The University of Colorado at Boulder is considering shutting down its School of Journalism and Mass Communication as part of a “strategic and budgetary realignment,” according to a news release issued today. In the release, the university’s chancellor, Philip P. DiStefano, cited the “tremendous pace” of change in “news and communications transmission as well as the role of the press and journalism in a democratic society” as among the reasons for a review of the journalism school’s status. At the same time, Mr. DiStefano said the university would explore a “new interdisciplinary academic program of information and communication technology.” Committees looking into the proposals will receive input from faculty members and students this fall and report back to the chancellor next year. Even if the school is closed, all current students would be able to complete their degrees, the university said.
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14 Responses to U. of Colorado at Boulder Ponders Closing Its Journalism School
eelalien - August 26, 2010 at 8:07 am
With all the active discussions related to the fate of conventional journalism, and the impact on the existing journalism professions and media venues, it was simply a matter of time before a hard look at existing, traditional journalism departments and courses occurred. The Univ. of Colorado Boulder are just among the first of what will surely be widespread efforts to re-evaluate the concepts of what “journalism” and the role of the “journalist” is in the 21st century. I only hope that the underlying mission of the reporter and the news providers do not become lost in lumping journalism with “information and communication technology” – that is a truly wide swath of content that may have nothing to do with conveying real news and meaningful reflection on it. Twitter is NOT journalism…
gsawpenny - August 26, 2010 at 8:42 am
eelalien,While I agree with almost all you have to say, journalism hasn’t been “journalism” for several years. “Real news and meaningful reflection” have been long lost to screaming the screaming voices of silly causes and TV/internet rating systems. While classes in the subject should be offered they should fall under the control of some other department like communications. Sad to say, but while the education should stay, the department should go.
tridaddy - August 26, 2010 at 9:26 am
Most journalism these days has more to do with opinion and entertainment than a journalist doing his/her best to report on an issue in an unbiased manner. Maybe they should consider moving the journalism program to the theater and dramatic arts department.
geochaucer - August 26, 2010 at 9:49 am
It’s awfully glib to claim that “journalism isn’t journalism” anymore. Lots of reporters and newspapers do the kinds of serious reporting, including fact-checking, that we desparately need in these 18 percent of Americans believe Obama is Muslim days. Now, it’s true that the economics of news have forced many places to reduce their reporting staffs, and it’s also true that in search of audiences, many publishers have enhanced opinion and “churning” elements. Serious journalism still happens. What is really the case is that “readers aren’t readers” anymore. That is, the number of people who seek well-reported and factual information continues to plummet. If we in higher education are not graduating students who know–and care about–the difference between true reporting and recirculating ideologically-driven innuendo, then we’re failing at something basic.
physicsprof - August 26, 2010 at 9:53 am
This is big corporation conspiracy — a) to buy practicing journalists’ loyalty and degrade tv/newspapers to screaming BS left and right, b) claim that journalism lost its way as a profession and close schools and sqeeze the seeds of investigative journalism out of future professionals, c) transform the population into serves unobstructed.
goxewu - August 26, 2010 at 9:59 am
Closing a journalism school and transferring what’s left of its classes to a school of information technology and communications is like closing the music department and transferring what’s left of its classes to a school of audio technology, or closing the art department and transferring what’s left of its classes to a department of opthamology, or closing the history department and transferring what’s left of its classes to the school of library science, or…
davi2665 - August 26, 2010 at 10:38 am
Good luck to the people actually trying to close a school. No matter how outdated a program may be, or how financially disastrous their budget may be, when an administration proposes the closing of a program, there will be venomous and vociferous opposition as well as destructive attacks, often including very real physical threats. I have helped to open many programs, and helped to close one losing program. The latter experience created a fury, with threats, vandalism, and nasty attempts at retribution, as nothing I have ever seen. To those contemplating this action, prepare yourselves for the firestorm ahead, and be sure to check your car before starting it up.
_perplexed_ - August 26, 2010 at 4:45 pm
Nothing in the press release said anything about inability to recruit qualified faculty, inadequate facilities, or difficulty enrolling or placing students. In short, no good reason given, other than an apparent desire to spend money elsewhere.
carlsalt - August 26, 2010 at 7:56 pm
Blatant self-promotion follows: Come to south Texas. At Texas A&M University-Kingsville we have a thriving program in journalism, mass communication, radio, television, and film. We have an award winning newspaper both online and in print. Our television students are producing broadcast quality documentaries in HD. Our graduates are teaching, are being placed nationally, and are going on to graduate programs. We are facing the challenge of 21st century convergence without abandoning professional journalistic practice. We are not about to close our Journalism program.
gsawpenny - August 27, 2010 at 9:20 am
goxewu (#6)Cute but not quite. Music and art are just that – an art. Modern journalism is simply noise.Also a question for carlsalt (#9): How can a “journalist” go from undergrad to grad to teaching without ever having worked in the public sector? Unlike say, history, journalism is more trade than liberal art. If you haven’t practiced your trade in a “real world” setting how can you teach the same? (i.e. I want a welding instructor to have welded on some big projects, not simply be a graduate of welding school).
