For my followers that aren’t associated or interested in Mizzou’s J-School, allow me to explain the outpouring of #lfyj tweets on Wednesday evening. I’m not apologizing though, because it was one of the coolest things that I have ever been a part of.
If you were a part of it, here’s a recap from my perspective. And, thank you so much.
#lfyj was a completely impromptu discussion about innovation in curriculum at Mizzou’s J-School. It started with a simple tweet from Erica Zucco and retweet from Jessica Mustain about a group of Mizzou Journalism students’ capstone project- Letters From A Young Journalist.
Suddenly, what is known as the “snowball effect” happened. It was epic.
Mizzou Journalism professor Karen Mitchell, senior convergence major Kelsey Proud (who came up with the #lfyj hashtag), myself, and a few other students started to discuss what the website suggests. Before we knew it, there were plenty of students, faculty, alumni, and other interested outsiders joining the conversation.
Something great happened. There was no bashing. There was no insulting. There were no “what I say doesn’t matter” attitudes.
It was an intellectual outburst of ideas to improve education. It was awesome.
Completely unintentionally, I found myself in a conversation about how to improve my school through innovation. And it wasn’t just ranting by the students. We were being listened to. We were being talked to. We felt like we had a voice in our education and our future. This awesomeness lasted for two hours.
I was so excited that this was happening. I had questioned Mizzou’s J-School in the past for resting on it’s laurels and not striving to be on the leading edge of journalism. But this chat sealed the deal. The school cares. The students care. We are striving to be the best.
So what were the take-aways from this awesomesauce? Here is my summary, from a student’s perspective:
1. Break down the silos
Mizzou’s J-School has six undergraduate sequences, or programs: Convergence Journalism, Photojournalism, Print and Digital News, Magazine Journalism, Radio-Television Journalism, and Strategic Communication. For the most part, they exist in a silo, with the students, courses, and professors rarely overlapping.
This needs to change.
Some students proposed a complete dismembering of sequences. Others simply proposed opening up the sequences so that there is more flexibility in the courses that students can take. I’m a fan of the latter; there still needs to be structure.
But there also needs to be autonomy. The profession of Journalism is fluid. The students (and their education) needs to be as well. I am majoring in Strategic Communication, but I would also like to master the basics of shooting and editing video, copy editing, photography, and more.
2. Improve the flow of communication
At it’s core, journalism is communication. As an elite journalism school, communication among students, faculty, and administration should be quite excellent.
It isn’t. And there is no excuse for it not to be.
Discussions like #lfyj, in which professors and students were involved, is the first step to this. But students yearn for more. Having Associate Dean Brian Brooks grilling hot dogs on the quad isn’t enough. We want interaction on an intellectual level, not an intestinal one.
This falls on the shoulders of students, faculty, and administration. Faculty and administration need to reach out to student and student organizations and encourage them to voice their opinions. Students and student organizations need to set up events in which issues critical to our education are discussed. Not ice cream socials, not pizza parties (although those aren’t bad, especially when free).
3. Make some changes to required courses
There was a lot of debate during #lfyj on what classes should be dropped, added, and changed. Here are the top three discussed, and what needs to happen:
Cross Culture Journalism (JOURN 2000)- This class is very important. We get that, and agree that it should be required by all sequences. But by the fifth week, 95% of the class loses interest. From that point until the final project, nothing is learned, just recited.
Proposal- There seems to be two different ways to approach this. One suggestion was to make it a two-hour course. Cover the material and get to the application of it (the project).
Another option, which was discussed and seemingly endorsed by many students, is to absorb the material into another course- such as Principles of American Journalism, or even History of American Journalism. By focusing an entire course on this subject (and beating said subject like Mangino beats KU football players), kills any emphasis in further classes. But the subject needs to be an emphasis throughout journalism. All the time. The integration of it, from freshman courses to capstones, would provide many chances practical application of the subject.
News (JOURN 2100)- This course, required for all sequences, is just too much. Not in workload, but in content. I enjoyed the course, but a few months later, I don’t feel like I learned much from it.
Proposal- This course needs to be broke into two courses: Principles of Writing and Principles of Reporting. I believe that the former should be required for all sequences, but the latter be optional for Photojournalism and Strategic Communication (fyi, as a StratComm student, I would still take it).
The first, Principles of Writing, would focus on learning AP Style, grammar, usage, sentence structure, and so on. In talking with people in the “real world”, like employers and alumni, this is an area that Mizzou J-School graduates are weak in. Personally, I know that I need to improve my technical writing skill. I enrolled in J2100 knowing that. I left with the same feeling.
The second, Principles of Reporting, would focus on the reporting (*duh). The convergence project, the profile, the interview assignments, and other participatory applications. There needs to be more training on interviewing techniques and how to report different types of stories. By making Principles of Reporting it’s own class, this would be allowed.
History of American Journalism (J3000)- Full disclosure: I haven’t taken this course yet. But I’ve heard stories. Oh, have I heard stories (it’s a journalism school- it’s what people do).
Proposal- Integrate this course into another course, like Principles of American Journalism, or improve how the curriculum is taught. I’ve heard the words “data dump”, “dry”, “memorization”, and “I’m not learning anything” in reference to this course numerous times.
Students understand the importance of history. We get this. Many of us actually enjoy it (because history is full of stories, and, well, see above). But a non-participatory, force-feed of facts is not how we learn. When I said that journalism students yearn engagement, it wasn’t just for extra-curriculars. It’s in the classroom, too. Maybe assign group projects to “report” on something historically important to journalism. Or give us some facts about the history of journalism- then allow us to come up with (and possibly present) why it’s important to the history of journalism.
4. Some changes for Strategic Communication
In a discussion about Strategic Communication courses, Professor Mitchell tweeted that “We HAVE to find a way to free up these classes for you students.” Even as a Strategic Communication student, I agree. I would love for students from other sequences to be in my classes.
Also, Mizzou needs to improve it’s options for public relations courses. Many of the Strategic Communication courses are very advertising- and creative-heavy. But in the communications industry, the walls are breaking down. Advertising, public relations, and marketing are becoming integrated, and students need to be prepared for this.
Proposal- Develop more courses in public relations and integrated communications. Mizzou doesn’t even meet the requirements for a PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society of America), something that would be a huge asset to the University as a whole.
Alright. I’m done for now. Those four suggestions are a mix of what I heard (read, whatever) from students participating in #lfyj Tuesday night, what I’ve heard around campus, and my own opinions. Please comment with any opinions, improvements, ideas, or criticisms (whether you’re at Mizzou, from Mizzou, or just interested in pushing education further).
Thank you all. Everyone who is reading this post, everyone who participated in #lfyj, everyone who is working towards innovation in our education. Thank you for caring.
Now, it’s time for action.
Take note: The Journalism Students for Curriculum Innovation will be meeting at 5 p.m., Tuesday, December 1 in the conference room of the Journalism Library. The #lfyj discussion will surely provide a fantastic starting point. If you can’t make the meeting, follow the hashtag #jsci and tweet in with your thoughts.
Photo credit to Flickr user Adam Proctor under Creative Commons license.
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