Message from the Chair

Journalism educators spend a lot of time these days thinking about what the future holds for journalism, and what these future developments might mean for our students.  News coverage is full of dire predictions for mainstream news organizations, side by side with rose-coloured assertions about the promise of new media forms.  Predicting the future is always a dangerous game, but because our job is to prepare students for that future – they will, after all, be the next generation of reporters and editors and producers – delving into some level of prognostication is unavoidable.  Will there be printed newspapers a decade from now?  What range of media-specific skills will our students need?  Is multi-platform journalism indeed the future, and if so, when will news organizations figure out how to make it pay?  Are on-line sites like Twitter and Facebook and YouTube mere passing fads, or will they in fact have a significant impact on journalism?  What, in sum, will journalism be like 20 years from now?

The current transformation of the news industry is not the first in history.  If most of us who teach have only read about the impacts of telegraphy and telephony and radio in journalism history books, we have all lived through and worked through the emergence of all-news radio and television channels, satellite broadcasters and the complete computerization of the news operation, regardless of medium.  I can recall vividly leaving the typewriter era of newspaper reporting and editing one day, and confronting the computer era the very next day.  Literally.  We have all lived through the increasing commercialization, concentration and corporatization of the news industry as well.  For as long as I have worked in journalism, first as a reporter and editor, now as an educator and researcher, the practice and the institutions that structure that practice have been in transition.  Change is constant.  And, sadly, it does not always result in better journalism or more responsive and responsible news organizations.

Over the past few years our department has undertaken a number of initiatives to ensure our students are ready for whatever awaits them.  Our move to the CJ Building on the Loyola Campus in 2005 coincided with a complete upgrade of our equipment, studio facilities and classrooms, an upgrade that is ongoing.  We want our students to have at their disposal all the story-telling tools they'll need to work in journalism and to be comfortable adapting to ever-new applications.  We want them also to have the critical thinking skills necessary to journalism, so that they will be not only first-rate journalists, but future decision-makers capable of leading journalism in new directions.

We have spent more than a year meeting to re-think and revise our undergraduate curriculum, ensuring students have both a broad range of current, media-specific production skills and a satisfactory level of competence in each of those areas.  We developed two new graduate programs to fill distinct needs:  a research-oriented MA in Journalism Studies (starting in September) for those students interested in thinking through and analyzing the institutions and practices of journalism, and a Graduate Diploma in Photojournalism (proposed and awaiting approval) for those most interested in the visual dimensions of journalistic story-telling.

Last February, we initiated an industry roundtable which brought together full-time faculty members with seven people from various sectors of the news industry to discuss issues confronting us all.  The consensus was that it was a very productive session; it was an opportunity for media managers to see what it is we do and for all of us to take time away from the daily grind to share our thoughts about journalism today and tomorrow. We plan to make these roundtables regular get-togethers.

In June, three of our faculty members and one of our recent graduates presented their research in the first Journalism Symposium as part of the Canadian Communication Association meeting in Ottawa.  This is a new initiative, which provides a forum for journalism researchers and educators to share their ideas. Concordia University will host next year's meeting as part of the annual Congress of the Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences.

We have continued to work to improve the picture this web site provides of the work that we do.  We want it to be a resource not only for potential students interested in applying to our programs, but a resource as well for current students and recent graduates; we've spent a lot of time trying to keep our employment, internship and scholarship listings current and comprehensive.

All of these activities are part of our effort to understand journalism as it transforms, to play a role in that transformation, and thereby ensure that our students are as ready as they can be for journalism's future.

Mike Gasher

June 29, 2009