Maryland Journalism Will Be... Just That   

The next freshmen and grad students will find us new.

A reporter who graduated from my school two decades ago called to ask how students see their future profession these days. Are they "turned off" by journalism's fascination with scandals, and by some scandals in the press itself?

The current scene makes for lively classrooms and torn-up lesson plans. Values and hard ethical choices are not subjects you get to after everything else is covered.

As far as I can tell, the usual sort of people still want to be journalists. If they are 18 years old the commitment may be strong and permanent, or the interest may be in flux, like everything else in life. But the compulsions driving them into journalism are familiar.

They like doing it.

They know others are in awe that they can do it. They know it's important to do it. They like the good feeling when they've finished doing it.

They've heard about the clips required in that sophomore writing class, the number of stories they will have to write, the unforgiving deadlines, the calls they will have to make to strangers, the risk of failing to make it, the scare they will have in the first few weeks and the pleasure of coming through.

They like themselves when it's done.

That's the visceral part.

They also come because they like to deal with words and images. And of course the best are curious, resourceful, energetic and maybe very talented, though that's the least of it. Some tell me they don't feel any need to do good in the world, but it's usually a pose.

It's great to tell a story, they think. And it's great to have your name or your face on it, great to have somebody talk about it, even great someone raises hell about it.

They are not the ones who wanted to be in the business school. Seldom did one ever think about engineering.

Most of them are women. They are not like men. They may not see themselves quite the way future journalists (males) did 40 years ago: not macho (in the same way, anyhow). Maybe they are more nuanced about what they want to do. So what. So is the field.

They keep coming, and now at Maryland it will be to a school that does only journalism, in its myriad forms. Advertising is almost phased out. Public relations will move to another place on campus after this year.

We've been meeting with prospective new freshmen. We've told them we will be just journalism here, print or broadcast; magazines, too, with options such as business, science and online journalism.

They seem to take it in stride. We'd always thought they were coming to us because of the name on the door: still "Journalism" here. That seems to be the case. Now we'll have a clearer message for them, and no doubt a clearer mission, in a unified journalism curriculum (ethics, history, law, visual communication required with the rest), imbedded in a good undergraduate liberal arts degree.

There will be new energy, a new dynamism, in a new school built on the best of the old.

Some think this means swimming against the tide. It's certainly against the trend, but that's different. Stay tuned.

And send us the best.