Department of Journalism CSU, Chico

Department of Journalism CSU, Chico

PART II SECTION 3

CURRICULUM

Appendix: Assessment plan; Report on alumni; Syllabi revision; catalog copy

1. Transcripts and syllabi are available for inspection in the department office.

2. & 3. N/ A

4. At what point in an academic career is a student considered eligible for admission to the professional journalism and mass communications program? (Some programs require that the student complete one or two years of college level courses before becoming eligible for admission.)

Students are eligible for admission to the journalism major in their first year at CSU, Chico. The same is true for those who minor in journalism.

5. Discuss admissions requirements, including required academic standings. What testing does the unit require of competence in the language before a student enters the program? Before the student graduates? (Discuss undergraduates andgraduates separately, if the graduate program is part of the review.)

California high school students with a 3.00 GP A and above qualify for admission to the university and journalism program with any ACT or SAT-l test score. High school students with a GP A below a 2.00 are not qualified for regular admission.

Community college students are required to have 60 units and a C average in order to transfer to the University.

Students are not required to pass a language competence exam prior to admission, however, they must take an English placement exam that determines which English class they will be required to take. Journalism majors must pass the writing proficiency course (JOUR 260-Media Ethics) with a C- or better in order to graduate.

6. To what extent can individualized programs of study be planned to meet the special interests and needs of students?

Mandatory advising by faculty members in their fields is designed to help students map out their course of study from the moment they declare journalism as a major. Students in the news editorial and public relations sequences are mandated to take core courses but there is a certain amount of flexibility built into the curriculum (see elective courses) to allow students to pursue their particular interests in the field. Special permission may be granted for students to substitute a required class with a specific elective class. Furthermore, the requirement for a minor for all journalism majors provides the opportunity to construct an individualized program of study. Journalism students may

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combine their news editorial and public relations majors with a wide variety of other disciplines from African studies to women's studies.

Practicum assignments and internships further assist students in developing their special interests and needs. Together with the balance of practical and theoretical courses, practicums offer students a well-rounded professional education.

The department does not offer a graduate degree.

7. Describe the unit's involvement in service courses for non-majors.

The journalism department offers two general education courses that serve non-majors: JOUR 110 Entertainment, Mass Media and American Culture and JOUR 111 Women, Men and the Media. The enrollment in each course has grown from 10 to 15 students per section to more than 50-60. These courses are part of a collection of theme courses from which students complete three to meet the nine-unit university upper division theme requirement. The journalism courses are in the American Identities and Cultures and Gender Perspective themes, respectively. The JOUR 111 course is cross listed with the women's studies department and is taken by many women's studies majors.

The department also provides other courses that attract many non-majors. Courses such as JOUR 224 (Public Opinion and Propaganda), JOUR 233 (International Communication), JOUR 125 (Magazine Writing) and JOUR 060 (Writing for Mass Media), to name but a few, enroll students who major in agriculture, languages, political science, sociology, etc. International students are attracted to JOUR 233 (International Communication) in particular. Additionally, we offer a minor in journalism that attracts around 35 students.

8. This question is in regards to graduate education, which is not applicable to this program.

9. Describe the current teaching of ethics, law, history and theory of journalism and mass communications. If these subjects are taught as separate courses, what are the teaching qualifications? If these subjects are included in skills or other courses, how does the faculty regularly evaluate the quality and quantity of the teaching of thesesubjects that actually takes place?

Ethics, law and history are all separate courses in the CSU, Chico journalism program. Of course, elements of each permeate the course content of most journalism courses. For example, a core course, Introduction to Communication, offers a great amount of history, while touching on law and ethics. Ethics and law also are course topics featured in the writing and editing classes.

The department solely staffs the ethics, law and history courses. Over the past two years, the primary faculty member assigned to the ethics course (JOUR 260), a required journalism core class, and the history course (JOUR 221), an elective for both news

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editorial and public relations students, is one whose research has focused on media and transition which has included historical and ethical elements, as well as comparative and theoretical aspects. He is conversant with American media history and journalistic ethics. Course designs were predicated on what was felt to be the central foci for history and ethics but also on aspects of history/ethics classes taken while the professor was in graduate school. In addition, the faculty member regularly writes for general circulation publications as well as scholarly publications and therefore keeps in close contact with editors, discussing a number of journalistic issues, including ethics.

