By WILL NORTON JR.
Dean, College of Journalism
This is a college committed to traditional values.
This is a college devoted to providing students with strong preparation in the basics of advertising, broadcasting and news-editorial.
This is a college that requires 90 semester hours outside the college with 65 of those in the College of Arts and Sciences.
This is a college that requires a double major or three areas of concentration outside the college.
This is a college that requires two years of modern language at the university level or four years of modern language in high school.
Thus, this is a college that provides a broad liberal arts background and outstanding pre-professional preparation.
The curriculum is not designed to provide knowledge for its own sake but to place educated graduates in the mass media. The faculty do everything they know how to do in order to place those educated graduates with newspapers, television and radio stations and advertising and public relations agencies in Nebraska, the region and the rest of the nation.
As our faculty discuss the outstanding placement record of the college, they worry about changing opportunities in radio and television news, the intense competition for positions with advertising agencies and the erosion of salaries on newspapers. Sometimes faculty seem almost frantic during the middle of the semester if the students do not seem to be making much progress.
Employers and some of the major foundations that contribute to improving journalism express concerns about what they see as a lack of commitment to traditional values by recent hires. Several months ago, Mary Kay Blake, vice president for recruiting and placement for Gannett Co. Inc., made a presentation to the board of The Freedom Forum that seems right on target for much of the profession. She noted a colleague’s description of new employees who are entering the workplace today as compared with new employees of her colleagues’ generation.
- “We looked at our paychecks and made a budget. Today’s young people look at how much everything they want costs, and they seek out the job that will provide that much money.”
- “If we didn’t like something about a job…we put up with it, at least for a year or two. Today’s employees think a resume showing many jobs means they are highly valued.”
- “We were often happy to land any job…just to get that proverbial foot in the door. Today’s new workers expect to land the job they want in the city they want at the salary and the hours they want.”
Mary Kay has a valid point regarding young people in general, but I don’t think her observations fit the majority of our graduates. Most of our students come from Nebraska. Most of them have traditional values that are reinforced by a traditional faculty and curriculum.
So while many programs and media professionals worry about a new generation of students, it seems our faculty can proudly celebrate our students.
As we approach the turn of the millennium, traditional values are still vital in the changing media landscape.