Pitts’ responses

Unedited written responses of Dr. Mary Jackson Pitts

to questions submitted on Dec. 13, 2023

In regard to your email of July 19 to Dr. Hogue, you said the CMP faculty had met and decided three things.

 Q: One was not to “reimagine or relaunch” a new journalism curriculum with the existing MMJ faculty. Does that mean the CMP faculty will not work with the MMJ faculty too, as Dr. Shields put it in his letter of alumni, find "a new, collaborative vision for the journalism program.” If not, why not?

Pitts: The CMP faculty is supportive of a strong, independent journalism program. The MMJ and CMP programs are autonomous degrees that allow faculty in each area to design their own curriculum based on assessment data (minutes from 10-12-2018). CMP faculty expertise is not focused on journalism. We believe the MMJ faculty should take ownership of creating and designing a curriculum that meets the needs of a 21st century journalist. They need to work with their own advisory board and assessment data to determine their next steps to reimagine their own program.

Currently, the CMP curriculum offers courses available to MMJ students beneficial to their career pursuits (Video Production and Audio Production courses for example). We encourage all students interested in media to take these courses. For the past six years, CMP has built a strong and robust assessment process that is recognized as a model for assessment across campus. The man who literally wrote the book on mass communication (Ralph Hanson) praised CMP’s assessment process. Each semester for the past six years, CMP conducts an advisory board meeting. Board members are composed of professionals in the creative media industry who meet with CMP students offering advice on student portfolios. Additionally, board members meet with CMP faculty members to discuss trends in the media industry and offer insights on student performance. Information gathered during these board meetings along with other assessment data guides CMP decisions on curriculum and student assignments. Consequently, any decisions regarding the direction of the CMP curriculum are data driven. We use data because we value our students, their career goals, and industry needs and assessment is driven by importance placed on it by the university accrediting body, Higher Learning Commission (HLC) (https://www.hlcommission.org/Policies/criteria-and-core-components.html).


 Q: The CMP faculty asked that Brad Rawlins be removed from the leadership of the School of Media and Journalism. Why?

Pitts: Dr. Rawlins has lost the confidence and trust of members of the CMP faculty. Enrollment has been in steady decline under his leadership. As a public relations specialist, Dr. Rawlins became dean of the College of Communications and initiated a restructuring of the renowned College of Communications in 2012. He made the decision to remove the Department of Journalism by merging public relations and advertising with communication studies to form the Department of Communication. News editorial, photojournalism, and sports reporting were merged with the department of radio television to form the Department of Media. Below is the 2013-2014 enrollment data included in the self-study sent to ACEJMC for the 2015 reaccreditation:

Audio Video Production (Creative Media Production) — 46

Narrative Media (Creative Media Production) — 13

Sports Production (Creative Media Production) — 7

Graphic Communication (Creative Media Production) — 34

Broadcast Journalism (Multimedia Journalism) — 49

News Editorial (Multimedia Journalism) — 14

Photojournalism (Multimedia Journalism) — 14

Sports Reporting (Multimedia Journalism) — 6

Advertising (Strategic Communication) — 15

Public Relations (Strategic Communication) — 68

Total — 266

At that time in 2013, 34 students were enrolled in the print journalism program (News Editorial, Photojournalism, Sports Reporting). Print journalism joined broadcast journalism (which had 49 students) to form Multimedia Journalism. CMP courses (audio/video production, narrative media, sports production) appeared in the spring of 2014 under the prefix of CMP.

In August 2017, CMP and MMJ hosted an advisory board meeting that became a model for future advisory board meetings in CMP. Within the meeting, CMP students and faculty met with board members in the creative media industry, while MMJ students and faculty met with board members in the journalism industry. Notes from the advisory board meeting (see below) indicate a MMJ plan of action providing direction for curriculum and activities that enhance skills and opportunities for MMJ students. Unfortunately, evidence suggests few of the items outlined in this plan of action for MMJ were acted upon when MMJ revised their curriculum in 2019-2020. 

Advisory Board Notes 

August 18, 2017

 Multimedia Journalism

Plan of Action — Multimedia Journalism

Five months later, the faculty held more discussion about the need for curriculum change. 