Another faculty member, now retired and emeritus, also has taught several sections of the ethics course over the past few years, and is one who developed the course after attending the Freedom Forum-sponsored summer University of Missouri workshop in the teaching

of journalism ethics. The course design, including a common text, has been adopted by faculty who also may be assigned the course.

For the past several years, Mass Communication Law (Journalism 231) has been taught by two faculty members. (The course is required for news-editorial students and a major elective for public relations students.) One is a part-time faculty member who is an attorney and has mass communication degrees. The other is a full-time faculty member who recently completed her doctoral work, which included elements of media law. The course curriculum was developed jointly, based on each faculty's experience in an effort to create a course that provides a practical, solid grounding in media law.

Since the 1997 site visit, revisions have been made in regard to the communication theory course. Based on the site team evaluation, and in accordance with faculty and student opinions, the Theories and Principles of Communication course (Communication 100) was eliminated to allow for more flexibility in the professional options. However, while there is no longer a dedicated communication theory course, theory remains an important aspect of the curriculum, and is included in many of the skills courses. For example, Introduction to Communications (CDES/JOUR 001), which is a core journalism course, discusses theory extensively throughout the class, including basic theoretic principles, media effects, and the media's manipulation in presenting information to the public. In the Introduction to Public Relations course (JOUR 044), an option core course for public relations students and an elective option for news-editorial students, general as well as specific public relations theories are discussed. In Public Relations Strategy (JOUR 155), an option core course for public relations students, several mass communication theories are discussed, including sender/receiver models and persuasion. In Public Opinion and Propaganda (JOUR 224), an elective for both public relations and news-editorial students, emphasis is placed on politics, opinion measurement and the role of the mass media in the formation of public opinion. Attention is also focused on how the mass media shape individual and collective opinions.

The faculty members who teach the above mentioned skills courses have been selected on the basis of their academic training and professional experience. All have doctorates or master's degrees with significant professional experience. Periodic curriculum reviews at faculty meetings and peer reviews further assess content and teaching.

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10. Describe the unit's curricular efforts: a) to ensure that students know about the current and historical status and contributions of minority and female journalists and other communication professionals; and b) to help prepare students to understand, cover, communicate with, and relate to a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and otherwise diverse society. Provide specific and relevant information. Course syllabi, assignments, and other course materials may be used as documentation.

Across the journalism curriculum, faculty members are committed to presenting information to students about the contributions of females and racial and ethnic minority groups to journalism and mass communications and to preparing students to communicate effectively in a diverse society. Samples of various exercises described below are available for the visiting team to review as supplemental materials. The Section 3 Appendix features samples of syllabi from two writing classes (JOUR 060 and JOUR 121) taught by a faculty member who attended in spring 2003 a Poynter Institute for Media Studies seminar on including diversity across the curriculum. The before-and after samples will be featured in workshops for faculty during the next school year.

In the previous accreditation visit, the team noted a lack of diversity topics across the department's courses. Since then, a department policy has encouraged faculty to embed diversity topics in their courses. This is an evolving and growing effort.

The following section is longer than you might expect. The documentation is important, because we think a mere review of the department's syllabi does not adequately reflect what we have accomplished since the last visit. We thank you for your patience in reading the following narrative, which we have tried to compress for the sake of brevity.

New Course

One course, dedicated to study in this area, was added to the curriculum in the fall 2003. This course, titled Race and Diversity in Media (JOUR 211), is a major elective for both

public relations and news editorial students. The course introduces students to the social constructions of ethnicity and how they are involved in the production, distribution and consumption of the U.S. mass media. Critical analysis and discussion will be used to probe media and race issues, as well as to analyze racial portrayals in the media historically and in contemporary practice. Students will learn to identify problem areas as well as suggest strategies for change.

Core Courses

In Introduction to Communication (JOUR 001), issues considered include English only language initiatives, the growing popularity of non-English programming (LA's #1 radio program and Miami's #1 TV newscast are both in Spanish), and growing corporate media domination (Univision & Telemundo). The text, "The Media of Mass Communication" (John Vivian) includes a section on alternative and minority newspapers. The history of journalism section includes references to minority influence from Frederick Douglas to

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Connie Chung. Also covered is the "narrow casting" concept with Black Entertainment Television used as a case study.

