As seen in the Washington Square News.
The journalism department announced sweeping changes to its undergraduate curriculum Friday intended to strengthen students’ reporting skills and counter the department’s reputation as an easy major.
Set to launch in the fall, the new curriculum is much-needed, completely overhauling the undergraduate program from introductory to advanced courses, department chair Brooke Kroeger said. With nearly 700 majors, the journalism department is one of the College of Arts and Science’s largest departments.
“It was due time,” Kroeger said. “The world is changing and the department over the last 15 years has evolved into a place with a clearer identity. We wanted to express that through the curriculum.”
The current program is structured into three areas: print media, broadcast media and media analysis and criticism. Each area requires the completion of core “skills” and lecture courses that vary according to the area in which a student chooses to major.
“Right now, the way the current curriculum is structured, you could get through our program with less intensive reporting,” Kroeger said. “The new program will force you into the more substantive courses.”
The new curriculum will require the completion of two common introductory courses, three progressive skills courses and three electives —, designed to give students a firm foundation in the major, according to the journalism department.
“The first three courses are not media specific,” Kroeger said. “Instead of dividing students right away into print, broadcast and analysis, the early courses are media convergent. The specifics of every genre come later.”
The new curriculum begins with Foundations of Journalism, an introductory liberal arts course with journalistic themes.
“Foundations of Journalism is the gateway into the department,” Kroeger said. “The curriculum is progressive and designed to continually challenge you at a more difficult level.”
There is also a heavy emphasis on ethics early on in the curriculum, she said.
“Ethics was always offered, but now it’s required,” Kroeger said.
The honors course sequence will also be redesigned, replacing current offerings with honors sections of Advanced Reporting and the senior seminar, and allowing students to take nine of the competitive skills courses instead of the eight to which they were previously limited.
Another aim of the new course structure is to deter students who think journalism is an easy major, Kroeger said.
“If your reason for being a journalism major is because your parents told you that you should come out of college with practical skills, this is not the major for you,” she said.
There will be a transition program for students already studying in the department, including a “grandfathering” of current majors as well as information sessions to discuss the upcoming changes.
“Students need not panic,” Kroger said.
Although most students said they welcome the news, some students who read the announcement said they were concerned about the new requirements.
“It looks like the new curriculum is much more rigid and more straightforward,” junior journalism major Tracy Steel said. “It’s like a completely different major.”
Some upperclassmen said they are worried the changes would impact their course planning.
“I was hoping I would graduate early,” Steel said. “I just hope I don’t have to take extra courses and delay my graduation date.”
Though students said they understood the department’s desire to implement new curriculum, some found the changes unnecessary.
“It seems to me that these are pretty much the same courses with different names,” said Zack Barangan, a junior journalism major.
Many students said they would use the department’s resources to comprehend the new curriculum’s effects.
“I’m thinking about going to an advisor and really fleshing things out,” Barangan said. “I know I’m not going to be the only one who does that.”
The new undergraduate curriculum is the latest in a series of changes within the journalism department, including a score of new professors hired last fall and the elimination of the journalism minor, Kroeger said.
“The energy is palpable,” Kroeger said. “We’re excited about what we’re doing.”
The department’s announcement Friday also listed other new projects within the department, including a new webzine under the direction of Distinguished Writer in Residence Pete Hamill and former City Limits editor Alyssa Katz.
“We hope to see a product by next fall,” Kroeger said. “It depends on the submissions.”
The department also plans to move from its location in Carter Hall at 10 Washington Place to the top two floors of an unoccupied building at 20 Cooper Square, she said.
“Our target date is a year from now,” Kroeger said. “The new building will help a lot. The space will be less limiting.”