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Thursday, May 20, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
STATEMENT
The j word: journalism at Michigan
T
he debate of the college
major is an endless uphill
battle; you can ponder and
argue and make all the decisions you
want without ever truly knowing if
you’re making the right choice. It is
impossible for a major to guarantee
personal success, yet choosing one can
feel like closing yourself off to only a
select few career paths. The majors
that are most valued by academic
institutions constantly change as
society shifts its priorities and goals.
If I had known what I wanted to
do before entering college, there is a
good chance I would not have ended
up at the University of Michigan. I
have always been a writer and wanted
to pursue that in some form, but my
work with The Daily opened up my
love for journalism. Since realizing
what I wanted to pursue, I have
buried myself in deciding what major
and classes are the “next best thing.”
History, communications, sociology
and psychology are only a few of the
phases I’ve gone through just in this
past semester. The University’s lack
of a journalism major has made me
wonder whether or not I necessarily
need to major in it at all.
For
students
interested
in
journalism like myself, the debate of
practicality versus academic value
for undergraduate majors becomes
even more concentrated. A major
in journalism can offer plenty of
benefits: direct writing and reporting
training, a specialized curriculum
and access to professors who have had
work experience in the news sphere.
However, a journalism degree could
be too specific and prevent students
from experiencing a more theoretical,
well-rounded education.
In a report from the Knight
Foundation, a non-profit committed
to keeping journalism alive through
investment and grants, Carnegie
Corporation
President
Vartan
Gregorian puts it bluntly:
“Journalism schools are teaching
journalistic techniques rather than
subject matter. Journalists should
be cultured people who know about
history, economics, science. Instead
they are learning what is called nuts
and bolts. Like schools of education,
journalism schools should either be
reintegrated intellectually into the
university or they should be abolished.”
Here at the University, they have
chosen the latter. After a complicated,
century-long revamping of what is now
the Department of Communication
and Media, the original journalism
program at the University was
eradicated. Although it’s unclear why
this choice was made, many opponents
of the decision saw it as an elitist way
of weeding out students interested in a
vocational education.
Professor Derek Vaillant, who is
also associate chair of undergraduate
studies within the Communications
and Media department, explained
the combination of numerous extinct
programs
(Journalism,
Speech,
Theater, Cultural Studies, etc.) into the
department we know today.
The committee that chose to
shut down the journalism program,
Vaillant says, was charged by many
faculty and students for being elitist
and condescending. Many argued that
the University’s journalism program
“lacked national impact.”
“(Saying ‘lacked national impact’) is
a sort of a way of saying: it’s not very
prestigious, it’s not very good,” Vaillant
said. “Was it not very good for training
professional journalists? I’m not sure.
Was it not very good in the way that
it seemed kind of vocational and like
something that state schools do to pay
the bills? Maybe that’s closer to the
truth.”
In an attempt to stay true to
being the “leaders and best,” the
University
removed
a
program
with consistent student and faculty
interest. Prioritizing the liberal arts
and academic thought over vocational
training is a staple in America’s most
selective universities, such as those in
the Ivy League. Other highly ranked
public schools such as the University of
California, Los Angeles, University of
California, Berkeley and the University
of Virginia also utilize this liberal
arts approach. By abolishing our
journalism program, the University
is seemingly leaning into the identity
of an elite institution rather than the
large public university that it is.
Beyond the fact that few journalism
courses exist here to begin with, many
of them reside under aliases such
as “immersion writing,” “creative
nonfiction” and “public writing.”
The word “journalism” has become
somewhat of a four-letter word to
academics who prioritize abstract
ideas over practical skill training. We
hear very little of what Peabody award
winner and visiting professor in the
Department of Communication and
Media, Robert Yoon, refers to as the “J
word” within U-M academics.
Undergraduate journalism degrees,
with a few possible exceptions
from top-tier universities such as
Northwestern University and the
University of Southern California,
seem to be associated with lucrative job
training rather than academic thought.
By diluting these journalism courses
into the English and Communication
and
Media
departments,
the
University strives to associate itself
with top-tier academia rather than
career preparation.
“Especially if you look at the English
department, there are all these kinds
of creative writing programs and (the
euphemism “long form reporting”)
is one of the genres,” Vaillant said. “I
think (the English department) has
incorporated some of this form of
education, but it’s done very carefully
because they don’t want a perception
of overemphasizing vocation at the
expense of this more idealized life
of the mind, humanities sort of ideal,
which is the ideal of the modern
university.”
Although
I
understand
the
University’s desire to remain a place
of higher learning rather than of
vocational training, this sentiment
represents faculties’ disregard for
students’ interests. The decision to
eradicate the journalism program
was made by faculty even though
hundreds of students continue to
be involved in student publications.
Instead of focusing on teaching what
students are most passionate about,
this decision seems to have been made
in order to ensure that every U-M
program was deemed better than the
rest.
BY EMILY BLUMBERG, STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT
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