Journalism & Mass Communication Educator

Enrollments in journalism and mass communication programs in the United States in the fall of 2013 were down from a year earlier for the third year in a row. Enrollments dropped at the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels, and the number of freshmen and sophomores were down dramatically from a year earlier. Enrollments in the journalism specialty have dropped, and enrollments in advertising and public relations also have stagnated. While the overall field of communication also seems to be slowing in terms of growth, the subfield of journalism and mass communication has been particularly hard hit.

This study examined the effects of citizen journalism practices on social capital concerning nonprofit and voluntary organizations (i.e., satisfaction, trust, and engagement). Through a quasi-experimental design, the analyses revealed that students in the treatment group, in which participants engaged in citizen journalism practice, had greater positive changes in levels of satisfaction, trust, and engagement than students in the control group. This study offers unique contributions to the existing body of social capital scholarship and practical implications related to the use of citizen journalism as a civic education tool in school and community settings.

Teaching fundamental public relations courses to students from diverse backgrounds poses additional complexities in learning effectiveness. This exploratory study evaluated the effectiveness and identified the challenges of using films to teach public relations among nonmajor students. Results from an online survey and two focus groups found that the use of films to teach public relations concepts to nonmajors is an effective means of developing greater understanding and appreciation of concepts. A heuristic model was developed to help public relations educators to use this pedagogical technique on deciding how to teach public relations courses and concepts.

This study contributes to public relations (PR) literature and research because it finds and highlights discrepancies between male and female PR faculty concerning their involvement or lack thereof with designated labor-intensive teaching and service responsibilities. More specifically, this study finds that more females serve as faculty advisors for Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) chapters than their male counterparts. Significantly, more females teach PR writing classes than do males. The implications of these findings are discussed with regard to tenure and promotion expectations for PR faculty members.

This twin survey of online journalism professionals and students examines their perceptions of journalism skills, duties, and concepts. Using samples of online journalists and journalism students in Hong Kong, Asia’s media hub, it attempts to offer updated insights into the changes taking place in journalism classrooms and newsrooms and uncovers the discordance between online journalism education and practice. The study finds that traditional journalistic skills remain prioritized over technical skills in online newsrooms. The findings also suggest that today’s journalism students are fairly proficient in new media skills. Therefore, journalism curricula should not forgo training students in traditional journalistic skills for computer skills.