BU J-School Snags NY Times Media Columnist David Carr for Newly Endowed Professorship

Image by NYTimes via CrunchBase

The Boston Globe reported today that The New York Times' prominent media columnist David Carr will join Boston University's College of Communication ("COM") in January as a professor in a newly endowed chair devoted to exploring business models to sustain journalism in a digital age.

Carr will continue to write his Times column, but will teach one course a semester at COM where he will spend two days a week, according to the Globe article. Carr will be a non-tenured professor of the practice on a contract with COM. Tom Menino, Boston's Mayor the past two decades, also will be joining BU's faculty next year in a similar arrangement.

The new professorship was endowed by a $1.66 million gift from BU alum, trustee and Bloomberg Media Group CEO Andrew Lack, with BU trustee Alan Leventhal kicking in more than $830,000.  Among other courses, Carr will teach media criticism.

It will be intriguing to see how the outspoken Carr adjusts to academia, given that he wrote in a March 31, 2013 column: "Having seen many journalism programs up close, I can say that most are escalators to nowhere."

The hard-working staff of "TUOL" just completed his 16th year of teaching Media Law at COM.

Indiana University Unveils Proposed Plan to Merge Journalism School

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Trustees of Indiana University at Bloomington will vote next month on a proposed plan to merge the School of Journalism with the Departments of Telecommunications and Communication and Culture, according to the Indiana Daily Student ("IDS").

The 34-page proposal for The Media School released today by Provost Lauren Robel was submitted last December by a committee made up of faculty from the three entities.  The IDS article said the report, not surprisingly, suggests a digital emphasis in the new curriculum. The proposal's timeline indicates the merger would be completed in 2016.

Emory Bored with Journalism Dept.?

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The journalism program at Atlanta-based Emory University is winding down and will disappear in two years, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Robin Forman announced last week.

The journalism department, one of four programs being phased out, according to reports in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Knightcenter@utexas.edu Web site, not surprisingly, is not reacting well to being consigned to extinction by the university.  Former Journal-Constitution Managing Editor Hank Klibanoff, who heads the school's journalism program, voiced disappointment, claiming that discontinuing the journalism department translates into a less-informed public and fewer critical thinkers.

With Emory joining other schools such as the University of Colorado in eliminating journalism as a major (see "TUOL" posts 2/22/11 & 8/26/10), journalism advocates are seeking salvation in a "teaching hospital" approach to journalism education, emphasizing professional training over an academic mindset and focusing on digital communication.

UPDATE: Journo Majors Gone With the Wind at U. Colo.

Image via WikipediaUniversity of Colorado Regents voted 5-4 this week to shut the university's journalism school, the first college to suffer such a fate in the University's history.

College President Bruce Benson backed the move to turn off the lights at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication June 30 (see "TUOL" posts 2/22/11, 8/26/10). Henceforth, students may pursue a double major in journalism and another subject or receive a certificate or minor in journalism, but no longer will be able to receive a bachelor's degree in journalism alone, reports the Boulder Daily Camera. 

UPDATE: Univ. of Colorado 'Buffaloes' Journalism Majors

Image via WikipediaBecoming a journalism major may not be a "Boulder" option if the recommendation of an exploratory panel is adopted by the University of Colorado, the college paper, The Boulder Daily Camera, reports.

Chancellor Phil DiStefano said journalism as a stand-alone major at the school may end after 2012.  Although the school continues to recruit would-be journalists from high school, the evolving media and budget cuts may result in closure of the School of Journalism & Mass Communication ("SJMC"). [See "TUOL" post 8/26/10.]

The exploratory panel advocates creating a school of information, communication and media technology, along with an Institute for the Global Digital Future that would, the panel's report suggested: "engage and advance the transformative potentials generated at the intersections of information, communication, media and technology." The goal, if nothing else, dramatically illustrates the difference between academic prose and journalistic writing.

Although a journalism major may not be available to enrollees after Fall 2012, the course of study may still be pursued as a minor or as part of a double-major, according to the Daily Camera story. Presently, 1 in 6 journalism students at SJMC opts for a double-major.

University of Colorado has never shut down an entire college in its history, though it has abandoned degree programs in the past.

