School of Journalism

The Mission of the School
The Mission of the Baccalaureate Program
A History of the School of Journalism at Bloomington and Indianapolis

The Mission of the School

The mission of the School of Journalism is to explore and to help students explore the institutions, procedures, professional skills, and audiences of journalism and mass communication. Our subject is how the media mediate, and what this process of mediation means for public life in America and around the world. This mission is both an academic and a professional one; it is about learning, teaching, and doing. To this end, we are committed to scholarly research in journalism and mass communication, to liberal education in the arts and sciences, and to professional training in media work.

Return to Top

The Mission of the Baccalaureate Program

The mission of the baccalaureate program of the School of Journalism is to help students learn to read, think, and communicate clearly, critically, and creatively. The school is committed to liberal education in the arts and sciences as well as to professional training in the skills of journalism and mass communication. The school believes that both breadth and depth of learning must characterize the undergraduate experience. To this end, the Bachelor of Arts in Journalism degree emphasizes:

• development of basic skills in writing, critical thinking, independent learning, mathematics, foreign language, computers, and new information technologies;
• exposure to a broad range of course work in the disciplines of the liberal arts and sciences, both in the College of Arts and Sciences (COLL) and in the liberal arts courses within the School of Journalism;
• study of cultures outside the United States and of selected minority cultures within the United States;
• training in statistical analysis and quantitative and qualitative research methods; training in the professional skills of journalism and mass communication, including reporting, writing, editing, visual communication, new communications technology, and collaborative group work;
• study of the institutions, processes, and effects of mass media in society;
• in-depth study of a field or discipline in the arts and sciences other than journalism and mass communications;
• preparation for a lifetime of learning.

Because its mission coincides with the philosophy and goals of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC), the school seeks accreditation every six years from this national body. ACEJMC accredited the school most recently in 2002.

Return to Top

A History of the School of Journalism at Bloomington and Indianapolis

Indiana University, established in 1820 as a tiny seminary in Bloomington, eventually became one of the first state universities to teach journalism. Instruction began in 1893 with three students in the first class. Classes in writing and reporting were taught at intervals during the next few years, supplementing the students’ liberal arts background in English, history, and economics.

A Department of Journalism was established in the College of Arts and Sciences in 1911, although students could not major in journalism until 1932. Professor Joseph Piercy was named the first head of the department; he served until 1938. In 1911, the Department of Journalism took over administration of the Indiana Daily Student, the campus newspaper established in 1867 as a student-owned enterprise.

John E. Stempel followed Piercy as the head of the department. Under Stempel’s leadership—from 1938 until his retirement in 1968—the program moved to its current building, Ernie Pyle Hall. In 1946, the High School Journalism Institute began, directed by Professor Gretchen Kemp. The institute continues today, offering programs each summer for students and their high school teachers.

Journalism began offering a master’s degree in the 1920s and a doctoral degree in mass communication in 1966. The first Ph.D. degree was granted in 1971.

Richard G. Gray became chairman of the department in 1968. He led the program through a shift in the curriculum from a mainly professional orientation to one that balances instruction in the skills of writing, visual communication, reporting, and editing with instruction in the history, economics, law, responsibilities, and ethics of journalism. That core curriculum remains, although new technologies of mass communication and converging media have changed the mode of instruction and the content of some courses.

In 1968, the Indiana Daily Student was separated from the curriculum. The IDS and Arbutus, the campus yearbook, became independent publications administered by a publisher selected by the journalism faculty.

After a national fundraising campaign, Ernie Pyle Hall was renovated in 1976. Faculty offices and classrooms took over the upstairs of the refurbished building, and a new library and the offices of the IDS dominated what once had been the press room on the ground floor.

In 1974, the department became a school within the College of Arts and Sciences. The school became system-wide in 1982, responsible for the coordination of journalism education on all eight campuses. Gray became dean and helped establish the undergraduate major on the Indianapolis campus of IUPUI. Under the leadership of Associate Dean James Brown at IUPUI, the school took over administration of the campus newspaper, The Sagamore, and appointed its first publisher in 1985. Trevor R. Brown was named dean in 1985, one year after the death of Gray. In 1989, the school separated from the College of Arts and Sciences, becoming one of seven (with the addition of Informatics in 2001) independent academic schools on the Bloomington campus. Since 1990, students on both the Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses enroll in the Bachelor of Arts in Journalism (B.A.J.) program. In 2005, Bradley Hamm was named the third dean of the School of Journalism.

Return to Top