the Media Mind. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990, 8 Adam, G. Stuart, Jannette L. Dates, Theodore L. Glasser, and Mitchell Stephens. Does Journalism Education Matter? Journalism Studies 7 (2006): 144. 6 Babcock, The j-school debate, 9. 7 Kelley, Barbara. Teaching Journalism. Communication Research Trends 26 (2007): 4.

4 know if they are paying for an industry-preferred qualification or an academic degree, he says, clearly delineating between skills and theory.8 The impact of a schools tilt is felt in the field, as well; survey after survey over the years finds employers complaining about the quality of writing from new j-school graduates, reflecting on a failure to master the skill set crucial to the job of journalism. Often a tilt towards theory sends news organizations reeling. Mitchell Stephens, in his piece A J-School Manifesto (2000), recalls a letter the former Columbia dean Tom Goldstein once received from someone at a major news organization. Goldstein had announced his goal was to produce thoughtful journalists, and the letter from the news professional said, The last thing we need is thoughtful journalists.9 Yet as new technologies emerge and the field continues to change, that may be exactly what nontraditional news organizations want. A 2009 study of job postings for online news media showed these outlets are looking for a broad body of knowledge, adaptive expertise, rather than the technical skills favored more by traditional news outlets.10 So even considering the technique needed to confront multimedia convergence in the industry, the skills/concept debate lingers. Which teaching strategy works best for the student and journalism at large?

8 9

Cushion, Stephen. On The Beat or In The Classroom? Journalism Practice 1 (2007): 431 Stephens, Mitchell. A J-School Manifesto. Columbia Journalism Review, September/October 2000, 65. 10 Carpenter, Serena. Nontraditional Online News Media Seek Employees with Adaptive Expertise. Hot Topics, AEJMC web site, accessed online 31 January 2010 at http://aejmc.org/topics/2010/01/nontraditional-online-news-media-seek-employees-with-adaptiveexpertise/.

5 Origins of the Issue Trying to define journalism education is as difficult as finding a working definition of journalism itself. Is journalism a profession, on a level with law and medicine, or a craft, a set of skills analogous to those of a plumber or a carpenter? Is it both? Scholarly opinion mostly adheres to a strict definition of profession, as W.E. Porter offered in The International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences (1968): By the conventional definition of the word profession, the occupation of journalist is not a profession at all, he said.11 Porter points out that though its practitioners are trained in the university, the training is not required for entry into the field as it is for medicine or law, nor is there formal licensure as there is in those professions.12 Those who see journalism as a profession argue its merits on prestige. Walter Williams, founding dean of University of Missouris j-school, calls journalism a profession in his well-known Journalists Creed. Some at the school still refer to it as a professional school of journalism. John C. Merrill, a 26-year professor at the school and author of Viva Journalism! The Triumph of Print in the Media Revolution, called the descriptive term professional meaningless. Referring to journalism as a profession is a public relations ploy to ascribe a certain qualitative statusI have never heard of a professional school of law or medicine, he said in Viva Journalism!13 A distinction, however, between profession and craft is anything but meaningless regarding how journalism is taught in the academy. Controversies related to the problem of professionalization of journalism area valuable starting point, wrote Slavko
11

Porter, W.E. The International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 1968, 268, cited in Splichal, Slavko and Colin Sparks. Journalists for the 21st Century. New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1994, 34 12 Ibid. 13 Merrill, John C. and Ralph L. Lowenstein. Viva Journalism! The Triumph of Print in the Media Revolution. Indiana: AuthorHouse, 2010, 144

6 Splichal and Colin Sparks in their study Journalists for the 21st Century (1994). (T)hey are clearly related to the questions of journalism education and training.14 Those controversies regarding the purpose of journalism training in the academy date back to its earliest establishments. From the start, education administrators have struggled to define journalism education, and practitioners in the field from then to now have offered mixed reviews of it as well. The earliest college-level training was primarily skills-based, focused on the technique of printing. Robert E. Lee, who became president of Washington University (now Washington and Lee), first proposed scholarships for men who wanted a career in printing or journalism.15 Journalist Whitelaw Reid of the New York Tribune offered his approval of journalism education in an 1872 lecture at New York University, but with a theory-based slant. His model curriculum included history, philosophy, economics and politics in addition to professional skills.16 Though Reids suggestions didnt take hold at NYU, Cornell Universitys president proposed something similar three years later, combining liberal arts education with training in the schools print shop. The program, however, was dropped after two years.17 The University of Missouri has the distinction of having the first officially established journalism school, and gets credit for what evolved into the modern skillsbased pedagogy. The purpose of the school, said Walter Williams, was to train journalists for practice. Williams, an experienced newspaperman who was named dean when the

14 15

Splichal, Sparks, Journalists, 4 Sloan, Makers, 3 16 Ibid., 6 17 Ibid., 7

7 school was established in 1908, had only a high school education. He later became president of the University.18 Joseph Pulitzer helped invent Columbias journalism school beginning in the 1890s, more than a century before Bollinger proposed to reinvent it based on Pulitzers original vision. Pulitzers idea to elevate journalism to an academic pursuit rather than a trade didnt quite fit his reputation as a newsman; perhaps his high concept of journalism education was meant to make up for the part he played in yellow journalism.19 He tried twice to donate money to start the school, though his vision didnt begin to see fruition until after his death in 1912, when construction started on the building that would house the journalism school.20 That same year, the University of Wisconsin created a department of journalism with even loftier goals than those of Pulitzer. William Bleyer, the founding dean, said no other profession has a more vital relation to the welfare of society or to the success of democratic government than journalism.21 Bleyer deemphasized skills and instead wanted students to understand journalisms role in a democratic society. He wanted his graduates to do more than get jobs; he wanted them to be scholars.22 Today, undergraduate journalism education remains essentially a nuts and bolts training course; schools follow the Missouri model, rather than the Pulitzer/Bleyer approach. The biggest changes have come at the graduate level, where theoretical research has helped establish such concepts as gatekeeping and agenda-setting.23

18 19

Ibid., 9 Ibid., 7 20 Ibid., 8 21 MacDonald, Isabel. Teaching Journalists To Save The Profession. Journalism Studies 7 (2006): 747 22 Sloan, Makers, 10 23 Ibid., 16

8 Accredited schools must work to achieve a balance between core journalism courses, many of them skills-based, and a wider liberal arts education.24 And while the skills and theory debate has evolved over the last decade into an issue of balancethe question isnt really either/orthere is still this consideration: How much of each?

