Debate About The Role of Journalism Schools
One of the most cited critiques of a journalism school was Michael Lewis's article in The New Republic (1993), "J-school ate my brain", which was strongly criticized by University of Maryland College of Journalism dean Reese Cleghorn in American Journalism Review. Discussion of the issues raised by Lewis was evident a decade later in the Chronicle of Higher Education colloquy on journalism education, Columbia Journalism Review's "Searching for the perfect j-school", and "The j-school debate" in the Christian Science Monitor. Alternative approaches to journalism education were suggested in Jack Shafer's Slate article "Can J-school be saved? Professional advice for Columbia University". An article in The Australian discusses "What makes a good school of journalism".
On the internet, a range of weblogs have been set up by journalism students to chronicle or to criticize their journalism colleges. Examples are: "jschoolyear", "jschool05", "the pod" blogspot, "jschool" blog, australia. An example of a weblog criticising university journalism education in Australia is. One journalism school in the UK, at the, has established a clearing house where all students are expected to contribute to the development and content of their own education and training using blogs.
Various commentaries on journalism education are related to criticisms of contemporary news media standards and values. One example is a paper by Jan Schaffer, executive director of J-Lab: the Institute for Interactive Journalism . A controversial paper to Australia's peak newspaper industry body PANPA (Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Association) by Professor John Henningham ("Journalism sold short in media courses") blamed industry lack of interest and university cost-cutting for falling standards in journalism education. In Canada, Mark Anderson of the Ottawa Citizen has argued the case for teaching business journalism in college rather than on the job. Canadian journalism professor Rick MacLean has rejected criticism by Robert Fulford ("Just what is the point of j-school") that the best potential journalists will find their way into the media, while many existing j-school students show no interest in news or the media. MacLean argues that education in journalism helps empower members of the public to understand how media work.
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