In the Writing for Mass Media course (JOUR 060), the textbook contains a chapter on diversity that is an assigned reading. One faculty member has students do an exercise at the conclusion of their reading on recognizing bias and stereotypes in reaching audiences. The exercise asks students to examine a local newspaper for cultural, gender or age bias of any sort in headlines, stories, cutlines, ads or cartoons. They must report their findings in a short paper, identifying and commenting on the specific biased language or pictures and coming up with revisions that would avoid the bias. In another writing exercise, students are asked to confront a series of events that occur in a minority community. The context of the story requires understanding of diversity issues. A lab exercise for the class used by various instructors involves a hypothetical situation that is designed to have students consider diversity in the media. The final exam for the lab portion of the course requires that students listen to a videotape of a speech and then write a story. Speakers have included the president of BET; Tavis Smiley, NPR radio host; and a black Republican woman speaking about welfare reform.

Of course, the Ethics in Media (JOUR 260) class is natural place for examining the important issues raised by a diverse culture. It is difficult to imagine that an adequate course in media ethics would ignore lessons in multiculturalism; simply to cover moral reasoning, an instructor must cover Rawls' Theory of Justice, a most compelling theory for the discussion of gender and diversity representation by and within the media. The text of the course provides a basis for both written work and oral discussion. Students must address, for example, specific social justice and social responsibility topics by writing one-page papers on hypothetical cases and each, in a team, research and present an actual ethical dilemma situation assigned by the instructor.

News editorial courses

In Public Affairs Reporting, (JOUR 121) the textbook has a chapter on diversity that is assigned as a reading. Students are required to meet a diversity requirement that assigns them to produce a news story in which the issue is one that concerns a minority and in which most of the sources are minorities. At the beginning of the course, a discussion is held to justify the assignment. Further, students are encouraged to seek diverse voices for all their stories. Their weekly grade is based on how well they reflect the diversity of the community. A lab Internet exercise requires students to visit a Web site that features coverage of diversity issues. The students are required to read and write about the issues found at the site (currently the site is hosted by the Poynter Institute). Often final reporting projects for the class focus on diversity issues. Topics investigated by students include: interracial dating, minorities' perceptions of Chico, why the campus is so white, etc.

In Copy Editing, (JOUR 127) lectures and text emphasize diversity and sensitivity. Editing exercises include various sections that need to be edited to remove words that may be offensive to minorities. A review of the assignments often leads to discussions

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about using race as an identifier in news stories. Coaching exercises involve the idea of finding diverse sources in a community. For example, students view a headline from the Chico Enterprise-Record, "Police seek two black men seen running across The

Esplanade." Students are asked to assess the implications of the headline in terms of informing the public in a fair and sensitive manner. This is followed by a column written by the editor of a weekly newspaper who does an excellent job of explaining the unfairness of the headline in that it indicts an entire race of men. Most importantly, this exercise is a logical jumping off point for discussion of The Orion stylebook's entry under "descriptions," which says: "To avoid unfairly indicting an entire race of people, use descriptions of suspects only if they are fairly specific.’A black woman' is not fairly specific; 'a 6-foot white man with purple hair and a tattoo of a rose on his hand' definitely meets the 'fairly specific' test." In the next editing assignment in lab, students are expected to edit out of a story several irrelevant references to race, religion and age.

In Photojournalism, (JOUR 131) Students are told to learn about cultures before photographing them. Some Native Americans and Arab Americans do not want to be photographed for religious, political or other cultural reasons. In order to collect accurate information cultural sensitivity is required. For a final project students do a photo essay/story. The instructor approves the topic. Students are encouraged to reveal a subculture to the mainstream. One project was titled Latino Life at Chico State. A Pulitzer nominated AP photographer, Paul Sakuma, has agreed to speak in the class during the fall 2003 semester. He has guest lectured at other schools on minorities working in journalism.

In International Communication (JOUR 233), a key objective is to develop greater understanding of other cultures and media systems. Readings, class discussions and papers are all targeted toward diversity and cultural understanding.

In Magazine Writing (JOUR 125) students deal extensively with analysis of target and specialty markets, including African American, Hispanic, and women's publications. Each semester presentations are done on magazine markets, including those that focus on different ethnicities. Final projects often deal with diversity issues, including interracial dating, religion and music, racism and stereotypes, diversity in sports, and profiles of people of different races and religions. Extensive readings are assigned and discussed that deal with diversity issues and the contributions of minority and female journalists.