The article focuses on the impact of ecology and the environment on journalism education. Environmental concerns have measurably affected curricula, internships, public service programs and professional liaisons in journalism education. Environmentally-related breadth courses are required or primarily, optional in 28 percent of the programs, with about 68 percent of those programs requiring or recommending traditional, natural science-oriented environmental courses, and 45 percent including those with social science orientation, perhaps reflecting the social overtones of environmental problems made salient by the environmental era

Griffin, Robert J.

Schoenfeld, Clay

English

epublications@Marquette

Marquette Universitye-Publications@MarquetteCollege of Communication Faculty Research andPublications Communication, College of7-1-1982Ecology and Environment: They've BeenIntegrated into J-Education ThinkingClay SchoenfeldUniversity of Wisconsin--MadisonRobert J. GriffinMarquette University, robert.griffin@marquette.eduPublished version. The Journalism Educator, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Summer 1982): 39-42. Publisher Link. ©1982 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication: Magazine Division. Usedwith permission.171 schools anddepartments respondto comprehensivesurveyEcology andthe environment...They've beenintegratedinto J-educationthinkingBy Clay Schoenfeldand Robert J. GriffinEnvironmental concernshave measurably affectedcurricula, internships, publicservice programs and pro-fessional liaisons in journalismeducation.I o what extent is the 1970-80 envi-ronmental era, with its definition of "theecology" as a matter of public affairs,reflected and integrated in the programs ofschools and departments of journalismand mass communication?Will tight budgets and the prospect ofdeclining enrollments constrain the devel-opment or inclusion of specialized subjectmatter such as "environment?"This article reports on the findings of anational survey designed to try to answerthose two questions. The net result: Thepresence of environmental content in jour-nalism programs across the country todayIS measurable. Furthermore, journalismeducators see this content either holding itsown in the future or expanding. Moreover,there is evidence that dedicated facultyhave been instrumental in ushering theimpact of the environmental era on jour-nalism programs; the size of departmentalenrollments, which might otherwise beexpected to affect such specialization,bears no relationship.Survey was broadWe developed a questionnaire to meas-ure various aspects of the inclusion ofenvironmentally-related materials andactivities in curriculum, internship andplacement programs, public service,faculty interests, and institutional liaisonsin journalism and mass communicationsprograms at colleges and universities in theUnited States.'On curriculum, respondents were askedwhether environmental courses had beenadded to required or optional breadthcourses outside of journalism, and whethera separate undergraduate course in envi-ronmental reporting had been added to thecurriculum. We also employed a four-Clav Schoenfeld is chairman of the Center forEnvironmenlal Communications and Education Stud-ies at the University of tVisconsin— Madison. Robert J.Griffin teaches at the College of Journalism at Mar-quette University.For a discussion of the growth of environmentaljournalism as a "new profession," see: Clay Schoen-feld and John E. Ross. "Environmental communica-tion programs 'come of age,' " Journalism Educator.Vol. 33. No. 2. July 1978. pp. 3-6, 61-64.Journalism Educator, Summer 1982 39point scale to assess the extent to which, ineach respondent's estimation, the matter ofthe environmental era is regularly reflectedin each of nine kinds of courses rangingfrom newswriting to public relations topress and society.Programs offering graduate degreeswere also asked whether a special master'ssequence in environmental communica-tion had been developed.Respondents also indicated whether anyinternships are regularly arranged withenvironmental agencies or organizations,how many of their 1975-80 students are43% of J-schools say theenvironment is reflected'frequently' in their regularacademic programming.employed at least in part on media envi-ronmental beats, and how many with envi-ronmental agencies or organizations. Therespondents also noted whether environ-mental communication workshops hadbeen arranged for working press orresource agency personnel.The questionnaire also asked how manyfaculty are particularly interested in envi-ronmental communications research, howmany are interested in teaching about envi-ronmental issues, and whether the depart-ment has developed formal or informalliaisons with any environmentally-relatedprograms on campus.Respondents also were asked open-endedly what they thought the future heldregarding the relationship between theirschools and the matter of the environmen-tal era.The questionnaire was sent in fall of1980 to 256 undergraduate departments ofjournalism and mass communication inthe United States, with the request that theinstrument be completed by the head of thedepartment or unit. After a follow-upmailing was sent to non-respondents, 171usable replies were received, a responserate of 67 percent.Initial analysis demonstrated the needfor additional information about enroll-ments and the frequency the various kinds40of journalism-related courses were offered.We designed a scale to help interpret thedata previously gathered about the extentof inclusion of environmental content injournalism-related courses. Hence anotherquestionnaire