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Journalism education, media must forge new ties

Commentary

By Charles L. Overby
Chairman and CEO, The Freedom Forum

07.15.98

In my lifetime, I have never seen less respect by journalism educators and media professionals for one another.

Unless the two groups can find common ground for mutual respect and partnership, journalism educators are going to be the 21st century equivalent of Latin teachers. Most Latin teachers can explain why they are needed. But that's the point: They must spend their time justifying their existence.

Journalism education is buffeted from both sides:

• From elements within academia who see journalism education as a trade school and an unimportant aspect of the higher learning process.
• From many within the news profession who see journalism educators as irrelevant or unsatisfactory in teaching and preparing future reporters and editors.

With diminishing support inside and outside, journalism education is threatened as never before.

This disrespect is compounded by the low esteem that many educators have for the media. To make matters worse, many within the news business have developed a self-loathing for their profession.

This self-loathing threatens journalism education and journalism itself.

It reminds me of the time I was in my dentist's chair, and he decided to confide in me: "I've been thinking maybe I don't want to spend the rest of my life sticking my hands in people's mouths."

Many journalism educators find themselves in the same position today. They find it somewhat distasteful to be educating students for a business that pays students poorly and produces a daily product that they often deride or dislike.

If those educators cannot come to grips with the end product of their teaching -- namely newspapers and local TV newscasts -- then they're no better off than the dentist who doesn't like to stick his hands in people's mouths.

The same can be said for journalists who don't like what they're doing.

At the Newseum, we have a collection of movie clips that portray journalists. In one famous scene in "Deadline USA," Humphrey Bogart holds the phone out to the sound of rolling presses and says to a gangster on the other end, "That's the press, baby, the press, and there's nothing you can do about it."

We have lost the Humphrey Bogart spirit, and it's up to all of us to put it back. Not by pointing fingers. But by understanding that we're all in this together.

We must renew our enthusiasm for why we are in this business. We must lift up the nobility of journalism education and the news media.

Too often, we all act as if the reporting, editing and presentation of the news is just another job. It's not unusual for nonjournalists to feel that way. But that mentality is seeping into journalism schools and newsrooms.

We must never forget that the free flow of information is the cornerstone of our democracy. If that seems smarmy, then maybe we should check our cynicism levels.

Of course, improvements are needed in both journalism education and the news profession. But wringing our hands won't do anything.

The role for journalists and journalism educators is to improve journalism, not abhor it.

Enlightened news professionals and journalism educators must find ways to improve journalism together.

There are thousands of newsroom professionals and journalism educators. Maybe a few hundred from both sides could lead the way in forging meaningful partnerships for the 21st century.

Our future could depend on it.