12 STATEMENT
Thursday, May 20, 2021 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
The j word: journalism at Michigan
BY EMILY BLUMBERG, STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT
Design by Erin Ruark
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.
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 Undergraduate journalism degrees, hundreds of students continue to with a few possible exceptions be involved in student publications. from top-tier universities such as Instead of focusing on teaching what Northwestern University and the students are most passionate about, University of Southern California, this decision seems to have been made seem to be associated with lucrative job in order to ensure that every U-M training rather than academic thought. program was deemed better than the By diluting these journalism courses rest. into the English and Communication Read more at michigandaily.com and Media departments, the