And, at a meeting of the entire faculty on January 11, 2018, faculty minutes show:

“Dr. Pitts announced her resignation as chair of the re-accreditation committee. She no longer considers ACEJMC accreditation to be beneficial for the program and actually limits the number of beneficial courses we can offer to students. MMJ majors are down to around 50 and restructuring the curriculum is necessary to address it. ACEJMC limitations make it difficult to adequately restructure the curriculum in a way that meets industry needs and benefits our students. Ms. Combs and Dr. Tait asked if accreditation contributed to low numbers or if evolving student interests and dedication levels are involved. Dr. Tait mentioned how some ACEJMC programs are growing and thriving. Dr. Bowman says the university is concerned about numbers and continued low enrollments could jeopardize programs. Dr. Tait knows of students who’ve changed majors because they considered areas like MMJ to be more difficult. Dr. Pitts stated this is not an easy decision for her because she has been an ACEJMC proponent for decades but it has not changed with the times and many of our graduates don’t have the necessary skills necessary for today’s media professions. Dr. Tait said the division of Strat Comm/PR from our original departments contributed to our issues. He has met with Dr. Sitton and Mr. Perkins about how the curriculum can evolve and wants groups to visit about curriculum issues. Dr. Fears said we might want to consider pulling back from the re-accreditation process due to costs and time and see if it is actually right for us. She and Dr. Pitts encouraged Dr. Amienyi to ask Academic Affairs if accreditation is a faculty driven process. Dr. Amienyi says if we choose to not be accredited then some external academics will still be necessary to review the program. Dr. Zeng currently serves as an external reviewer for another institution and provided information about how that process functions. Mr. Brown asked if an outside consultant might be an option because we’ve been discussing these issues for quite some time.”

Later that same day January 11, 2018, I provided data in an email to the Department of Media faculty (which included journalism and creative media faculty and Chair of the Department Osa Amienyi) illustrating the dramatic enrollment decline of News Editorial, Broadcast Journalism, and Photojournalism.

From: MARY JACKSON-PITTS

Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2018 4:02 PM

To: OSABUOHIEN AMIENYI; Zeng Li; LILLIE FEARS; Larz G. Roberts; Galen Perkins; Gabriel Tait; Collin Pillow; Alexander R. Brown; Sandra Combs; Michael B. Doyle; Pradeep Mishra; Ronald Sitton; MICHAEL BOWMAN; Andrew Geswein; Johnathan Reaves

Subject: enrollment numbers 2013-2014 comparison to close of 2017

Dear all: 

Here are the numbers from our program that appeared in the 2013-2014 self study report that went to ACEJMC. I am also attaching the file from which this was pulled. I am also attaching two additional files that include what we had last fall with all areas in media and communication included. Plus a file that gives you only media majors as of yesterday. I did comparisons with November 2017. This data is what the university administrators see, whether they are right or wrong.​


Multimedia Journalism: 96 students

Creative Media Production: 85

Strategic Communications: 71 

Curriculum revisions that were implemented in 2013 appear to have had an impact on enrollment numbers. We continue right now with this same curriculum.

Mary Jackson Pitts, Ph.D.

___

As you can see by this email, I sounded warnings to the entire CMP and MMJ faculty about the dangerous enrollment and the need for curriculum change in 2018. 

Ultimately, this was shared with Dr. Carl Cates and in the spring of 2018, I stepped away from the MMJ faculty and became a CMP faculty, as I was no longer teaching journalism courses. At that time, the CMP faculty was given the opportunity to reimagine itself without seeking ACEJMC accreditation, and did so by creating a curriculum based on data collected from the advisory board, assessment collected every semester, industry trends, and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Public accountability data on the School of Media and Journalism website shows the CMP curriculum changes yielded positive results with the program graduating on average 25-30 students a year since the redesign of the CMP curriculum in 2019 and updates when needed to the curriculum since then. 

Conversely, the awarding of journalism degrees declined during this same time. Rawlins returned in 2019, with CMP recognizing that his return would be important to MMJ for reaccreditation. CMP faculty reluctantly agreed to him becoming the director of the School of Media and Journalism because of his ACEJMC connection (he is a council board member), although his teaching is focused on research methods, mass communication and modern society, public relations, ethics; and, his research area is transparency, trust, stakeholder management, and public relations ethics.

