If we must have j-schools...

• Author: Waldman, Steven
• Position: Journalism school memories

IF WE MUST HAVE J-SCHOOLS . . .

The first step toward improving journalism education would be to abolish it at the undergraduate level. The problem was summarized succinctly in The Washington Journalism Review by Claude Sitton, the Pulitzer Prize-winning editor of the Raleigh, North Carolina News and Observer: "Too many journalism schools are turning out communicators who have nothing to communicate.' Under-graduates interested in journalism should be enrolling in rigorous liberal arts programs. Literature, history, and the other disciplines that expose the student to countless different worlds are much more likely to stimulate the curiosity so many journalism students seem to lack than is Intro to Communications 101. Although journalists will not spring ready-made from the college libraries with press card in fedora and pad in hand, these students will have more understanding than those who studies how to build an inverted pyramid from a pile of facts. In addition, the tough composition requirements that should be part of any liberal arts education could liberate graduate schools from having to teach elementary grammar.

On the graduate level, journalism education should be split into two tracks. There are those who want to become journalists but who have not been able to get the first-hand journalism experience they need to get a good starting job. Some may have worked at a small newspaper, hoping to apprentice under a Lou Grant only to discover themselves stuck under a Ted Baxter. There are, sad to say, hundreds of rotten newspapers out there. Some of these potential students might have newspaper experience but want to switch to broadcasting without knowing the difference between a sound bite and a mosquito bite. An education in the basics would enable them to learn the rudiments of journalism and get that starting job.

The second track would be for those students with some previous experience who have already shown they can be thrown into an unfamiliar situation and emerge with an informative story. For them, journalism school could push further, allowing for development of expertise in particular fields. This would alleviate the problem of experienced reporters having to relearn the basics.

The ideal program would combine academic study with two kinds of practical experience: from the inside and from the outside. If you're interested in being an environmental reporter, you could take special courses, perhaps given through a joint...