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Investigating the degree motivations and role conceptions of journalism students may shed light on the industry's trajectory. This study analyzes the motivations and perceptions of journalism students from two U.S. universities. Results show that students were motivated to pursue journalism for a mix of reasons, including civic engagement, a prestigious career, creativity in multimedia and writing, and an independent and nonroutine lifestyle. Respondents suggest that students view journalism's role as providing political accountability, delivering content that connects with audiences, telling stories, and setting the political agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although most higher education programs include a capstone course to culminate the student experience, program directors disagree on what the experience should look like. Updating previous research, this study examined the main goals, teaching methods, and subject areas covered in journalism and mass communication capstone courses. It also compared capstone course content and format to what professionals say is important to know. Based on a survey of department chairs and directors, the results show that capstone courses have become increasingly focused on individual coaching, the production of individual student projects, and the examination of issues related to careers and media in society.

Accreditation is among various outside influences when developing an ideal journalism curriculum. The value of journalism accreditation standards for undergraduate programs has been studied and is still debated. This study discovers views of opinion leaders in U.S. journalism programs, as surveyed program directors give reasons for being accredited or not. The most important reason for schools with, or obtaining, accreditation is reputation enhancement. But many directors question accreditation's value. Some perceive the cap on journalism credits that students can take as a limitation of student development and a hindrance to responding to increasing media industry convergence. (Contains 1 table and 46 notes.)

To carry out their mission of preparing students to be successful journalism professionals, educators make important decisions on the core curriculum: the common courses that all journalism students must take to graduate, no matter their area of emphasis or academic constraints. This national study of U.S. journalism program directors shows they agreed that training in writing and reporting is still considered the bedrock of journalism and that knowledge about visual communication has become an increasing priority. After that, however, these respondents disagreed on which specific courses take precedence for all journalism students. The authors offer several hypothetical models of core curricula. (Contains 2 tables and 39 notes.)

Replicates and updates the only other research that examined the adoption of computer-assisted reporting instruction in journalism schools quantitatively. Compares the different computerized sources being used in newsrooms and classrooms, and elicits the reasons that these sources are being used in each environment. Concludes many programs are catching up with the news industry's use of computer-assisted reporting. (SG)

This analysis of 89 U.S. daily newspaper Web sites on Sept. 11, 2001, shows that 65 percent of the home pages in the late morning and 38 percent in the late afternoon said nothing about the World Trade Center bombings. By late afternoon only 43 percent of the home pages had at least one photo or video of the 9/11 attacks., The tragic events unfolding on Sept. 11 presented a unique, although unfortunate, opportunity for local newspaper Web sites to provide their readers with much needed information. They had three major […]

Examines the International Women's Decade conferences held in 1975, 1980, and 1985. Indicates that amount of coverage increased substantially at the last conference, newspaper editors tended to place stories in lifestyle section rather than in the hard news section, the greatly expanded 1985 coverage was conflict-oriented, and the term "feminist" was used much less in 1985 than in 1975. (JD)

Accreditation is a topic that is sure to spark lively debates among faculty of journalism programs. And it has for years. Several prominent journalism programs in the United States recently let their accreditation status lapse from the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC)—leading to renewed public debate about requirements and what it means to receive approval every six years. Journalism educators around the world are closely following the developments of ACEJMC because the organization has been used as a model for accreditation bodies in other countries. Additionally, eight institutions outside the United States are accredited by ACEJMC. That international expansion has caused the membership of ACEJMC to be stable. This study examined whether US journalism programs intend to apply or reapply. Results indicated that some growth could be possible in the near future if no other programs let their status lapse, but it may be the accreditation program has reached a ceiling in the United States. That may force ACEJMC to make a decision soon on whether to further expand abroad or make it possible for smaller programs to be eligible for the accreditation process, which could benefit programs in the United States and abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electronic revolution in teaching As reporters use ever more sophisticated computerized news gathering techniques, journalism schools are busy keeping pace in an effort to prepare students for placement in [...]

Will the circle remain unbroken? Although journalism schools have been enrolling about 60 percent women and 40 percent men since 1980 (compared with 50:50 in 1977 and 40:60 in the [...]

Increasing numbers of news organizations have formal codes of ethics for their personnel This paper looks at the content of media ethics codes, how these codes are written and what comprises a news organization's fixed value system Results show that many written policies were devised in recent years, and a noticeable number of other news organizations said they have firmly established unwritten policies The written codes represented in this survey clearly draw lines around certain activities and label them as acceptable or unacceptable for journalists Teaching, unpaid appearances (such as on a television talk show), and participation in charitable activities are outside interests more acceptable than political activities in behalf of another person, or holding elected or appointed office Certain activities which remain as unfinished business include uniformity of enforcement, management ethics, financial interests, and spouse or friend conflict of interest [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]