Teach More Skills Media employersand employers in generaltend to favor candidates with skill sets specific to the job.25 No surprise there. Producing a marketable graduateone ready for the workplace, trained in the latest technology, and possessing skills learned only through experienceis the bedrock goal of the skills-based journalism school, and the embodiment of the Missouri model.

Basic Skills For Workplace Readiness In spite of the widespread adaptation of the skills-based Missouri model, practitioners have long complained that j-school graduates arent prepared for the workplace. Pointed surveys of punchy print editors and broadcast news directors decrying the perceived lack of basic journalism skillsled many educators to tip the scales to teaching skills. Workplace readiness remains one of the loudest arguments for the Missouri model.

24

ACEJMC Accrediting Standards. Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, accessed online 18 March 2010 at http://www2.ku.edu/~acejmc/PROGRAM/STANDARDS.SHTML 25 Lowrey, Becker, The impact of technological skill.., 766.

9 In 1979 and 1980, after more than 75 years of the prevalence of the skills model, two separate surveys of print editors still described journalism graduates as poorly preparedeven unhireable.26 The 1979 survey of magazine editors by Edwin O. Haroldson and Kenneth E. Harvey of Brigham Young University found some magazine editors hiring English graduates rather than j-school graduates.27 The editor of Good Housekeeping, one of the countrys top-circulating magazines, said in the survey that he wouldnt hire a j-school graduate unless he or she were the offspring of my company president.28 The main complaints about j-school grads in the study were poor grammar and spelling, along with a lack of self-editing prowess. The biggest single problem in magazine hiring today is finding young people who can spell, punctuate, clarify, proofread and rewrite," said John Fay, editorial director of the magazines Outdoor Life, Ski, and Golf. 29 The recommendations from newspaper editors in the 1980 study by Gordon Mills, Leland B. Warnick, and Harvey of BYU again revolved around basic journalism skills, and likely were in response to the emergence of theory-rich mass communication programs in the 1970s. The newspaper editors called on j-schools to increase the credit hours required in the program, and to attack the grammar problem, which topped the list of editor complaints (graduates cant spell worth a damn and cant or wont open a dictionary, said one newspaper editor in Kentucky).30 Editors were also asked in the survey to rate four curriculum designs:

26

Mills, Gordon, Kenneth Harvey, and Leland B. Warnick. Newspaper editors point to J-grad deficiencies. Journalism Educator 35 (1980): 12 27 Haroldsen, Edwin O., and Kenneth E. Harvey. Frowns greet new J-grads in magazine job market. Journalism Educator, 34 (1979), 3. 28 Ibid. 29 Ibid. 30 Mills, Harvey, and Warnick. Newspaper editors ..., 12

10 1. Two years of newspaper training, followed by a one-year apprenticeship; 2. A full university program, but with less general education and more journalism training; 3. Two years of newspaper training at a trade school; 4. The typical university journalism program, emphasizing liberal arts and limiting journalism credits to 25% of coursework. Not surprisingly, option 4 rated last, and some editors even admitted they were ready to try the trade school route.31 The intervening years havent changed opinion much on workplace readiness. In 1990, the American Society of Newspaper Journalists published a report that again emphasized basic skills.32 And although the late 1990s and early years of the 21st century saw the emergence of new media technology, print editors still ranked basic skills above new media knowledge in a 2007 survey by Tamyra Pierce and Tommy Miller of California State University. The advent of the Internet changed the face of journalism and forced journalism educators to re-evaluate what they are teaching their students, said Pierce and Miller, but convergence didnt change the tenor of the skills argument very much at all. Although computer skills rose in importance compared to the 1990 ASNJ report, the basic skills of writing, spelling and grammaralong with critical thinking all rated higher in the survey.33

31 32

Ibid., 13 Shot Across The Masthead, A. The Bulletin of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, September 1990, cited in Pierce, Tamyra, and Tommy Miller. Basic Journalism Skills Remain Important in Hiring. Newspaper Research Journal 28 (2007): 51. 33 Pierce, Tamyra, and Tommy Miller. Basic Journalism Skills Remain Important in Hiring. Newspaper Research Journal 28 (2007): 59.

11 While a trade school model for journalism never caught on in the United States, there has been traction globally. British journalism educator Stephen Cushion notes in his 2007 article On The Beat or In the Classroom that two-year vocational programs in broadcast journalism at the British Columbia Institute of Technology often come with a promise of employment, while the United Kingdom and Austria opt for apprentice-style training with little or no academic input.34 Canterbury Christ Church University in the U.K. added a three-year, skills-based vocational journalism program to the catalogue in 2008. Our BA in multimedia journalism gives students the chance to build a broader skill set, says David Bradshaw, head of the schools media department. The programs director, former BBC radio journalist Kate Kavanagh, says the professional skills will be taught by practicing journalists, as well.35 While practitioners say the basic skills remain important for workplace readiness, they may not be enough in a competitive marketplace. Robert Niles, a web editor and winner of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalisms Online Journalism Award, says the Internet has changed everyday communication forever. Before, almost no one in everyday life wrote much outside the classroom. Now, everyones a writer, employing those basic journalism skills with regularity. Whats the value of doing journalism when everyones a journalist? he says. A new set of skills needs to emerge beyond the basics in journalism training, namely analytical skillsto make sense of datasets and find the stories buried within them, he says.36

34 35

Cushion, On The Beat, 422, 427 Richardson, Sarah. Vocation, vocation, vocation. The Evening Standard, 26 August 2008, 51. 36 Niles, Robert. Writing skill is no longer enough to sustain journalists. OJR: The Online Journalism Review, accessed online 20 February 2010 at http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/robert/201002/1820/.

