A History of Journalism at Asbury College
The Pentecostal Herald
One of the earliest presidents of Asbury College, Dr. Henry Clay Morrison, founded a Christian newspaper in 1888 which was instrumental in not only helping Asbury College grow as an institution, but expand through an early Twentieth Century difficult for most of American higher education. Advertisements, editorials and articles in Morrison’s internationally-distributed Pentecostal Herald helped draw students to Wilmore from across the continent and from overseas Morrison’s newspaper joined the fight to outlaw liquor in the 1920s, joined the debate over teaching of evolution in schools, and argued against corporate greed during the muckraking era of American news journalism.
1930s - 1960s
Asbury College students learned principles of writing applicable in many formats while in English classes, and by the 1930s were being taught basic principles of journalistic writing by English Department faculty. By the 1960s, several journalism courses were being offered through the Asbury College English Department and course credit was being offered for serving on the Asbury College Collegian (the campus newspaper founded in 1914.) Meanwhile, Asbury College students throughout the Twentieth Century were learning principles of published writing from faculty and trustees who were themselves publishing pamphlets, articles and books through H.C. Morrison’s Pentecostal Publishing Company — among other print media outlets. E. Stanley Jones is one of the college’s more internationally prominent authors of the early Twentieth Century. The writing and publishing of Asbury College students and faculty joined a massive stream of publications that helped establish American Protestantism as a vital force in the media marketplaceamid cultural shifts in the U.S. through the middle- and late-Twentieth Century.
The Good News Movement
Journalism study at Asbury College got a boost in the 1970s with the hiring of Charles Keysor, a former advertising writer with Arthur Anderson, Inc. in Chicago. Keysor came to Asbury College with a vision for launching student journalists into professional media outlets to make a difference for Christ and His Kingdom. Keysor, ordained through the United Methodist Church, also had a burden for reforming that denomination — a burden which led him to begin a magazine called Good News and what would become known nationally as the "Good News Movement" of Methodist reform. Under Keysor’s leadership, many Asbury College students took journalism study and the pursuit of professional journalism seriously, entering markets as complex as Washington, D.C. in the process. Keysor died in the 1980s of cancer, but his legacy lives on both in the magazine he founded and in the journalism program for which he planted seeds.
Journalism as a Major
Journalism became first a minor, then a major within the Asbury College English Department in the mid-1980s under the leadership of Dr. Marcia Hurlow, a former magazine editor and well-published poet whose background in creative writing and linguistics were foundational to the journalistic training of students aiming at all types of journalism careers as well as graduate and professional studies. Dr. Michael Longinow, came to Asbury College in the late 1980s, after covering state and national politics along with specialties in investigative work on civil rights, local government and the environment. Longinow’s insights and experience with deadline-news perspectives and his connections with news organizations helped him establish ties between Asbury College’s journalism program and the Kentucky Press Association. As adviser to the Asbury College Collegian, Longinow helped the newspaper build ties to the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Collegiate Press/College Media Advisers, Inc. and the Association of Christian Collegiate Media. Both Hurlow and Longinow have helped Asbury College become a visible participant in publications and workshops of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.