Radio-TV Journalism Curriculum: First Jobs and Career Preparation

It has been more than a decade since the heralded Oregon project Planning for Curricular Change in Journalism Education-commonly referred to as the Oregon Report (1983)-drove a deep wedge between the concepts of a general journalism education and a professionally oriented education. In late 1996, to help bridge the gap between mass communication programs and the profession, a task force of the Society of Professional Journalists funded by NBC news reporter Jane Pauley made numerous recommendations regarding broadcast education. However, the study primarily used broadcast executives as resources to study the principal question of the preparedness of entry-level journalists (Tomorrow's Broadcast Journalists: A Report and Recommendations from the Jane Pauley Task Force on Mass Communication Education, 1996). This study is unique because it provides a nationwide examination of the opinions of both industry professionals and educators specifically regarding broadcast curriculum. Furthermore, this study reveals for the first time an agreement between academics and professionals on the approach to the best broadcast journalism education. Literature review On one side of the curriculum debate are the proponents of skills-oriented education-a professional method of training students that resembles a trade school (Dorfman, 1984; Friendly, 1984). On the other side are advocates of a broad-scoped liberal arts education (Planning For Curricular Change in Journalism Education, 1984; Planning For Curricular Change in Journalism Education, 1987; Mullins,1987; Dickson and Sellmeyer, 1992). Their beliefs are grounded in neohumanism, the founding principles of the university. Neohumanism was a direct descendent of humanism stemming from the study of classical culture and culture during the Middle Ages and was one of the driving forces behind the Renaissance. Neohumanists "view the human being as a learner, recognizing the primacy of cultivating the intellect but assuming a dualism of mind and body, thought and action, and reason and emotion" (Crookston, 1975; Knock, Rentz and Penn, 1989, p. 117). Based on this, neohumanists would argue that some college students are not receiving higher education at all. Instead, they are participating in a lower order of study in a university environment (Gossman,1990). This lower order cultivates human capacities "for the useful knowledge and practical skills required by the majority for the dayto-day business of life, for trade, industry or agriculture" (Gossman, 1990, p. 105). Neohumanist theory still drives the concept of liberal arts education today. Students who focus their attention on liberal arts disciplines such as philosophy or history are engaged, according to Neohumanists, in a true higher order of study. Some students, however, aspire to pursue careers in skills-oriented professions, such as broadcast journalism. To prepare students for these disciplines, many universities or colleges offer skillsoriented courses in the respective areas of study. The debate over university education, in a sense, surrounds the issue of which capacities should be developed in the university-the lower order; both the lower and higher order; or, as it was originally intended, only the higher order capacities of students. Most scholars argue that broadcast curricular should not remain at status quo, but that a change is coming or is desperately needed (Planning For Curricular Change in Journalism Education, 1983; Dorfman,1984; Friendly, 1984; Planning For Curricular Change in Journalism Education, 1987; Mullins, 1987; Dickson and Sellmeyer, 1992; Tomorrow's Broadcast Journalists: A Report and Recommendations from the Jane Pauley Task Force on Mass Communication Education, 1996). Prior to the release of the Oregon Report (1983), McBath and Burhans contradicted the persisting myth that "higher education is largely non-career oriented" while arguing that, regardless of the educational system, the most viable program would satisfy "requirements for both liberal perspective and professional competence" (McBath and Burhans,1978, p. …