Университет Питтсбурга запускает программу журналистики в Дитрихе впервые с 2009 года

For the first time since 2009, Pitt will offer a journalism program in the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences this fall. The 18-credit certificate is open to all Dietrich majors and requires students to take courses across multiple disciplines including English, communications, political science and urban studies. This program is designed to prepare students for the current landscape of journalism by requiring courses that teach basic writing and reporting as well as multimedia skills like audio production and professional uses of social media. While Pitt’s Johnstown campus offers a journalism major, students at the Pittsburgh campus have not been able to study journalism through a formal academic path since 2009, when the journalism and creative nonfiction tracks were merged into the nonfiction writing program. Gayle Rogers, Andrew W. Mellon professor and chair of the English department, said the University conducted surveys and held focus groups that demonstrated significant student demand for a journalism program. According to Rogers, the development of the certificate began about two years ago. Allison Dyche, a teaching professor of English who helped create the journalism certificate, said Pitt students have always shown interest in journalism, even without a formal academic path. “Students have always wanted it,” Dyche said. “They’ve always had to build their own way of learning journalism, through participating in The Pitt News and WPTS, [or] through taking a variety of classes.” Dyche said the English department realized there was a “need to deliver” on students’ desire for a journalism program as the field has shifted. “With technology and AI and misinformation and disinformation, there’s a really strong need for good journalists,” Dyche said. “If we can train some of those to go out and make the world a better place, then we should be doing that.” Rogers said the new curricula will prepare students for the changing landscape of journalism as newsrooms shrink or shutter their doors. “Some people interpret that as the death of journalism as a field,” Rogers said. “The reality is that it’s a change in the nature and practices of journalism and that a number of media organizations are adapting to it. We have curricula that can train students well for this new media ecosystem.” While English writing courses like “Fundamentals of News Reporting” and “The Art of the Interview” will teach students basic journalistic skills, the certificate will also require communications courses such as “Media Relations” and “Propaganda and Disinformation.” Rogers said taking courses in more than one discipline will benefit students entering the field. “It’s different from [public and professional writing] or [Nonfiction writing] because you cannot complete journalism all in one department,” Rogers said. “We believe students will be well equipped by taking coursework on both sides.” Jeanna Sybert, assistant director of the Pittsburgh Media Partnership, said Pitt’s journalism certificate is a step in the right direction. “It signals a lot about the commitment of the University to reinvest and pour into journalism and, hopefully, support young journalists,” Sybert said. Sybert hopes Pitt expands the certificate to educate students on practical aspects of journalism such as the functions of local government and media ethics. “A lot of programs do a really great job of hitting the fundamentals,” Sybert said. “But building out so that you have practical experience about the type of ecosystem you’re working in or the type of government you’ll be covering and how to protect yourself when you do it, is important.” Cassandra Harris, newsroom apprentice at the Pittsburgh Media Partnership and graduate of Point Park University’s digital journalism major, talked about the impact her education had on her early career. Harris said her undergraduate courses taught her about journalism fundamentals like the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics and the Associated Press Stylebook, but she learned the most by working for her student newspaper. “Doing a lot of hands-on work there allowed me to make a lot of mistakes and learn from those mistakes,” Harris said. “I wrote a lot of stories that were not the best writing I’ve ever done. I was able to stumble through those experiences and learn from them and become a better writer.” Harris said although a formal education in journalism is valuable, journalists who have not received a degree in the field should not be discounted. “Because it’s a lot more competitive right now, it is more important to have the degree to have the leverage of getting a job, but that doesn’t mean you can’t also learn on the job,” Harris said. In the hiring process, Sybert said she takes note of candidates’ academic backgrounds, but it’s real life work experience that matters most. “[Your academic path] tells us a bit about where you’re coming from and the training and coursework that you’ve done, but it’s really more about the experience and the roles you had in those experiences that we’re interested in,” Sybert said. “Having those clips shows that you can write professionally and be published professionally.” Sybert emphasized the importance of journalism, as it faces problems like the loss of public trust in the media and political attacks on journalists. “With all those things combined together, journalism is definitely at a key moment right now,” Sybert said. “Some would argue that this is a moment where we’re facing a lot of challenges to our democracy, and journalism offers a way to cover those issues and speak truth to power.”