I’m in Cambridge, MA with six faculty members at a meeting of the Carnegie-Knight Task Force on the Future of Journalism Education. Today and tomorrow we are meeting with representatives from 11 other journalism schools to debate various aspects of the future of journalism, with an emphasis on how well journalism and journalism education serve democracy.

The topics ranged from the role and power of the individual journalist in the changing news environment to “rethinking” journalism education.

Leaders of the discussion about journalism education suggested that journalism schools are still seen as trade schools and that they are held in low regard by professionals. They argued that we don’t need to teach new technology, but that students can learn skills such as “Final Cut Pro” in little workshops outside the regular curriculum. They argued for more courses in critical thinking and fewer skills courses.

At Carolina we argue that critical thinking and skills teaching should be integrated. We don’t turn up our nose at teaching skills; rather, we incorporate the teaching of skills with theory and practice. For example, a course in photojournalism incorporates the act of shooting a picture with visual literacy and ethics. We don’t separate technology from story telling. We don’t separate a journalistic product from the tools used to create it.

I’d like some alumni to weigh in here.

The primary problem with separating skills from critical thinking is that it runs counter to much of what is happening in journalism today. Our own Ryan Thornburg argued that the goals of journalism should be to create an “efficacious democracy” and “efficient markets.” In other words, journalists should provide information that enables citizens to participate in an effective democracy, and they should provide information about goods and services. He argued that more voices incorporated into journalistic products create a more informed electorate. Ryan argued that smart journalists will build an infrastructure to organize citizen journalism, recognize volunteers and allow them to share information with each other. To be representatives of our readers, Ryan argued, we have to make them our constituents, not just an audience.

This egalitarian approach to journalism characterizes good journalism education as well as good journalism.

Those leading the journalism education discussion suggested we emulate educational models adopted by business schools, i.e. the MBA, or by law schools, in order to “professionalize” journalism education. I disagree. Teaching journalism at the undergraduate level allows us to teach basic principles of free expression to a larger number of people than we could if we restricted journalism education to the graduate level.

The rights a journalist has–to inspect public records and to express ideas freely–are the rights we have as citizens. What we teach journalists is how to exercise these rights, how to get access, how to communicate effectively, and how to understand the impact of our words and pictures. That is our first and most important goal.

An elite model of journalism education may serve elite journalists, but it doesn’t serve the democracy.

This week trucks are unloading equipment to begin the transition in our broadcast teaching studio to high definition television. The process will take nearly a year, but cameras and editing equipment will be in place by the time classes begin this August.

Converting the teaching studio will complement the Carroll Hall third floor high def studio built last year in a cooperative project with University Relations.

The FCC is requiring television stations to transmit in high definition by February 2009. With the satellite uplink now installed on the third floor, we are able to transmit directly from Carroll Hall.

We are, of course, not a television station, but we can provide feeds, interviews and other content directly to the networks and broadcast/cable stations. This is a great opportunity for expanding Carolina Week and Carolina Connection, as well as other television and radio production.

About one-third of the money for the conversion is in hand–or was, until the equipment started rolling in. The remaining challenge is to secure the remaining two-thirds and complete the transition.

The awards won by our broadcast students attest to their talent and their education. This conversion will assure that we stay one of the best programs in the nation.

Last week while I was in San Francisco, I visited with two alumni.  Joel Tesch, ‘96, is the northern California regional manager for Business Wire.  Andy Diamondstein, also ‘96, is a technical writer for Google.  They represent the wave of the future for journalism and communication jobs.  I listened to their descriptions of their work.  Andy talked about YouTube and Google and the merging of the technical and creative.  Joel talked about the opportunities in the business end of communication.  I wanted to package their optimism and share it with people who lament the decline of journalism jobs.  The jobs aren’t declining…but they are shifting.  Our task is to make sure our graduates have the technical knowledge, the creative skill and the insight to recognize the new opportunities.

Walter Storholt, JOMC senior, placed third in the radio broadcasting division of the Hearst National Championships conducted this week in San Francisco. This is the second year that Walter made it to the national championships, and he will be a strong contender in JOMC’s Hearst entries this year.

This is a major accomplishment. Competing students spend several days interviewing, recording and editing in the competitions, which are judged by a group of distinguished professionals.

What’s particularly great about Walter is that once the competition was over, he organized eight competitors to rent bicycles, ride to Sausalito from San Francisco, and enjoy lunch together. He’s a true team player and the journalism school is exceedingly proud of him.

In San Francisco last night I had the privilege of receiving–for our students– a medallion for third place overall in the 48th Hearst Journalism Awards, awards that often are referred to as the Pulitzers of college journalism. JOMC has placed in the top five for the last three years and has consistently done well in the competition.

Students compete in a series of contests across the year. At the end of the year points are totaled for overall winners in each category and for overall intercollegiate winners. Our broadcast students placed first in Intercollegiate Broadcast News and our multimedia students placed first in Intercollegiate Multimedia. Our photojournalism students placed fifth in Intercollegiate Photojournalism.

Students also compete to earn points to come to San Francisco to compete in an individual finalist category. Walter R. Storholt, who will be a senior this fall, is competing in the individual radio competition. Stay tuned for news about Walter.

These awards are a tribute to the high quality of our students, to their hard work and talent, and to the dedication of our faculty who teach and coach them.

Students, faculty and staff have been working on a large scale media project focusing on the implications of a growing Latino population in North Carolina.  We have been referring to this work as the Latino Project.  The project launches today with stories about business issues related to the Latino population and with multimedia projects focusing on Latino culture.

It is launching today under the title Carolina del Norte. 

Please check it out at http://cdn.jomc.unc.edu

Why is this important?  Not only does it give our students the opportunity to explore cultural, political and economic changes within the state, it also partners them with other media outlets throughout the state.  The material we publish on this site is available free to newspapers and broadcast stations throughout the country…the only requirements are that they give the student credit for the work and they notify us of use.

Our goal is for students to have the opportunity to publish all the work they do–as long as it meets our high quality standards.

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