His focus upon his return centered on MMJ reaccreditation, which did occur in 2021-2022, and MMJ faculty and Rawlins appeared to believe reaccreditation would protect the program. Unfortunately, low enrollment and poor graduation rates were used by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education (ADHE) to recommend deletion of the MMJ program and accreditation appeared not to be a variable in their decision making. 


Q: The CMP faculty proposed to establish a broadcast journalism emphasis under its umbrella. Does that mean the CMP faculty consider the problem is the “multimedia” approach? Journalism isn’t usually considered a creative medium. Why would it be better as such under CMP?

 Pitts: You are correct. Journalism is not considered a creative medium. As the creative media production coordinator, it is my job to ensure the integrity of the CMP program for the purpose of ensuring that we meet our program outcomes which are guided by our assessment data (found in Taskstream) and HLC requirements.  

 This is one of the reasons the CMP faculty decided to separate from the journalism program in 2017-2018. There is an increase in demand for creative media specialists (An Indeed search for “creative media” in Arkansas on Dec. 13, 2023, yields 193 jobs). Too many students interested only in creative media became frustrated with the emphasis on journalism courses and limited opportunities to express their creativity that would enhance their career goals. Assessment data and advisory board meetings suggest contemporary media professionals require multimedia skills to be successful. However, CMP professionals require unique multimedia skills different from what MMJ students are taught. This includes different writing skills, different storytelling skills, different presentation skills and distribution of media content to different audiences. So, while MMJ and CMP students require multimedia skills to be successful, the application of those skills is fundamentally different to each profession. 

The CMP faculty suggested that MMJ should join with English in the July 2023 meeting because the MMJ faculty is focused on writing. But they did not seem to be interested in this suggestion. When we were asked to work together by the chancellor and the provost, the CMP faculty suggested a “broadcast journalism” emphasis under the umbrella of the School of Media and Journalism to prepare students for careers in contemporary journalism. The current MMJ faculty’s professional and academic background focuses on print journalism. While journalism print skills have a place, today’s journalists must possess a myriad of multimedia skills. For example, a recent job announcement by Gray Media showed they are looking for someone who possesses “Knowledge and understanding of all media platforms, including broadcast, digital, social, and mobile technology.” Since the multimedia journalism program has been deleted, the best term that describes a forward-looking journalism curriculum is broadcast journalism, because it encompasses all the multimedia skills needed. Broadcast station news directors reach out to faculty regularly bemoaning shortages of trained and competent news producers, news content creators, and broadcast journalists. In 2019, MMJ faculty updated their curriculum and removed most broadcast journalism courses from the MMJ core. It is my hope that MMJ faculty will obtain skills applicable to 21st century journalism and create a dynamic independent curriculum relevant to student career pursuits. Per an email by Dr. Gina Hogue, the Provost Office “indicated support should not be expected for the proposal” (of a broadcast journalism emphasis). We believe it is the responsibility of MMJ faculty to recreate a journalism program. 


 Q: Finally, did you have knowledge that the MMJ program was in danger of being deleted prior to April 5?

Pitts: I learned of the deletion of the program by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education (ADHE) on May 4th of 2023 from Dr. Rawlins in a joint faculty meeting of CMP and MMJ faculty. 

As mentioned in earlier responses, warning signals to the entire media faculty were raised spotlighting the enrollment decline in journalism as far back as 2018. Faculty receives reports each semester listing the number of students currently enrolled in each program and the number of incoming freshmen enrolled in each program. So the data was available indicating troubling trends in the journalism program. 

The university undertook program viability audits of all programs in 2021. Data was distributed by Director Rawlins to all faculty in the School of Media and Journalism on Aug. 19, 2021, at the request of a faculty member. Despite the warning signs from the viability audits, declining enrollment numbers, and doubt from MMJ faculty regarding accreditation, the MMJ program was re-accredited by ACEJMC in 2022. Dr. Brad Rawlins is an ACEJMC accrediting council member.