12 Analytical training, combined with basic skills, even give journalism students an edge in workplace readiness beyond traditional media. The most exciting career path of all will be the one taken by aspiring journalists who don't land a job at an established media outlet, says Kelly Toughill in an editorial for the Toronto Star. Toughill, a former Star journalist, is an associate professor in the School of Journalism at the University of King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They are the ones who are going to figure out the business model and make it happen, she says.37

The Emergence of Convergence In light of demand from students and the marketplace for new media proficiency, Columbias skills-and-theory crisis gets even more granular. Just deciding how much of which skills to teach is enough of a dilemma. Columbia is of course not alone in this boat; j-schools in general are in uncharted and constantly churning waters when it comes to communication technology. Columbia journalism school dean Nicholas Lemann has in still wrestling with this question, six years after his hiring in 2003. Theres this big, huge, fundamental issue: How much of the skills do you teach? You can go to the Learning Annex and take a Flash course, he told New York magazine in March of 2009. I dont think what we should do is be replicating courses you can take at the Learning Annex. Ari Goldman, a former New York Times reporter and coordinator of the venerable RW1 program (the schools shorthand for its famed Reporting and Writing 1

37

Toughill, Kelly. Why keep studying journalism? The Toronto Star, 21 March 2009, A22.

13 course and the ne plus ultra of skills-based pedagogy), was even more blunt, calling new media education playing with toys.38 Still, the impact of the convergent newsroom on journalism education cant be overstated, nor can the constant need for revision in order to teach these ever-evolving skills. Mitchell Stephensin an essay for the 2006 Journalism Studies compilation Does Journalism Education Matter?said new media skills cant be taught as finished, established forms.39 Certainly, it is absurd to pretend we already knowat this very early stage in its historyhow a blog should be written, how a video story for the web should be constructed, he says. Ready or not, the demand for graduates with new media skill sets is tangible and on the uptick. In December 2008, media employment hit a new 15-year lowaffected mostly by the slumping newspaper industrybut Internet media companies showed a 13.4% jump in jobs that year.40 A 2008 survey of online journalists by Shahira Fahmy, a journalism professor at Southern Illinois University, helps explain the jump in jobs. More than 8 in 10 of the respondents said circulation was steady or declining for their print component, but 9 in 10 said Web traffic was still on the rise. That can lead to financial gain, as well4 in 5 said their Web sites were profitable.41 The Fahmy survey also asked online journalists to predict what skill sets would continue to emerge in importance over the next five years. Overwhelminglyand
38

Orden, Erica. Columbia J-Schools Existential Crisis. New York Magazine, accessed online 15 February 2010 at http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/03/columbia_j-schools_existential.html. 39 Adam, et.al., Does Journalism Education Matter? 152. 40 Johnson, Bradley. Ad industry cut another 18,700 jobs in December; only online media and search companies added staff at the end of 2008. Advertising Age, 12 January 2009: 18. 41 Fahmy, Shahira. How Online Journalists Rank Importance of News Skills. Newspaper Research Journal 29 (2008): 29.

14 predictablyseven digital skills that reflect convergence journalism jobs ranked highly in importance: shooting photos and video, multimedia delivery, multimedia editing and production, capturing audio, animation and Flash and podcasting.42 As one respondent noted: As news and information companies, we need to focus on delivering content in multiple formats and get away from the notion that we deal with a single deadline and the most important thing is what hits the driveway every morning.43 Wilson Lowrey and Lee B. Becker studied the impact of new media skills on jobfinding success in 2001. Skill with presentation technologydefined by Lowrey and Becker as pagination, non-linear editing, photo-imaging, web design and illustration softwarewas a significant predictor of job-finding success for journalism and mass communication graduates, even when controlling for more traditional predictors such as grades, class sequence, internships and campus media activities. Not surprisingly, these skills were the strongest predictor of job-finding success for graduates seeking new media jobs. 44 Convergence doesnt just mean a coalescence of media; it also means a coalescence of jobs and responsibilities, especially in media organizations.45 Journalists have to wear many hats nowadays, said one editor who responded to the Pierce and Miller survey. Copy editors are juggling design and Web duties. Reporters often have to juggle blog-writing and Web story updates in addition to their typical plate of news reporting. Journalism students need to learn to multi-task.46

42 43

Fahmy, How Online Journalists, 31. Ibid., 34. 44 Lowrey, Wilson, and Lee B. Becker. The impact of technological skill on job-finding success in the mass communication labor market. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 78 (2001): 766. 45 Ibid., 755. 46 Pierce, Miller, Basic Journalism Skills, 60.

15 Make Time For Experience Perhaps no group of students has a better opportunity to learn by doing than journalism students. The entire skill set can be put to work on any number of projects on almost any major university campusat the student newspaper, the campus radio station, the departmental web site, etc. Success in the classroom aloneas Lowrey and Becker indicatedisnt a solid predictor of success in the marketplace. The skills learned through experience are solid predictors of success.47 Some say the classroom itself should become the focal point for experience-based skill-building. New York University journalism professor Mitchell Stephens, in his 2000 article A J-School Manifesto, advocated experience through experimentation: We know that we have to open up our introductory courses to serious alternative approaches. Students should learn skills by experimenting with a variety of storytelling techniques in the classroom, be it written word, audio, video or digitaldepending on what best tells the story.48 Ten years later, Stephens vision is gaining traction. Journalism and communication schools across the country are adopting immersion learning into the classroom, advocating an even stronger vocational bent when compared to basic skills and an introduction to new media techniques.49 Students at Northwesterns Medill School of Journalism can choose cross-platform, experiential courses such as Multimedia Storytelling. At University of North Carolina, the immersion experience is called Communication, Business and Entrepreneurship. At the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism on Arizona State Universitys Pheonix campus, classroom time is spent on real-world projects for real-world consumption. An entrepreneurship course in the j-

47 48

Lowrey, Becker, The impact of technological skill.., 756. Stephens, A J-School Manifesto, 64. 49 Stelter, Brian. Digital Defeats Newsroom? The New York Times, 19 April 2009, ED20.

