The Walter Cronkite School will continue to move in an interdisciplinary direction with two new programs, the assistant dean said.
The Cronkite School announced on March 2 the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism will host a three-day seminar in June focusing on business coverage of the environmental movement. Assistant Dean Kristin Gilger said the seminar and others similar to it are part of a broad-based emphasis the Cronkite School has been making toward developing interdisciplinary programs.
“Newsrooms are very stressed, and it’s difficult for reporters to develop deep subject matter knowledge,” she said. “A conference like this could be really helpful in staying up to speed in what questions to ask, who to go to for more information and what kinds of stories need to be told.”
The seminar, which will be held from June 28 to 30, will bring in nine speakers, including journalists and sustainability professionals, to discuss some of the issues business journalists are facing in coverage of the green movement.
Robin Phillips, Web managing editor for the Reynolds Center, said the seminar will provide journalists with tools to understand issues in covering business environmentalism, track money being used for environmental pursuits, learn about green legislation and recognize “greenwashing,” which is when companies promote themselves as “green” companies to a higher degree than their actual practice of environmentalism.
“We’ll attract some attention because nobody else is doing something quite like this,” she said. “Also, ASU is recognized as a leader … in green economy and sustainability, so it kind of reinforces what ASU stands for overall.”
Funded by a $50,000 grant from the McCormick Foundation, an organization dedicated to sponsoring programs by various causes, 20 journalists from different beats, including municipal, business and science, will be selected for fellowships to attend the seminar. The funding will cover training workshops, lodging, meals and a $450 stipend, Phillips said.
Gilger said deep subject knowledge is key to the future of journalism to get information out that the public will understand.
The New Media Innovation Lab, the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship and the Latino and Business Journalism specializations all seek to provide students a chance to work with topics outside of the journalism field that still complement journalism studies, Gilger said.
Digital journalism sophomore Daryl Bjoraas, who is enrolled in the Business Journalism specialization, said the Cronkite School has recognized the potential student interest in learning how to become an expert reporter on a specific subject.
Specializations are “one of those things that we could always use more of,” he said. “There is a definite need for combining journalism with a lot of different areas.”
Also, a new partnership between the Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minn., and the Cronkite School was also announced on Feb. 25 that will bring medical students to the Downtown campus for master’s degrees in journalism.
Second-year medical students from the school will have the option to spend one year, shortened from the normal 15-month program, studying topics such as print and broadcast reporting, online media, and medical journalism.
Sheila Collins, chair of the Division of Education Administration at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, said this partnership will be beneficial to all students involved.
“Having these additional skills and experiences will help these medical students become better physicians,” she said. “We believe that the presence of medical students in Cronkite classrooms will enrich the classroom experience for all students.”
The program, set to begin in fall 2010, will place medical students in the same classes as both first and second-year graduate journalism students, beginning with an eight-week boot camp and culminating in a capstone project. Cronkite School Associate Dean Marianne Barrett said the school expects about three students to enroll for the program each year.
Gilger said the program will help to expand the scope of journalism students about health issues in the same way that the environmental coverage conference will expand the understanding of current journalism professionals on environmental issues.
Journalism students are “going to be working in interdisciplinary studies more and more,” Gilger said. “In the past … they were just sort of in the newsroom, and they were really isolated. That’s just not true anymore.”
Contact the reporter at vpelham@asu.edu
