Journalism Within Liberal Arts
A Brief History of Journalism
Journalism study at the college level in the United States traces to many founders, including General Robert E. Lee in the Nineteenth century and Joseph Pulitzer in the Twentieth Century. To enter journalism as a profession required professionally-based training, many believed. But the nation found that mere technical training of journalists was not enough — without a sense of underlying values.
By the late Twentieth Century, journalism as a profession had fallen into such disrepute that the federal court system had begun raising questions about the First Amendment’s protections of journalistic inquiry which earlier courts had protected. A study by journalism educators called the "Oregon Report" in the 1980s, followed in the 1990s by a Freedom Forum report titled "Winds of Change" called for an ethics-based return to the liberal arts as a foundation for journalism students. At the same time, it called on journalism educators to send students into journalism careers with a strong professional know-how — especially by means of skills-oriented internships.
The Best of Both Worlds
Asbury College’s journalism program — with its mission of Christian values — provides students with the best of both worlds: a solid grounding in the Western tradition of liberal arts study, as well as a foundation of professionally-competitive coursework and practical experience that equips students for top careers in print media and related vocations. From math to foreign languages, to literature, to music, to health and fitness, to Bible and theology, students build a bank of background knowledge which can return to them as resource material in countless journalistic ways. And because of the broad base of Asbury College’s strong liberal arts core, students committed to strong academics find themselves well-equipped for graduate study in fields related to journalism such as Communications, English, and law.
The Bottom Line
But bottom line: Asbury College’s Journalism Program is one deeply committed to ethics-based decision-making with a view toward making Christ’s message of salvation known in the world. By doing so, Asbury College’s journalism graduates become not only lights of reform within American journalism — enlivening journalism education in the process — but they also stand ready to bring souls to Christ along the way.
Asbury College journalism students find that the college’s liberal arts environment encourages their interest in other fields, which they can combine with a journalism major or minor to create a hybrid program tailored to their interests. Thus, Asbury College journalism students have taken double majors or minors in Art, Music, Christian Ministries, Bible, and Philosophy.
Such majors as English, Media Communications and Applied Communication are especially suited to such tie-ins with a Journalism major because of cross-over courses between Journalism and these programs.