16 school teaches students to invent their own jobs, says Dan Gillmor, the instructor and a former San Jose Mercury News columnist. The classroom project in the fall of 2008 was a web site for local film producers.50 While traditional syllabi train students in established story forms, students must demand time and access to explore emerging forms, in social media and whatever else they might dream up, said Web guru Robert Niles in his 2009 article Eight Things That Journalism Students Should Demand From Their Journalism Schools. Niles called the journalism classroom a place to hack, where students develop skills only experience can bring.51 The classroom has become the newsroom, certainlybut its beyond that. The school is a microcosm of the media industry, graduating students prepared for the communication business, or ready to go into business for themselves.52

Teach More Concepts Jim Carey had seen enough. After decades as a journalism educator, he famously and controversially decried what he called the professionalization of journalism education in a bold address as president of the Association for Education in Journalism at the organizations 1977 gathering. Many in the audience, he knew, agreed with him, but the media industrys demand for skill training in j-school graduates was strong and influential.53

50 51

Ibid. Niles, Robert. Eight Things That Journalism Students Should Demand From Their Journalism Schools. OJR: The Online Journalism Review, accessed online 21 September 2009 at http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/robert/200909/1780/. 52 Stelter, Digital Defeats Newsroom? ED20. 53 Adam, G. Stuart. Jim Carey and the Problem of Journalism Education. Cultural Studies 23 (2009): 159.

17 He confronted his fellow educators with examining the inherent tension between the university tradition and the practice of journalism, a tension that often puts us between a rock and a hard place.54 Carey was taking up the mantle of William Bleyer, calling for an education beyond job preparation. Though the idea still meets resistance from the industry, a concepts-based approach to journalism educationemphasizing strong ties to the liberal arts and examining journalisms role in culture and societyhas its believers. Some of them even say its the only way journalism education can stay relevant.

Liberal Arts and the University Tradition Understanding Careys appeal to adhere to the university tradition requires an understanding of journalism educations perceived place in the academy, particularly as viewed by other scholars. Journalism has long been the poor cousin on campus. In scholarship, journalistic is a dirty word, said Peter Parisi, a professor of humanities and communication at Penn State-Harrisburg, in his 1992 article Critical Studies, the Liberal Arts, and Journalism Education. Decades of skills-based pedagogy stigmatized journalism education as simple, practical and narrow, suppressing the intellectual complexities of liberal arts such as literature, philosophy, and sociology. Vocational training, in effect, divorces journalism education from the wider university tradition.55 In contrast to vocation prep, the liberal arts educate rather than train. The critical thinking installed by a liberal arts education is neutralized by journalism training, say critics. Journalism holds objectivity as a central value, and events are defined by only
54 55

Ibid. Parisi, Peter. Critical Studies, the Liberal Arts, and Journalism Education. Journalism Educator 46 (1992): 4.

18 the measurable facts, says Parisi. Theres no critical assessment, just the five Ws and H. Parisi says this is where journalism education loses its tie to the academy; its an education in how not to think.56 The reliance only on sources for truth compounds the issue. In the liberal arts, the truth isnt out there; truth is a social construct found through a wide body of knowledge.57 Reviewing liberal arts literature, Serena Carpenter of Arizona States Cronkite School identified those wide knowledge areas as including the desire to address social problems, leadership, creativity, critical thinking, openness to diversity, problem solving, knowledge of multiple languages, and specialized knowledge areas outside of communication and journalism fields.58 Students need that wider body of knowledge to perform well as journalists, and they must go elsewhere on campus to find it, says Stanford Universitys Theodore Glasser. The opportunities are there, particularly in accredited programs where the majority of credit hours must come from wider liberal arts fields. Glasser makes it sound simple: If [journalism students] intend to cover government, they might take a course in political science; if they want to write about the environment, they can study in the department of earth sciences; if they expect to report on the courts, they could head over to the law school and learn about the rules of evidence.59 There is evidence that a liberal arts education pays off vocationally, as well, perhaps even more so than a journalism degree. In 1984, Rodger Streitmatter was director of the print journalism program at The American University in Washington, D.C.

56 57

Ibid., 6. Ibid., 7 58 Carpenter, Serena. An application of the theory of expertise: Teaching broad and skill knowledge areas to prepare journalists for change. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 43 (2009): 293. 59 Adam, et.al., Does Journalism Education Matter?148.

19 Environmental journalism had emerged as a hot button career path, and Streitmatter conducted a study of environmental journalists practicing in the field. He concluded that students who wanted to pursuer environmental journalism as a career shouldnt major in journalism (or, for that matter, natural science), but should instead seek a wide liberal arts education. Of 24 environmental journalists in his surveyrepresenting the largest newspapers and TV outlets in the country at the timeonly four had journalism degrees. Why the liberal arts approach, even for a specialized field of reporting? All thats needed is a good sense of curiosity and perhaps basic physics and biology courses, said William Cook, the Newsweek environmental correspondent who participated in the survey. More telling: Stay away from journalism school, said Mark Jaffe of the Philadelphia Inquirer.60 Environmental journalism is but one example of specialization, though, and the general field has changed much since 1984. Wouldnt the convergent newsroom increase the demand for j-school graduates with new media skills? Carpenters 2009 study, An application of the theory of expertise: Teaching broad and skill knowledge areas to prepare journalists for change, reaffirmed the liberal arts payoff in the workplace. Her content analysis of job postings for online news media showed these outlets are looking for a broad body of knowledge, adaptive expertise, rather than technical skills, which were favored more by traditional news outlets. Of the 664 job postings, almost 82% stated a preference for new employees to have broad knowledge.61 By comparison, less than 65% of the ads called for technical expertise.62

60

Streitmatter, Roger. Environment writers need liberal arts more than writing. Journalism Educator 39 (1984): 40-43. 61 Carpenter, An application of the theory, 294. 62 Ibid., 295.

20 The Critical/Cultural Approach Advocates of a critical approach to journalism study say liberal arts courses still leave a gap between academic and vocational elements of a journalism program.63 There is plenty of conceptual knowledge to be mined within journalism itselfenough to build an academic discipline. Journalism students need not only broad knowledge; they need to know how their field contributes to society.64 As Stanfords Glasser said in his essay for Does Journalism Education Matter: A formal education in journalism matters and succeeds as it engenders among students a certain quality of thinking about journalism, a state of preparedness that manifests itself in the eloquence students exhibit when called on to respond to questions about the value and purpose of what they do as journalists. 65 Studies of communication theory and the ethics of journalism practice certainly fit into this approach, but advocates say these already commonly studied concepts need to be placed into their own historical, cultural, and philosophical dimensions, bringing depth to journalism studies. The philosophical elements of journalism practice that inform the skill setbut are rarely discussed in textbooks or classroomsinclude personalization, dramatization, and fragmentation. These concepts inform the choices reporters make in news writing and gathering, from how they decide what is newsworthy to how they color the stories that are deemed so.66 This critical/cultural approach to journalism has its practical side; namely, journalisms role in a democratic society. In fact, Jim Carey once said journalism and

63

Reese, S.D., and Jeremy Cohen. Educating for Journalism: the professionalism of scholarship. Journalism Studies 1 (2000): 214. 64 Skinner, David, Mike J. Gasher and James Compton. Putting theory to practice: A critical approach to journalism studies. Journalism 2 (2001): 342. 65 Adam, et.al., Does Journalism Education Matter? 149. 66 Parisi, Critical Studies, 8.

