By The Beacon Editorial Board
Long-time communications studies professor and friend of The Beacon Mick Mulcrone will depart at the end of the this year, and the College of Arts and Sciences will have a big pair of shoes to fill.
Mulcrone is the last vestige of the university's long-defunct journalism department and is, effectively, the school's whole journalism program. Replacing him will mean replacing the program.
The communication studies department is interviewing candidates, and has met with a few already. We believe Student Media, The Beacon especially, has a vested interest in who is hired as journalism professor. With that in mind, we submit to those doing the hiring our criteria for what to look for in a new journalism professor (beyond resurrecting the journalism department, that is).
Possibly beyond every other quality one would expect from someone in this position, the incoming candidate must have knowledge and experience in multiple forms of new media.
Writing for the Internet, photojournalism, videography, Web design and audio are among the bag of tricks any future journalist will need to have if he or she expects a job. Likewise, any professor who teaches journalism should be sensitive to this need and should be able to facilitate that education for students.
With that in mind, any new media experience is worthless without a respect for the fundamentals. Whatever form journalism takes in the futurejournalists will still need to know the fundamentals of good storytelling.
Compactness of meaning. Proper Associated Press style. Ledes, nut graphs and headlines. All of this will still have value no matter where journalism goes.
Beyond whatever changes journalism takes in medium or content, the product still has to be produced and delivered with the highest standards of ethics in mind. Professionalism and integrity are what separate valuable, responsible, democracy-protecting journalism from idle drivel and mindless punditry.
One of the best and easiest ways students can learn about journalism beyond the classroom is in the trenches of different student media groups. It pains us when we address journalism-related classes and see how few the number of students enrolled actually work in Student Media.
A professor who expects to teach effectively and efficiently ought to do his or her best to foster good relationships with The Log, KDUP and The Beacon. Students seeking a career in journalism would be hard-pressed to start padding their resumes now, because as the job market shrinks, they'll need superpowers on top of their dozen internships and part-time stringer jobs.
The value of student media as a teaching tool and the best way to start building a resume aside, with full understanding we're looking out for ourselves here. We'd hope any new journalism professor would be there for student media for both consultation and advice.
Yes, this is a lot to ask of any professor in any field, but the nature of journalism asks a lot from journalists, both veterans and rookies too. Journalism today is competitive, as a business and as an occupation. Only the best media sources and the best journalists can survive.
The University of Portland and its future students deserve a professor who is conscious of these issues in his or her teaching and contributions to the community.
