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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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