21 democracy and two words for the same thing.67 Carey believed journalists have a responsibility to not just report on the events in a community (random events of the here and now68), but to facilitate community-wide conversation and reflect on that conversation. This theory of journalism and democracy, he believed, needs not just to be taught be instructors but ingrained in journalism students; he worried this important journalistic role was being lost because of pressure from the profession. Carey felt both journalists and teachers of journalism have a moral responsibility to contribute to the public consciousness, not just report on it.69 Parisi saw practical application for the critical/cultural approach as well. He said this kind of education couldnt be taught in a series of critical/cultural courses, but should change and inform the courses already in the catalog.70 In reporting classes, for instance, students should discuss sourcing, and how journalists typically source a narrow spectrum of public officials and random quotes from the street. A discussion of the effect of attribution and sourcing on news stories might open students to new story ideas that will be appreciated later on the job. This isnt an idle, ivory-tower exercise, said Parisi. Training students in a better sort of journalism than they see in actual practice can enable them to suggest new story angles their busy editors will welcome.71 Proponents of the critical/cultural approach also warn of the consequence of failing to place journalism in its historical and cultural perspective, even at the undergraduate level where skills-based training is the overwhelming norm. Skinner, Gasher, and Compton, in their 2001 article Putting theory to practice: A critical
67 68

Adam, Jim Carey, 163. Ibid., 159. 69 Ibid., 163. 70 Parisi, Critical Studies, 9. 71 Ibid., 10.

22 approach to journalism studies, point to stereotyping as one negative by-product of teaching how (skills) without the why (critical theory): (W)e need only think about the stereotypes we regularly encounter in the news media, stereotypes of Muslims, feminists, professional athletes, native peoples, welfare recipients, even university professors. In part this is due to time and space constraints faced by journalists. In the face of these constraints they rely upon well-known narratives. But these misrepresentations are also the product of the fact that they are ill equipped to reflect on their practice.72 Students perpetuate these misrepresentations and other less-than-ideal practices because they too often learn by rote.73

The Question of Relevance In 2002, Betty Medsger, a former Washington Post reporter and chair of the Department of Journalism at San Francisco State University, examined the backgrounds of journalism award winners from the previous ten years. The results surprised her: 59 percent of print journalists who won Pulitzer Prizes never studied journalism; 75 percent of broadcast journalists who won DuPont Awards never studied journalism; 58 percent of journalists awarded Nieman Fellowships never studied journalism; 51 percent of journalists awarded Knight Fellowships at Stanford University never studied journalism. Besides that, not many had even come from elite liberal arts schools. It was a diverse group, with a wide variety of educational backgrounds. The findings led her to wonder: does journalism education get in the way of good journalism?74

72 73

Skinner, Gasher, Compton, Putting theory to practice, 352. Ibid., 357. 74 Medsger, Betty. Getting Journalism Education Out Of The Way. New York University Department of Journalism, Zoned For Debate, accessed online 14 February 2010 at http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/debate/forum.1.essay.medsger.html.

23 The question of relevance has long haunted j-schools (and was exacerbated, yet again, by the Columbia flap in 2002). While some point to new media technology as the future of journalism practice, that technology is democratized; its available to anyone, cheaply. Today, students come to journalism school having written blogs, edited audio and shot video for years; every new computer comes with the requisite tools on board.75 Even when Lowrey and Becker found that presentation skills were a good predictor of job-finding success in their 2001 study, they admitted the study didnt address where graduates actually learned those skills. They may have learned them in classes, in internships, in campus media activities, or even in the privacy of their dorm rooms, said the report.76 Journalism schools cant keep up. As soon as we could get course about Web design on the books, we had to worry about blogs and then Twitter, said Elliot King of Loyola University-Maryland in a 2010 article, The Challenge We Face Today. As soon as we got non-linear editing suites, we had to worry about mobile devices. The academy simply isnt positioned to teach the skills in demand, he said.77 So what is the academy positioned to do well? Some argue conceptual, theorybased teaching is the only way journalism schools can stay relevant. Lana F. Rakow, a professor of communication at the University of North Dakota, noted the continuing influence of the media industry on journalism education while emphasizing the relevance of democratic theory in an essay for the 2001 symposium Journalism and Mass Communication Education at the Crossroads. We can race to keep up with teaching

75 76

Niles, Writing skill, http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/robert/201002/1820/. Lowrey, Becker, The impact of technological skill.., 767. 77 King, Elliot. The Challenge We Face Today. Hot Topics, AEJMC web site, accessed online 18 March 2010 at http://aejmc.org/topics/2010/03/the-challenge-we-face-today/.

24 these new skills, said Rakow, or we can look for the enduring principles of service to the public's right and need to speak and be heard, to hear and be informed, to discuss and decide.78 Later in the same symposium, John Maxwell Hamilton, Dean of the Manship School of Mass Communication, Louisiana State University, agreed: Learning to think about the media is as important to undergraduates as mastering skills if they are to bring best practice to the unprecedented new opportunities that are arising.79 Motives for theory and concepts-based education dont have to be decommercialized, though; the relevance extends to the marketplace. Philip Thickett of the University of Central Englands media department believes theory itself is a transferrable skill. He sees relevance of theory beyond the communication industry, as his media studies graduates often land jobs in other fields. The theory side has created people who can think and take a problem and solve it. That may be how to create a radio show or a marketing strategy for public relations, he told the Birmingham Post in 2006. Someone taking on one of our students for management of a small engineering company, for example, would find they have a lot of the skills they need.80

Strike A Balance Between Skills and Concepts One of the great ironies of the revival of the skills and theory divide in light of Columbias crisis was that its president, Lee Bollinger, wasnt necessarily calling for a tilt in either direction. For all the upheaval within Columbias j-school and the debates

78

Cohen, Jeremy. Symposium: Journalism and Mass Communication Education at the Crossroads. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 56 (2001): 14. 79 Ibid., 18. 80 Naqvi, Shahid. Why media studies has such a vital role to play. Birmingham Post, 21 August 2006, 6.

