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January 2011
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J-School Remodels Curriculum for the Future
The Cross-Cultural Journalism Freshman Interest Group poses outside Ellis Library. For one of their weekly classes, the students took a tour of the many resources available to them at the library. Photo: Jonathan Hinderliter.
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25 New Interest Areas Give Students More Education and Career Options
By James Coston
Strategic Communication Student
Emily Van Etten, a freshman Walter Williams Scholar, is part of the first class of Missouri School of Journalism students to be affected by the school's new curriculum options. What's more, she is also one of the first to create her own major.
Van Etten, from Naperville, Ill., created an education-journalism interest area because someday she would like to teach high school journalism. She believes the curriculum changes - and the study options they offer - will allow her to tailor her preparation. "The journalism business is competitive, and we're going to need a specialty that sets us apart," she says of journalism students.
In May the School's faculty unanimously voted to divide the six emphasis areas - convergence journalism, magazine journalism, photojournalism, print and digital news, radio-television journalism and strategic communication - into 25 interest areas. New options include design, editing, management and writing within different media, as well as new interdisciplinary fields such as arts & culture journalism, watchdog journalism and emerging media. This represents the biggest change to the school's curriculum since the addition of the convergence journalism sequence in 2005.
The new curriculum model is intended to give students more options and help them select courses that support their career goals, says Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies Brian Brooks.
"I think we've really given them the tools to sharpen their skills," he says. "It's not just about newspapers anymore. The media industry is changing quickly."
A new class, Fundamentals of Multimedia Journalism, has been added as one of the required courses that students take before concentrating on their area of interest. The others are Principles of American Journalism, Cross-Cultural Journalism and Newswriting. Career explorations in journalism, which helps freshmen identify and understand the many opportunities available in the field, has been made an elective.
Fundamentals of Multimedia will be offered for the first time this spring and will be taught by Assistant Professor Steve Rice.
"The industry now is requiring people to have multiple skills," Rice says. "You can't just be good at one skill and expect to succeed."
The class will help students develop the ability to work in different media. Assignments will include writing a traditional newspaper story, an online version of the story and a Twitter post linking the story. They'll also be expected to take photographs, record video and use a smartphone to upload to the Web.
Rice is excited about the opportunity to be the first professor to teach the multimedia course.
Peer Adviser Ben Stewart speaks to his class outside of Ellis Library. As a PA, Stewart both teaches the one-hour FIG course and lives with his students in their residence hall.
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PA Ben Stewart tells his FIG students about a section of the library. Stewart had to adjust his course syllabus to include discussions of the new options for his freshmen students. Photos: Jonathan Hinderliter.
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"On some levels, it's daunting, but it gives me a chance to talk to other teachers and model an excellent course," he says. "It will also help students figure out what career track they are on."
Current journalism students also will see changes across all media outlets. At the Columbia Missourian, where the focus has shifted from print to digital, there have been many questions about how the new interest areas will affect their family of publications and the roles that students play there.
"It will definitely help," says Tom Warhover, chair of the print and digital news emphasis area and executive editor at the Missourian. "We don't know how they'll affect the Missourian in terms of numbers, but we know the Missourian is going the same way as the curriculum changes, so that has to be a good thing."
These broad changes initially caught some 2010 freshmen off guard, but those in Freshmen Interest Groups (FIGs) have been helped by class discussions of the changes to the curriculum. FIGs are peer groups of about 20 freshmen with similar interests or majors. They live together in a residence hall and are co-enrolled in three classes. Each FIG is led by a peer adviser, an upperclassman who lives in the same residence hall and teaches the FIG's one-hour college introduction course. The dialogue between journalism faculty, FIG peer advisers and students has increased understanding of how the changes will affect and benefit them.
Cole Donelson, PA for a Walter Williams Scholars FIG, believes the changes will give students the versatility they need to succeed.
"The goal is still to make them well-rounded journalists, but also to have a specialty," he says. "I think there's a lot of crossover that combines a lot of the traditional sequences."
In a FIG class assignment, Donelson helped his students outline the courses they might take to complete their degrees. The plans can be discussed with their academic and faculty advisers.
"It's obviously a rough draft," he says. "But I think that having them think about the possibilities right now will help them out a lot down the road."
Ben Stewart, PA for a Cross-Cultural Journalism FIG, has dealt with many of the hurdles associated with the changes in curriculum. The first draft of the syllabus for his FIG class was due in May, around the same time the curriculum changes to the curriculum were determined, so Stewart modified his class schedule. He incorporated the new information, invited speakers from the School of Journalism to discuss the changes and provided students an open forum to ask questions.
Stewart believes the change will eventually be successful, but there is still some confusion.
"I think the transition has been done as seamlessly as possible," he says. "But at the same time, the freshmen are already integrated into the new program, and it doesn't really affect the upperclassmen, so there's a bit of uncertainty about how everything will turn out."
And if there isn't an option that fits a student's career goals, he or she can always choose interest area No. 25: Design Your Own, as van Etten has. She was initially apprehensive about the changes, but as her first semester progressed, most of those fears were alleviated.
"At first, I was kind of overwhelmed by the number of options and everything," she says. "But now that I've talked to different people and started to figure out what I want to do. I'm definitely more excited than anything else."
Interest Area Options
Starting fall 2010, the School of Journalism's six emphasis areas split into 25 interest areas. Journalism students now choose from an array of options designed to build expertise in areas in which journalism and strategic communication graduates typically find jobs.
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Bachelor of Journalism Interest Areas (Effective Fall 2010)
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Journalism Study Interest Areas
This list of more than 30 undergraduate interest areas is for those who were admitted to the school fall 2010 or after.
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Note: The International Journalism degree is granted in the student's emphasis area of choice but is administered by the School's International Programs Office. Individually-Designed Interest Areas are offered for students who find that none of the existing interest areas meet their needs; students may work with the faculty to construct one tailored to their educational objectives.
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