amnirov - August 27, 2010 at 12:30 pm
hey goechaucer… the reason why 20% of Americans believe Obama is Muslim is proof positive that traditional journalism is NOT working anymore. I say three cheers for Colorado. It’s going to be the first of many programs to go through the same soul searching.
goxewu - August 29, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Re #10:To restate sans cuteness: Departments of communications and information technology don’t include the core of what journalism is: reporting, sourcing, fact-checking, analysis, argumentation (in op-ed), and, yes, a bit of rhetorical style. Likewise, departments of audiology don’t include the core of music: melody, rythym, harmony, lyrics, mood, “soul,” etc.Re #11:That 20 percent of Americans believe Obama is a Muslim is not the fault “traditional journalism.” While there are those who think that it’s journalism’s task to make its civically and politically consequential stories “sexy” and dumbed-down enough for the likes of that 20 percent to read and absorb them, it’s not. That job falls mostly to the schools, who are working against countervailing forces that include the entertainment industry, advertising, and demagogues such as Glenn Beck, who preach to people who believe that “the rule of law” is a bad thing that’s turning American away from being a “God-fearing, Christian country,” and who make up stuff, e.g., where the “scar” on the Washington Monument comes from.
gsawpenny - August 30, 2010 at 1:21 pm
#12 – Goxewu,If as you say journalism is – “reporting, sourcing, fact-checking, analysis, argumentation (in op-ed), and, yes, a bit of rhetorical style,” then surely the school at CU Boulder and others have failed their students. The recent history of journalism is awash with failures in reporting, sourcing, fact-checking (why bother, if we print it it must be true), and analysis (comically lacking in all major news agencies).As I said earlier, journalism is a trade like plumbing or HVAC. This is not in any ways meant as an insult. The skilled members of the allied trades work through an education, an internship (called an apprenticeship), and build hours on the job to become a skilled trades person. Journalism needs to return to this, needs to stop hiring bubble-heads from the local U who know how to craft a cute turn of phrase. Locally, my paper’s military analist has never served in uniform, never worked in the defense industry, and never made a command decision. His “reporting, sourcing, fact-checking, analysis, and op-ed arguments are beyond the pale of decent journalism. In short, he stinks. Those bothering to respond to the community omsbudsman for the paper will only hear back that the “paper adheres to the highest journalistic standards.” Says who? Another journalist.Thus, back to my point. Music, for example, is an art and as such requires membership in a robust arts forcused department. Journalism on the other hand is a trade and while I believe its members should have a solid liberal arts education I do not think it warrants a department. Those wishing to become journalists should study history, political science, antropology, philosophy and, of course, the trade aspects of journalistic writing but all of these classes can and should be found elsewhere in the academic system.
goxewu - September 1, 2010 at 8:51 am
Re #13:* “The recent history of journalism is awash with failures in reporting, sourcing, fact-checking (why bother, if we print it it must be true), and analysis (comically lacking in all major news agencies).” The “recent history” of journalism is not more “awash with failures” than any other period of journalism; it’s actually probably less so, given a) the litigious nature of our society, and b) the vast resources available for fact-checking. True, there are lots and lots of such failures in journalism these days, but there’s exponentially more journalism, print and electronic, around today than, say, twenty, twenty-five years ago.* Engineers, nurses, accountants, chemists, pharmacists, advertisers, graphic designers, retailers, lawyers, et al., are all tradespersons and many if not most of them are all–legitimately in my opinion–trained for their trades in universities.* Graduates of journalism schools/departments at Columbia, Northwestern, Syracuse, USC, the University of Missouri, and a lot of other journalism schools/departments are not “bubble-heads.” The injection of the casual insult, “bubble-heads,” rather implies an anti-academic bias on the part of gsawpenny that generally undercuts what he/she has to say.* The apprenticeship system of training journalists on the job(s), from copy boy to fact-checker to rewrite to cub reporter to reporter to bylined reporter (otherwise known as the “ink-stained wretch” system) is hardly appropriate for today’s journalism. While it’s debatable whether an undergraduate journalism student can get everything he or she needs in terms of both the requisite liberal arts education and tradecraft needed to start working for, say, a major daily right out of college, that sort of two-art education (parallel, by the way, to that advertiser and graphic designers ought to have) is essential for a good journalist.* If the other trades I’ve mentioned above can have classes particular to them gathered with their own departments, what is the objection to journalism enjoying the same setup? Journalism is not simply non-fiction writing; considerations of currentness, deadlines, space and word and airtime limitations, coordination of words and images, the nature of the audience(s) and, not the least, rapidly changing technology, play major roles–major enough so that the rubric of journalism school/department is needed to provide not just organize instruction in these things, but also a kind of philosophical overview as to what they mean and will mean in the near future.* gsawpenny’s maladroit local military analyst may indeed “stink,” but it’s probably not due to his not having served in the military or not having been employed by the defense department. Most pro football writers never played pro football; most political columnists–left, right, or center–have never held elective office; most music critics never held a chair in a symphony orchestra, and so on. gsawpenny’s maladroit local military analyst may lack in reporting and fact-checking skills, but those probably wouldn’t be any better today had he served in the military–not exactly known for skeptical fact-checking and getting second opinions–yesterday.