25 sparked nationwide, Bollinger didnt advocate a new theory-based paradigm to replace real-world journalism skills in the school. What he called for was balance. In a statement on Columbias web site in 2004, Bollinger outlined certain basic capabilities that a j-school must instill in its students: a foundational introduction to the skills of writing and reporting; an intellectual ability to deal with new situations as working conditions shift over time (in other words, no matter what the medium, students must learn to think like a journalist); a understanding of how journalism developed, its history, great figures, and the trends that are shaping it today; and a sense of the moral and ethical standards that guide journalism practice.81 Columbia did revamp its journalism curriculum, though not at the expense of its traditional, skills-based M.S. program. Instead, a second year was added, a one-year M.A. that draws on liberal arts and allows for specialization in areas such as government, science, economics and business.82 Some voices in journalism education, though, call for something beyond balance, seeing integration as the loftier goal. There is much to reconcileteaching methods, fastpaced technology, and an often indifferent media industrybut ideas abound.

Problem-Based Learning Problem-based learning (PBL) is nothing new; it has been practiced in education for fields as diverse as architecture, teaching, nursing, management, social work, and

81

Bollinger, President Bollinger's Statement http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/03/04/lcb_j_task_force.html. 82 Jaschick, Columbia Rethinks, http://www.insidehighered.com/layout/set/print/news/2005/ 03/28/journalism.

26 mathematics. The key characteristic PBL hopes to instill is thinking in action.83 Consider the experienced journalist whose actions on the job are so automatic and instinctive that they defy explanation; they just know what to do without thinking. Can students emerge from j-school with that kind of intrinsic knowledge? Gilbert Ryle wrote about the ideas behind PBL in his 1960 work Dilemmasand demonstrated how it bridges the gap between theory and practice.84 Ryle writes of knowledge developing in three stages, which Lynette Sheridan Burns applied to journalism in her 2004 article, A reflective approach to teaching journalism. Ryles first stage of knowledge is knowing what. This is simply the ability to identify, as in recognizing the product of journalism. Stage two is knowing how, or the ability to repeat procedures and skills; think writing, reporting and editing in journalism. Stage three is being able to do. This is the evidence of knowledge, the crucial intellectual process of identifying, gathering and evaluating information.85 PBL helps students reach stage three by working through a reflective model based on journalistic scenarios. First, students encounter a problemsuch as an incomplete piece of information that may be developed into a news story. After determining what more they need to know from a newsgathering perspective, they then discuss the larger implications of the story, such as its public interest and ethics implications. Already the students are drawing from a wide body of knowledge and skill to solve the problem, while at the same time executing an actual news item. The teacher helps provide resources, but the problem-solving is self-directed or group83

Burns, L.S. A reflective approach to teaching journalism. Art Design & Communication in Higher Education 3 (2004): 5. 84 Ryle, G. (1960), Dilemmas, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, cited in Burns, A reflective approach, 5. 85 Ibid.

27 oriented. These journalistic scenarios are often taken directly from real-world situations.86 PBL, say advocates, helps students develop a process for understanding not just what they do, but why they do it, effectively closing the skills and concepts divide. When applied to journalism, PBL guides students to execute work while considering it critically in light of commercial and ethical concerns, just like in the real world.87 Shannon Mattern, of the media studies department at New York Citys The New School, describes it practically: Our production courses are framed so that they are not about video production or ProTools or web design. Rather, we encourage our students to think first about what communications problem they want to solve, then ask them to consider which media would best enable them to accomplish their goals. Our students can select from many hybrid courses that combine theory and production in the classroom.88

New Media, New Paradigm In spite of the challenges of keeping up with technology, many new media programs are setting the standard for balance. In his 2009 study Teaching ButtonPushing Versus Teaching Thinking for the journal Convergence, Edward Huang found 68% of the faculty at U.S. new media programs believed they balance skills and concepts very well.89 Without technology and equipment, the art form ceases to exist, but emphasizing the mere technique and operation of equipment often results in artistically and emotionally flat work, Professor Denise Bennett from University of Idaho said in

86 87

Burns, A reflective approach, 12. Ibid. 88 Huang, Edgar. Teaching Button-Pushing versus Teaching Thinking. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 15 (2009): 245. 89 Ibid., 241.

28 the Convergence article. You can teach monkeys to type Hamlet but that doesnt make them Shakespeare.90 How do these new media instructors achieve balance? Huang evaluated faculty teaching strategies and found the teaching of technical skills and thinking skills were integratedtaught one before the other or side by sidein 32% of the course offerings. Projects, often exhibiting the characteristics of PBL, made up another 28% of faculty teaching strategies. Self-critique, extensive research, and peer reviews were among the other teaching ideas mentioned.91 Overall, only about 12% said they believed they taught nothing more than skills, and 20% said they taught nothing more than theory.92

Practitioners and Professors Meet in the Middle Ironically, while media practitioners say some journalism schools dont meet their needs with work-ready graduates, many journalism instructors bemoan the heavy influence of the industry on curriculum. Often that influence is cited as a tilt toward skills, while practitioners perceive a shift toward theory.93 If ever the twain shall meet, the result would likely be more mutually beneficial than either side realizes, noted Charles OverbyChairman and CEO of The Freedom Forumwho believes journalists should draw more on relevant communication research from journalism educators to help solve questions facing mainstream media. Overby said in a 1999 editorial: [Those questions] cannot be answered solely by gut instincts or a committee of newsroom staffers who go on a retreat for a day or two. How did we get to the
90 91

