Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 2009
To finish up with another indictment, however, may I suggest “Where are JSchools in Great Debate over Journalism’s Future?” (on the Poynter Institute site) by
University of Southern California Annenberg School Dean Ernest Wilson? He argues, “the performance of journalism schools has something to do with the current sub-par performance of the profession,” because “those of us who lead journalism schools are responsible for training a goodly percentage of the people who made questionable decisions over the past decade….Medical school faculty regularly point to failures—and opportunities—to improve their training of physicians for the 21st century. Where is the visible counterpoint in journalism education?….To survive, journalism schools have to become much more intellectually and professionally ambitious.” Specifically, Wilson points out, “shocking economic illiteracy… marks too much of journalism education today, which makes it harder to get high quality economic reporting, while reinforcing the fire wall between the business and content sides of the profession….The popular claim that ‘we are all journalists now’ must be refuted….We ought to lead the charge for greater media literacy for all citizens.” Read More »