Journalism education: Learning through — and from — history

As I thought about the issue of the media playing a role in media literacy education, I came across a paper that detailed the history of journalism education in the United States and was left with one thought: If journalists are still split on whether journalism should be taught as an academic subject, rather than being learned through an apprenticeship model, how in the heck is the journalism community going to be able to mix with the education community and work together on teaching the media?

Journalists traditionally have not gone to school to learn their craft. Post-secondary journalism education is mostly a 20th-century phenomenon in Canada and the United States (Dornan, Johansen & Weaver, 2001).Up until the latter half of the 20th century, journalists learned how to do their work by working at a newspaper or broadcast outlet and gleaning knowledge from the grizzled veterans around them. Some grizzled veterans in today’s newsrooms did not attend a post-secondary program, and some never completed high school. Much like their early predecessors, they learned by doing.

Journalists in the Radio-Canada/CBC newsroom in Montreal, Canada.

A push for journalism education south of the border can be traced to the late 1800s when universities created journalism programs: Between 1873 and 1903, 14 universities offered journalism courses and Cornell offered a “certificate of journalism” program (Bajkiewicz, 2009). Curricula were largely built (and still remain built) on the ideals of Joseph Pulitzer, who stressed liberal arts and journalism skills. Pulitzer wanted a strict separation of business and editorial skills in the curriculum (Bajkiewicz, 2009), but in today’s media climate, that likely can’t continue as journalists have to learn to be more business oriented.

Journalists met Pulitzer’s concept for a journalism curriculum with skepticism:

“Skeptics ridiculed the idea of teaching journalism, citing the well-worn maxim that journalists are born, not made. Pulitzer challenged them to, ‘Name some great editor born full-winged like Mercury, the messenger of the Gods. The only position that occurs to me which a man in our Republic can successfully fill by the simple fact of birth is that of an idiot.’” (Brian, 2001, p. 283, in Bajkiewicz, 2009, p. 271)

That “well-worn maxim” still exists, but I’ll get back to my thoughts on that in a second.

The history of journalism education in Canada has taken much the same path, although as Dornan, Johansen and Weaver (2001) point out, the big difference in the evolution of Canadian journalism education has been government involvement.

Talk about creating a post-secondary journalism course began in 1902 when the chancellor of Queen’s University, Sir Sanford Fleming, held an essay contest on the subject (Dornan, Johansen & Weaver, 2001). However, those who participated in the contest, many of whom were journalists, were against the idea. All but one of the 13 argued that “a liberal education is preferable to narrow specialization” (Queen’s Quarterly, 1903, in Dornan, Johansen & Weaver, 2001).

Journalism education in Canada became reality following the Second World War when the federal government asked universities to create journalism programs so that veterans returning from the war could study in Canada, rather than having to go overseas (Dornan, Johansen & Weaver, 2001). One reason the government asked for this was that Ottawa was providing funding to veterans for schooling and didn’t want the money going overseas. In 1945, Carleton University and the University of Western Ontario founded the country’s first journalism departments, while Ryerson Institute of Technology (now Ryerson University, but always Rye High to me) created its program when Ryerson itself was established in 1948 (Dornan, Johansen & Weaver, 2001). More universities across the country followed suit, usually with a little nudging from the federal government.

“Name some great editor born full-winged like Mercury, the messenger of the Gods. The only position that occurs to me which a man in our Republic can successfully fill by the simple fact of birth is that of an idiot.” – Joseph Pulitzer

Yet there still exist tensions between the profession and academia. Those working in the “real world” question the value of a journalism education, while academics are still trying to define journalism education in a rapidly changing environment, and a media environment where the tools of creating media are at the fingertips of any elementary school student. No longer do you have to go to university or college to learn about making videos — you can do that with your cell phone and edit your home computer, or publish a blog. So is there any value in maintain journalism education?

The industry’s own job qualification makes up the answer. Perusing through the job postings (yes, there are still some jobs in journalism) I notice that many require some form of post-secondary journalism education. Journalism schools are obviously turning out journalists that news organizations want, plus a journalism graduate has training the news outlet doesn’t have to pay for. In a world where tomorrow brings a new technological breakthrough that changes the way journalists do their jobs, journalism schools are a necessity.

Now, journalism schools just need to keep their education relevant to the pace of change.