Ibid., 242. Ibid. 92 Ibid., 241. 93 MacDonald, Teaching Journalists, 747

29 place where many, if not most, news professionals don't consider journalism schools a major source of information and long-term assistance to the news media?94 Often the flow of information moves in the opposite direction. J-schools have long called on those with practical experience in the field to teach and lead at the academy. The risk, say critics, is that you get neither the best scholars nor the best practitioner-teachers.95 It was a risk worth taking when Columbia finally hired Nicholas Lemann as dean in 2003. From the outset, Lemann was a practitionera former New Yorker correspondentwho strove to bridge the divide between his vocation and his academic calling. He never attended journalism school himself, and before accepting the job had taught only one journalism course.96 The primary driver here, Lemann told The New York Times in 2003, was me stumbling through life as a journalist and keeping an inner tally of things I wished I knew.97 Journalists, say some educators, need not wish to know. As in professions such as law and medicine, theory at the academy can enrich practice in the industry. Journalism professors Stephen Reese and Jeremy Cohen called for a professionalization of scholarship in a 2000 piece for Journalism Studies, saying media industries needed to be partners with academia, rather than clients.98 John Maxwell Hamilton agrees. For generations now, media professionals and professors have been intellectually disengaged from each other, he said in the symposium Journalism and Mass Communication

94

Overby, Charles L. Educators, journalists can work together. The Freedom Forum, accessed online 14 February 2010 at http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=6638. 95 Cohen, Symposium, 7. 96 Arenson, Karen W. Driven By What He Wishes Hed Learned. The New York Times, 14 May 2003, B6. 97 Ibid. 98 Reese, Cohen, Educating for Journalism, 227.

30 Education at the Crossroads. While the cost of these missed opportunities once may haven been tolerable, they are not now, he continued. Both sides need each other.99

Assessment: Both Sides Now Robert Niles point shouldnt be lost on journalism educators: in the new media age, everyone is doing journalism in one form or another. To remain relevant, the modern j-school has to produce graduates who do it better. To that end, let us place John Maxwell Hamiltons mantraBoth sides need each otherin the context of the skills/concepts debate. What elevates everyday journalism and the routine technical expertise described by Niles to a higher plane? The concepts must inform the skills, or there is no difference betweenfor instancethe user-generated content on a newspaper web site and the newspaper content itself. The necessity of integration is what makes problem-based learning (PBL) such an attractive solution in the journalism curriculum. While students need familiarity with the technology for execution of the ideal storytelling method, educators cant rely on teaching software proficiency and computer literacy alone. Just as learning how to navigate a word processor doesnt make one a good writer, learning pagination software doesnt make one a designer; knowing every capability of video editing software doesnt make one a producer. As for the basic skills often cited as most importantand lacking in recent graduatesby practitioners: are they really journalism skills, or are they language arts? Shouldnt a studentparticularly one with a propensity for storytellingemerge from high school with the ability to write a serviceable sentence, one with proper structure and
99

Cohen, Symposium, 12.

31 all the words spelled correctly? Perhaps journalism practitioners have it right when they require grammar and spelling exams to screen potential employees; thats not a bad idea for j-schools, either, lest journalism educators spend an inordinate amount of time teaching remedial grammar rather than the more pertinent legal, ethical and social implications of high-level reportage. No one will deny the importance of learning the basicsreporting, writing, editingor that the basics must now include a modicum of technical expertise. These, combined with a wide liberal arts backgroundmake for the adaptive expertise that is marketable in the media business. Too often this is where the typical journalism student ends formal education, with a four-year degree and an entry-level job that may or may not set him or her on a rewarding career path. Technically, the undergraduate may have the skills for a job in the media business, but still be lacking the conceptual knowledge and cognitive depth for long-term success. A balanced, well-rounded education requires a time commitment from the student beyond those four years. While masters programs often do a very good job of introducing and instilling concepts, there is very little incentive for a student to continue education beyond a fouryear degree. There is no requisite financial benefit, no bestowing of professional credentials, no bar to pass. Meanwhile, the technological bar inches lower as more and more would-be journalists enter the fray, establishing blogs and launching web sites that rival established media in functionality and immediacy, but lack the depth that comes with a conceptual understanding of newsgathering. If the academy is to commit to a complete education that begins at the undergraduate level with skills and problem-based learning, and continues at the graduate

32 level with essential concepts, then practitioners must respond in kind by placing real value on graduate degrees. John C. Merrill believes that journalism will necessarily emerge as a licensed professionrather than a craftover the next few decades, if for no other reason than to bring order out of the chaos of new media. Law and medicine historically evolved this way, and if students are going to invest the time and effort for a balanced, well-rounded education, they should emerge from graduate j-school with the same highly-valued professional credentialsthereby transforming an industry whose practitioners are too often scribes rather than scholars.

33 Suggested Readings Adam, G. Stuart, Jannette L. Dates, Theodore L. Glasser, and Mitchell Stephens. Does Journalism Education Matter? Journalism Studies 7 (2006): 144-156. In this collection of essays, various journalism educators present idea about the future of j-school education, arguing both for balance between skills and concepts, an immersion in the intellectual culture of the University, and an understanding of journalisms essential place in democracy. Adam, G. Stuart. Jim Carey and the Problem of Journalism Education. Cultural Studies 23 (2009): 157-166. In this analytical examination of the Jim Carey essay A Plea for the University Tradition, the author concludes that Careys vision wasnt to eliminate skillsbased education but to circumscribe it, allowing for more critical understanding of society, culture and the democratic process through liberal arts study. Arenson, Karen W. Driven By What He Wishes Hed Learned. The New York Times, 14 May 2003, B6. Nicholas Lemannthe dean of Columbias journalism schoolsays graduate study in journalism, especially at an Ivy League school, is a different beast. Students at his school will be leaders in the profession and should be trained in analytic modes rather than just reporting and writing. Babcock, William A. The j-school debate. Christian Science Monitor, 1 August 2002, 9. The author of this opinion piecethe chair of the journalism department at California State University says we need to frame the skills and theory debate in terms of what journalism really isa trade, a craft, a profession. The key, he says, is in balance between vocational and academic studies. Bollinger, Lee. President Bollinger's Statement on the Future of Journalism Education. Columbia News, accessed online 15 February 2010 at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ news/03/04/lcb_j_task_force.html. The university presidents formal statement was published in 2003. His delayed appointment of a new dean in Columbias j-school and his call for changes in the schools curriculum reinvigorated the skills vs. theory debate.

