About three years ago, the regents at the University of Colorado voted to eliminate the journalism school on the Boulder campus.
That was a good decision. Jobs with newspapers are disappearing faster than crab legs on a buffet table.
Of course, in the world of higher academics, nothing is really axed altogether. The J-school will be replaced this fall by the College of Media, Communications and Information (CMCI). Hopefully, the school will not spend money to etch the name in stone above its portals.
According to its website, the faculty at CMCI has been selected because “members can communicate successfully on various ‘platforms.’ ” It will include experts in numerous fields of expression, including art, music, media, public relations, advertising, documentary film-making and something called “information science.”
A recent story in the Boulder Daily Camera noted that some visiting professors have been recruited for the first semester. These include “a pioneer in the study of contemporary film,” an “experimental documentarian,” and Paul Miller, aka “DJ Spooky.”
The story describes Mr. Spooky as the author of the book “The Imaginary App,” and someone who is “as silo-busting as they come.” (I thought “silo-busting” might be part of nuclear disarmament, but apparently it also has a place in communications.)
As Mr. Spooky notes, “We can all take for granted that we are going to get deeper and weirder with technology at every level.” Who am I to argue?
However, my hope is that the new college will be as equally concerned with the “information” created as it is platforms and technology.
Journalism schools may be relics of another age, but they taught — and should still teach — students how to write clearly, think critically and report accurately.
We have plenty of bias assaulting us in all the various mediums these days. But good, concise writing and factual reporting are in short supply.
My experience was that too many people entered the newspaper business to “make the world a better place.” They were wrong. They were there to provide the facts to help others make decisions on how to make the world a better place. There is a big difference.
Hopefully, “environmental journalism” at CU will be just that, and not environmental activism. Will we be creating more serious bloggers or just more tech-savvy flame-outs? By definition, a documentary is the presentation of facts objectively without editorializing. That is journalism.
The faculty of 60 at the new information school seemingly includes only a half-dozen people with journalism backgrounds — people who have pursued stories and who have likely forced public officials to translate governmental gibberish into recognizable English.
Courses at the new college propose to teach “the intersection of imagery, imagination and planet Earth,” or how “authority and (dis)order emerge in dispersed organizational practices.”
But if any student signs up for this without first asking for further explanation, he or she is in the wrong college.
As George B. Shaw once noted, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that is has taken place.”
Dick Hilker (dhilker529@aol.com) is a retired Denver suburban newspaper editor and columnist. His columns appear twice a month in The Denver Post.
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