Part 3: A phoenix?

This is the final in a series of three stories on the deletion of Arkansas State University’s degree program in journalism and broadcasting.

By Roy Ockert Jr.

No doubt, the demise of the newspaper industry over the past decade played a role in the failure of journalism to thrive as an academic program at Arkansas State University. 

Last January the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism reported that nearly 60 percent of newsroom jobs had been lost since 2005, most of them in newspapers. However, journalists are employed in many other fields because of the nature of the work and their broad-based experiences. In fact, PR firms, higher education and government agencies still look for candidates with a journalism background.

While ASU’s communications programs have struggled, the School of Journalism and Strategic Media at the University of Arkansas, a major competitor, has been growing. The UA offers a degree with concentrations in journalism, broadcast or multi-media storytelling and production, as well as a major in advertising and public relations.

For the past fall semester the UA School of Journalism and Strategic Media enrolled a total of 828 majors, including 13 graduate students. The advertising-PR major accounted for 452 of the undergraduates, and the three journalism concentrations, a total of 308. Another 66 students were listed as double majors with journalism and political science or English.

To compare A-State’s numbers, you must include strategic communications, which isn’t in the School of Media and Journalism. The total of all three, though, comes to 187 students, plus 34 more in master’s programs. Multi-media journalism accounted for only 11 undergraduates. The UA numbers don’t provide a breakdown of the concentrations.

After ASU’s multi-media journalism program was axed by the state Higher Education Coordinating Board last spring, a scramble began to determine what should be done next. However, the discussions remained within academic circles. No public announcement was made, nor were the thousands of alumni in the journalism and broadcast programs consulted. In fact, the school had made little effort to communicate with alumni in recent years.

Only when a letter to current multi-media majors prompted a news story in the student newspaper did the issue gain public light. 

Because the board’s action came near the end of the spring semester, getting the relevant people together proved to be a challenge. The school’s director, Dr. Brad Rawlins, was being moved up to interim dean, and Associate Dean Dr. Gina Hogue was tapped as interim director.

Hogue began trying to assemble a task force in June. Records obtained through an FOIA request showed a meeting was twice scheduled and postponed. But Dr. Todd Shields, chancellor of the Jonesboro campus, called for a meeting of all school faculty and staff on July 13.

Minutes of that meeting show that Rawlins urged the faculty to work together to create an integrated journalism and media degree. Shields and the new provost, Dr. Calvin White, both attended, emphasizing the need for a strong journalism program and stressing the importance of faculty collaboration.

Shields said in a December interview that he came out of that meeting hopeful.

But days later the Creative Media Production faculty and staff met and then the program coordinator, Dr. Mary Jackson-Pitts, notified Hogue:

• “We are not willing to reimagine or launch a new journalism curriculum with the existing MMJ faculty.

• “We ask that Brad Rawlins be removed from the leadership of the School of Media and Journalism.

• “We have a proposal to establish a broadcast journalism emphasis under the creative media production program.”

Rawlins then wrote to White, suggesting a meeting with the CMP faculty and staff but asking to be recused because “I am obviously a lightning rod … and I don’t think they are willing to consider anything that I might suggest or be in favor of, regardless of how reasonable it might be.”

Shields and White were disappointed, and the provost quickly notified Hogue that a funding line for possibly creating a new program would be pulled back and that CMP should not expect support for a broadcast journalism emphasis.

In December Pitts responded to written questions about the CMP faculty’s position, saying it is supportive of a strong, independent journalism program.

“We believe the MMJ faculty should take ownership of creating and designing a curriculum that meets the needs of a 21st century journalist,” she wrote. “They need to work with their own advisory board and assessment data to determine their next steps to reimagine their own program.”

As to the request that Rawlins no longer be director of the School of Media and Journalism, Pitts explained: “Dr. Rawlins has lost the confidence and trust of members of the CMP faculty. Enrollment has been in steady decline under his leadership.”

She recalled the restructuring in 2013 of the College of Communications and traced a history of actions and inactions that she said are related to the dramatic decline of enrollment in print journalism, broadcast journalism and photojournalism.

That restructuring placed multi-media journalism and creative media production in a Department of Media, and a professional advisory board was soon formed to help develop a plan of action for curriculum and activities that enhance needed skills and opportunities for students in the respective programs. Pitts said little of the MMJ plan has been implemented.

Further, differences between the two faculties arose over the re-accreditation of the journalism program by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. Pitts said she came to the conclusion that accreditation was no longer beneficial to either program, and she resigned as chair of the re-accreditation committee in 2018. At the same time she sounded warnings about the dangerously low enrollment and the need for curriculum change.

Nevertheless, the CMP faculty “reluctantly” went along with Rawlins’ appointment as director of the new School for Media and Journalism, Pitts said, because of his ACEJMC board position. Indeed, re-accreditation did occur in 2021-22, but that did not protect the MMJ program last year because of low numbers.

[Click here to read the full text of Pitts’ responses to written questions.]

As for the broadcast curriculum, once a strength of the College of Communications, no courses have been taught since Larz Roberts left A-State for another position after the spring semester of 2022. Rawlins said a job freeze prevented him from replacing Robert last year and that this year he doesn’t think anyone would take the courses if taught.