34

Burns, L.S. A reflective approach to teaching journalism. Art Design & Communication in Higher Education 3 (2004): 5-16. This approach to theory-based teaching focuses on critical reflection as a crucial step in conjunction with learn by doing (skills). Carpenter, Serena. An application of the theory of expertise: Teaching broad and skill knowledge areas to prepare journalists for change. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 43 (2009): 287-304. A 2009 study of job postings for online news media showed these outlets are looking for a broad body of knowledge, adaptive expertise, rather than technical skills, which were favored more by traditional news outlets. Cohen, Jeremy. Symposium: Journalism and Mass Communication Education at the Crossroads. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 56 (2001): 4-27. At the beginning of the new century, nine communication educators examine the state of journalism education. Many emphasize the synthesis between skills and broader education. Cushion, Stephen. On The Beat or In The Classroom? Journalism Practice 1 (2007): 421-434. The author looks at journalisms role as a trade or profession and the issue of workplace preparedness, and concludes institutions need to be transparent about whether they are offering academic study or industry-preferred qualification. Fahmy, Shahira. How Online Journalists Rank Importance of News Skills. Newspaper Research Journal 29 (2008): 23-39. Even online journalists rank traditional skills highly as hiring criteria, underlining the importance of skills-based teaching. Still, multimedia skills are growing in importance. Huang, Edgar. Teaching Button-Pushing versus Teaching Thinking. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 15 (2009): 233-247. The authors study findings support Columbia University president Lee Bollingers insistence

35 that a truly educated new media graduate must have both technological skills and critical thinking skills, while noting the new game for journalism education is finding the right balance. Kelley, Barbara. Teaching Journalism. Communication Research Trends 26 (2007): 325. This journalism educator argues that the last decade has seen a shift from the skills vs. theory debate to a more nuanced and balanced approach. Lowrey, Wilson, and Lee B. Becker. The impact of technological skill on job-finding success in the mass communication labor market. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 78 (2001): 754-770. The authors find that proficiency with presentation skillspagination, non-linear editing, photo-imaging, web design and illustration softwareis a significant predictor of job-finding success for j-school graduates. MacDonald, Isabel. Teaching Journalists To Save The Profession. Journalism Studies 7 (2006): 745-764. Though the author agrees with the critical theory approach to teaching journalism, she says it is likely to meet significant resistance, especially from the media industry. Medsger, Betty. Getting Journalism Education Out Of The Way. New York University Department of Journalism, Zoned For Debate, accessed online 14 February 2010 at http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/debate/forum.1.essay.medsger.html. The author, a reporter turned educator, calls for an intense senior year introduction to journalism for skills education. This allows students who want to practice journalism a more interdisciplinary approach to learning with journalism faculty as the gateway to the rest of the University. The masters program would focus on the professional journalist, already in the field, who wants to draw on University resources to solve specific problems. Mendez, Teresa. Journalism students ask: Why am I here? Christian Science Monitor, 26 October 2004, 12. Recent graduates are interviewed about their experiences in

36 journalism school, concluding real-world experience is better than a graduate track in the field. This article also mentions Columbias j-school crisis and the decision to add a second year of graduate study focused on specialization to its venerable journalism program. Merrill, John C. and Ralph L. Lowenstein. Viva Journalism! The Triumph of Print in the Media Revolution. Indiana: AuthorHouse, 2010. The authors make predictions about where j-schools and journalism in general are heading, and say that as technology continues to evolve, journalism will become a certified profession, if for no other reason than to bring order out of the information chaos. Niles, Robert. Eight Things That Journalism Students Should Demand From Their Journalism Schools. OJR: The Online Journalism Review, accessed online 21 September 2009 at http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/robert/200909/1780/. The author argues j-schools should provide students with a broad range of mentoring and experience outside the classroom and even outside the field. Niles, Robert. Writing skill is no longer enough to sustain journalists. OJR: The Online Journalism Review, accessed online 20 February 2010 at http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/robert/201002/1820/. While superlative writing skills will always be marketable, the author advocates a different skill setsuch as statistics training for analyzing data setsand says the era of journalist as mere scribe is over. Orden, Erica. Columbia J-Schools Existential Crisis. New York Magazine, accessed online 15 February 2010 at http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/03/columbia_jschools_existential.html. The venerable magazine provides a somewhat raw look at the changes at Columbias journalism school. Includes a rather candid assessment of journalism education within the skills vs. theory debate by famed instructor Ari Goldman, who characterizes new media skills as playing with toys and an experimentation in gadgetry.

37 Overby, Charles L. Educators, journalists can work together. The Freedom Forum, accessed online 14 February 2010 at http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=6638. The author, CEO of the Freedom Forum, calls for more open discussion in the skills and theory debate between professional and academic ranks. Parisi, Peter. Critical Studies, the Liberal Arts, and Journalism Education. Journalism Educator 46 (1992): 4-13. This author advocates using critical and cultural perspectives to link journalism education more firmly to the liberal arts, seeing journalism less as a stenographic craft but adopting a more literary approach. Pierce, Tamyra, and Tommy Miller. Basic Journalism Skills Remain Important in Hiring. Newspaper Research Journal 28 (2007): 51-61. This recent survey of newspaper editors places a heavy emphasis on old-school skills and also ranked some law and theory concepts above computer-assisted and web-based skills. Ryan, Michael, and Les Switzer. Balancing Arts and Sciences, Skills, and Conceptual Content. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 56 (2001): 55-68. This research looks at the history of the skills and theory debate in journalism education and asks jschool administrators to evaluate their curricula and its balance between the two concepts. Sloan, Wm. David. Makers of the Media Mind. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990. The author lends historical perspective to the debate on how to teach journalism, explaining the differences between the Missouri model and the PulitzerBleyer philosophy and noting that more schools have adopted the skills-based Missouri model. Splichal, Slavko and Colin Sparks. Journalists for the 21st Century. New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1994. The authors examine modern attitudes towards journalism and find there are no objective criteria to place journalism in the same professional

38 ranks as doctors and lawyers, and that controversies related to professionalization in journalism are clearly related to questions of journalism education and training. Stelter, Brian. Digital Defeats Newsroom? The New York Times, 19 April 2009, ED20. Skills-based journalism education, especially curricula designed for workplace readiness, must be in a constant state of revision. Stephens, Mitchell. A J-School Manifesto. Columbia Journalism Review, September/October 2000, 63-65. This journalism educator says j-schools place too much emphasis on the basics, and not enough on experimentation or intellectual challenge.