Public TV Station Shoots Current Through DC J-School

Image via WikipediaCurrent, the bi-monthly trade magazine about public broadcasting owned by New York City public broadcasting outlet WNET.org, has been sold to American University's School of Communication, The New York Times reports.

The journal, which attracts 29,000 visitors monthly to its Web site and boasts a circulation of 4,000, was founded in 1980 by the National Association of Educational Broadcasters, but shifted to WNET.org's predecessor in 1982.  WNET said the sale, the price of which was not disclosed, was a byproduct of the institution lacking the resources to operate a multimedia company while keeping a trade journal afloat.

KN DOE Turns Its Back on Journo Students

Image via WikipediaA dying field with insufficient prospects for job growth.
That's how the Kansas Department of Education views journalism, which means fewer vocational dollars for school journalism programs statewide beginning in the 2012-2013 school year, according to a story in the Topeka Capital Journal. Money from the Career and Technical Education (CTE) fund will not find its way to train prospective journalists based on the state DOE's review of labor market data.
Of course, the Kansas Board of Education a mere five years ago voted 6-4 to approve public school science standards that gave a boost to intelligent design and creationism at the expense of Darwin's theory of evolution, so "TUOL" hopes the state isn't a bellwether of a national trend.

U. Colo. May Shutter J-School

Image via WikipediaThe Boulder Daily Camera reports that the Univ. of Colorado may pull the plug on its traditional School of Journalism and Mass Communication ("SJMC").

The University's j-school presently enrolls 647undergrads, 58 master's students and 26 doctoral candidates in its journalism program. The SJMC boasts 28 full-time faculty members, and approximately 30 instructors and 13 staffers. Were the regents to vote to shut down the SJMC, tenured faculty who did not retire or resign would have to be re-assigned to another academic department and retrained if necessary, but adjuncts would likely experience layoffs.

The Daily Camera reports that Chancellor Phil DiStefano has officials reviewing the school under the regents' discontinuance policy.  In any case,the school would remain open until current journalism enrollees complete their degree programs.

Under consideration is a restructuring that would better prepare students for workplace entry into digital journalism. The SJMC's external advisory committee has recommended closing the school and shifting some of its programs to the Alliance for Technology, Learning & Society Institute to further that goal. Also under study is merging the j-school with other disciplines to open a broader "school of information."

Sans Exam Screening, Will UNLV Journo Students Still Write 'Good'?

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Faced with cash-strapping declining enrollment, the Hank Greenspun School of Journalism and Media Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas has jettisoned its entrance exam that tested writing ability and core skills acquired in pre-journalism courses, reports the school's student paper, Rebel Yell.

School officials insists the entrance exam has merely been shelved for a few years, rather than abandoned. Students must now maintain a 2.5 grade point average in designated introductory journalism courses and a 2.0 GPA overall to be admitted to UNLV's j-school. Previously, a cumulative 3.0 GPA was a prerequisite for admittance to the program.

Whether the revised standards will affect the school's efforts to secure accreditation from the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) remains to be seen.  The entrance exam was last offered in the Spring 2010 semester. Officials blamed the change in the exam requirement to the statewide crisis in education funding.

Though some may worry that relaxed admission standards means journalism schools such as UNLV's Greenspun School won't attract the best & the brightest students, which doesn't bode well for job-seeking graduates or the profession, the dedicated staff at "TUOL" is  unconcerned because: 1) there's always Fox News and 2) we really were just looking for an excuse to use the accompanying photo.

DePaul J-Students Take to the Tweets

Image by wallyg via Flickr

"Digital Editing: From Breaking News to Tweets," "Reporting for Converged Newsrooms," "Backpack Reporting," "Niche Journalism."  This is not your father's journalism school education.

J-Students at DePaul University's College of Communication, Chicago's second-largest dispenser of degrees in communications, hopes to ride the wave of digital journalism in the changing field.  Craig Kanalley, digital intern at The Chicago Tribune, a DePaul alum,  is teaching DePaul j-students a college-level journalism course devoted entirely to Twitter and its applications. The course will tie into Kanalley's Web site, www.breakingtweets.com, which has had more than 500,000 page views since it launched in January 2009.

Lovers of irony will be disappointed to learn that enrollment is not limited to 140.