About three years ago we pulled together the core journalism classes, added a journalism ethics capstone course and launched a journalism minor within the media studies major. Having a dedicated minor has made it easier to push for more reporting content in the production classes -- until very recently, most of our video and audio production classes were aimed at aspiring experimental filmmakers and sound engineers. Unlike a sequence, a minor is a beacon for students -- it's important to them to be able to say they are graduating with a minor in journalism. We have about 75 students in the minor.
Our campus newspaper is a student activity, not a class. In 2002, after a pair of libel complaints, the university president decided to bring in a faculty advisor. I was hired to teach journalism courses and advise the paper. Depending on the state of the staff, we have one or two weeks of training before the school year begins, weekly training critiques and refresher workshops throughout the year. Before I came on as advisor, the editor in chief was in trouble for writing a letter to the editor in which she libeled one of her professors. This student had also proposed selling story space to the administration instead of covering "positive" events on campus. And the students would run as much copy as they wanted, then fill in the leftover space with ads. Sometimes, they'd just kill the ads to run more stories. Today, we're far from perfect, but the paper and the staff are in much better shape.
I serve as a link between my advanced and arts reporting classes and the Foghorn -- I can't make the editors take my students' stories, but they are usually happy to have access to more writers and several of my students have gone on to work at the paper. Students who are writing for publication seem to take their writing and reporting more seriously than those who are "writing for class."
Two years ago students started USFtv, a new student activity. Most of what they air -- closed circuit on campus and posts on YouTube -- are experimental videos produced in class. But USFtv News produces about 30 minutes of newsmagazine features every two weeks or so. Thanks to the enthusiasm of USFtv students, this semester we're offering our first video REPORTING class in many years.
