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What Should We Teach in Journalism Schools?
James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | December 8, 2021 | Maria Servold

Posted on 12/08/2021 7:40:53 AM PST by karpov

There’s something rotten in American journalism schools. From a tendency toward bias to outright activism, journalism in higher education is not what it should be: a place to guide young writers through a liberal education that teaches them how to think, report, and write clearly.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s attempted hiring of Nikole Hannah-Jones this year is the latest in a line of incidents that show how far journalism schools have drifted away from what they should be.

In 1904, famed editor and newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer published an essay in The North American Review defending his dream to create a college of journalism. His idea was not initially well-received, and the school he envisioned didn’t open until 1912. The school he established became Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

In the essay, Pulitzer explains why he thinks a journalism school is necessary at all, and details the kind of curriculum he’d implement at such a school. The list is a refreshing exploration of what it means to train a journalist, which is noteworthy, given that his essay is more than 100 years old.

While he does advocate seminars with top editors examining articles, headlines, etc., he spends more time emphasizing that a journalist’s education should be well-rounded and liberal, including things like foreign languages, history, economics, and law.

(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...


TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: college; journalism; journalismschool
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1 posted on 12/08/2021 7:40:53 AM PST by karpov
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To: karpov

HONESTY..... It’s so rare!


2 posted on 12/08/2021 7:43:11 AM PST by high info voter
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To: karpov

Close the J schools.

Use them for homeless shelters.

Or—use them for homeless shelters first!


3 posted on 12/08/2021 7:44:07 AM PST by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: karpov

“There’s something rotten in American journalism schools. “

Oh, it’s not that bad. A hard core, biased faculty supported by leftist administrators, feeding the schools with pre indoctrinated students.

Other than that, they’re fine.

Seriously, they are beyond repair, and anyone who went to school for “journalism” should never be considered for any type of journalism job.


4 posted on 12/08/2021 7:45:16 AM PST by brownsfan (It's going to take real, serious, hard times to wake the American public.)
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To: karpov

The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth

anything else is an act of Presstitution and should carry a heavy penalty


5 posted on 12/08/2021 7:45:56 AM PST by eyeamok (founded in cynicism, wrapped in sarcasm)
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To: karpov

I understand that to get your journalism degree these days, all one has to do is create fake news.

You know things have gone to sh*t with journalism when you have to use air quotes when saying the word “journalism”.............


6 posted on 12/08/2021 7:45:58 AM PST by cranked
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To: karpov

3 things:

1. You and your opinion are not and never should be the news.
2. Your job is not to change the world, it’s to honestly report what just happened without a political filter.
3. Learn English and sentence stucture.


7 posted on 12/08/2021 7:49:45 AM PST by The MAGA-Deplorian (. Democrats are lawless because Republicans are ball-less!)
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To: karpov

Libtard activism schools disguised as ‘journalism schools’ 🤪

That’s why almost every news media outlet is complete crap and not worth a second of time.


8 posted on 12/08/2021 7:51:59 AM PST by NWFree (Somebody has to say it)
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To: karpov
What Should We Teach in Journalism Schools?

How to close them. Return to the centuries long tradition of cub reporters and apprenticeships.

9 posted on 12/08/2021 7:54:58 AM PST by SES1066 (Ask not what the LEFT can do for you, rather ask what the LEFT is doing to YOU!)
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To: karpov

Who, What, Where, When, Why????? The facts.


10 posted on 12/08/2021 7:55:19 AM PST by goodnesswins (....pervert Biden & O Cabal are destroying America, as planned.)
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To: karpov
Why are J-schools even necessary? Anyone that graduates grammar school should have the skills to write at 6th grade level. J-schools are indoctrination centers.

Here's a 30-second course for writing news articles. Simply answer the questions: Who, What, When, Where and sometimes Why (the last one should be done without opinion). Once you have those questions answered, stop - write no more. You are now fully qualified to be an excellent journalist and can write better that 99% that have spent tens of thousands of dollars on J-school.

11 posted on 12/08/2021 7:56:47 AM PST by ConservativeInPA ("Goats are like mushrooms. Because if you shoot a duck, I'm afraid of toasters." - Joe Biden)
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To: karpov

Truth matters

If you once “sell” your integrity and reputation, you will NEVER get it back — time to change careers.

Alternatively, marry wealth. Then, what you say will not matter to anyone but yourself.


12 posted on 12/08/2021 7:58:06 AM PST by bobbo666 (Baizuo)
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To: karpov

Just the facts the garbage goes on the oped page.


13 posted on 12/08/2021 7:59:58 AM PST by Vaduz (women and children to be impacIQ of chimpsted the most.)
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To: karpov

My Tagline sums it up.


14 posted on 12/08/2021 8:00:27 AM PST by libertylover (Our biggest problem, by far, is that most of the media is hate & agenda driven, not truth driven.)
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To: Vaduz

Even if journalism stuck with the facts there is still the issue of what stories to cover.

You could have fully accurate “news” that was still totally biased if the stories you chose to cover and not cover were the result of an agenda.

Which experts do you quote?

Which quotes do you print?

etc etc etc

In my younger days I worked as a reporter for a small local paper, and those choices always reflected my own agenda—even if everything printed was factually accurate.


15 posted on 12/08/2021 8:03:59 AM PST by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: cranked

“You know things have gone to sh*t with journalism when you have to use air quotes when saying the word ‘journalism’ “ I would argue that the problem is the word itself, with or without sneer quotes. The news used to be gathered and reported by . . . reporters. As the profession lunged leftward and became fashionable, its practitioners began styling themselves “journalists.” It’s yet another aspect of the general chickification of Western society.


16 posted on 12/08/2021 8:10:39 AM PST by Blurb2350 (posted from my 1500-watt blow dryer)
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To: cgbg

News is not an agenda it’s facts who what when ware and why some place do true reporting but few.
Some reporters want as much face time as they can get in hopes of moving up the ladder that’s not what reporting is about.


17 posted on 12/08/2021 8:22:00 AM PST by Vaduz (women and children to be impacIQ of chimpsted the most.)
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To: karpov

That covers the basics but there are more I'm sure.

18 posted on 12/08/2021 8:24:11 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (Imagine, if you will, a vaccine so safe you have to be threatened to take it. )
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To: Vaduz

Facts are still propaganda.

If you think about this it will become obvious.

An old example was the leadup to World War I.

That war was a family feud between European royal families.

However, the elites in the US wanted the country to join in the fray.

All of the coverage of German atrocities were facts.

But—they were facts that served an agenda.

They inflamed the passions of Americans at home to convince them to send our boys overseas to fight the European war.

I could give hundreds of other examples.

Everybody has an agenda, even when they don’t think they have an agenda.


19 posted on 12/08/2021 8:27:22 AM PST by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts

Once upon a time you didn’t need a degree to be a journalist. The local paper would recruit good writers from the local high school and they’d get jobs/internships at the paper as copy boys and work their way to the police blotter.


20 posted on 12/08/2021 8:28:48 AM PST by wrcase
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