Missouri wonks: School of Journalism revamps its curriculum

From six possible majors to 20-something, with more possibly to come:

http://journalism.missouri.edu/news/2010/05-26-new-curriculum.html

Thoughts?

 

They seriously have an "Arts and culture journalism" concentration? Whatever happened to the simple "be an English major and indie music nerd" school of pop culture journalism?

Man, the next wave of pop music writers are going to be even worse pretentious assholes than the ones we have now.

 

So we have "science and health" and "arts and culture" but nothing specific for sports journalism? I'm sure it will be wrapped up in news reporting like it always has been, but there are things specific to sports that could give it its own category, including getting experience doing more TV and web work since it seems like we're all dipping into those things maybe more than our metro counterparts. Hopefully it's one that will be added later.

 

Well, obviously this is because sports: aren't important/ are entertainment/ guys are always hacks, etc....

 

Scuttlebutt is that a sports curriculum remains a future possibility.

Personally, I'd prefer to see aspiring sports journalists learn about and cover "normal" things first and foremost. Would help to weed out the fandorks who think "I like sports, so I'm gonna write about them!" makes one an actual journalist.

 

I didn't go to Mizzou or anything but at times I am envious of the depth and breadth of things journalism majors have at their disposal. But I'm also wary. I went to a liberal arts school where the entire journo program was interdisciplinary— not actually a "major" per say. Needless to say, seeing entire classes, much less entire MAJORS, devoted to these specific things is strange to me. I mean, entire classes on Critical Reviewing or Agricultural Journalism? It's kind of cool but also kind of ridiculous. I mean, I totally might have majored in Art and Culture Journalism had that been a possibility. Instead I was the English major who wrote for the newspaper and happened to like music. So they let me do all the arts crap. But I most certainly wouldn't have been as "well rounded" as a journalist had I majored in Arts and Culture Journalism and spent all my time reviewing two-bit indie bands and art openings. And I feel like that will be the case with a lot of these majors.

 

I'm sure they'll have core classes that everyone will still take, but then offer more classes that are specialized than they offer now. I agree about weeding out the "fandorks", but the same can be said of weeding out the "concertdorks" or "moviedorks" or "fooddorks" who just happen to like film or food, etc., and figure they can write about it. I still wonder what our food editor does sometimes, other than pick up boxes of food from new restaurants and say whether they like it or not. But I went to Mizzou, and even without the specialized curriculum I think the core classes (which I'm sure will still be required) weeded out enough of the people whose hearts really weren't into it.

 

I'm sure you'll see most the moviedork majors working at your local bookstore or Starbucks, while they blog. Would it be wise to put on your resume that your major was some subject in journalism, rather than an overall major? How many of those who are sports reporters worked in news without any experience before hand or vice-versa?

 

Why have a "science and health" journalism major, when you can major in a science of health-based field, pick up some writing classes, and probably be better prepared.

 

They can change the curriculum all they want. Any journalism degree, regardless the school, isn't worth the one-ply toilet paper the students will wipe their asses with.

 

Listen. That's uncalled for.

I'm not going to stand by on a site for journalists and put up with you ripping one-ply toilet paper.

 

Ha! If only that was true. I got in the game only for the sake of sports, and covered business for a semester and didn't learn a damn thing, except for the fact that I didn't want to cover business.

Of course, the experience I had prior to Mizzou probably played a role -- if I was a kid with no journalism experience, it might have helped -- but I definitely didn't learn much "journalism" stuff from reporting.

The leap from the basic classes to the reporting classes for a news ed or mag major seemed really steep. I realize that it's a helpful weed out technique, but no way in hell does one written story, one video story and one written/video story help prepare you for a beat that requires a minimum of 20 stories or so. I realize that doesn't sound so tough, but it's a giant leap as a 20-21 year old and hopefully a smoother transition is part of this new system.