was sent in spring of 1981 tothe same 256 schools, with again aresponse rate of 67 percent.Comparison of results from the first sur-vey with population parameters derivedfrom the second survey and other sourcesindicates that respondents in the first sur-vey are reasonably representative of thepopulation in regard to distribution in thevarious regions of the country, althoughperhaps slightly weighted toward largerdepartments.Unless otherwise noted, the conservative95 percent confidence interval for propor-tions is plus or minus 8 percent. Only sta-tistically significant results are reportedfrom the various hierarchical multipleregression analyses.Findings are significantFollowing are some of the significantfindings, organized by curriculum, place-ment and service, faculty and departments'perceptions of future relationshipsbetween journalism education and theenvironmental era:Curriculum—Asked whether "the mat-ter of the environmental era (is) nowreflected regularly in your regular coursearray," 43 percent of the respondents said"frequently" in reference to at least onecourse, 44 percent said "sometimes," and11 percent said only "rarely" or "never."(The remainder gave no answer.) Theresults may be traceable to what has beencalled "the subtle influence of environmen-talism on the warp and woof of traditionalcourses."A separate course in environmentalreporting has been added to the curriculumof 10 percent of the programs, and aboutone-fourth of the programs have offeredsuch a course at one time or another. Oth-erwise, environmental content in journal-ism programs surfaces significantly morefrequently in public affairs reportingcourses than in the other courses oftenJournalism Educator, Summer 1982offered in journalism curricula, based onthe ratings given by respondents. It seemsreasonable to suggest that one impact ofthe environmental era on journalismdepartments has been to define environ-mental issues as matters of public debateand policy as well as to make apparent therelationship between environmental issuesand other public affairs such as inflation,energy, unemployment, and the issues ofthe cities. Thus would follow the inclusionof environmental matters in public affairsreporting courses rather than the setting upof separate environmental reportingcourses.Environmentally-related breadthcourses are required or, primarily,optional in 28 percent of the programs,with about 68 percent of those programsrequiring or recommending traditional,natural science-oriented environmentalcourses, and 45 percent including thosewith social science orientation, perhapsreflecting the social overtones of environ-mental problems made salient by the envi-ronmental era.Interestingly, multiple regression indi-cates that the size of the department, basedon student enrollment, bears no significantrelationship to the integration of environ-mental material into journalism curricula,given what might be considered its special-ized nature. Instead, faculty interested inteaching about environment seem to play akey role in (1) the frequency that environ-mental reporting courses are offered intheir departments, and (2) the inclusion ofrequired or recommended breadth courseswith environmental substance. For exam-ple, it seems no accident that the two uni-versities which pioneered specializedprograms in environmental communica-tion were universities that happened tohave former newspaper outdoor writers ontheir faculties in 1967-68. There certainlywas no pressure from the press at that time.The New York Times was not to designatethe nation's first environmental specialistuntil late 1969.Graduate-level environmental commu-nications training also contributes todepartmental favoring of environmentalstudies courses.Placement and Service—JournalismJournalism Educator, Summer 1982internships are arranged by 94 percent ofthe programs. More than one-third (37%)of them arrange at least one regularly withan environmental agency or organization.Multiple regression analyses indicate thatfaculty interested in environmental teach-ing again seem instrumental in developingor maintaining these internships, which inturn may be leading to placement of gradu-ates in environmental agencies. Graduate-level environn\ental communicationprograms also seem to influence the place-ment of graduates into environmentalmedia beats, as does the presence of Ph.D.programs and an atmosphere of environ-mental communication liaison, althoughprograms more strongly oriented towardenvironmental communications researchmay be less likely to place students in thesereportorial positions.Thirteen percent of the respondingdepartments have arranged environmentalcommunication workshops for the work-ing press or for resource managementagency personnel. Multiple regressionsindicate that such workshops haveoccurred more frequently among schoolsFaculty interested inteaching about theenvironment are present on29% of J-school staffs.with master's degree programs, schoolswith graduate-level environmental com-munications programs, schools withenvironmentally-related interactions withfaculty from other departments, and morecommonly among smaller schools.Teacher interested in environment onceagain seem to play a key role in the spon-sorship of these workshops.Faculty — Faculty particularly inter-ested in teaching about environmentalmatters are present on 29 percent of thestaffs, and those interested in environmen-tal communications research inhabit 17percent. (Some faculty, of course, can beinterested in both.) Based on multipleregressions, the size of the department doesnot bear a significant relationship to thepresence of these specialists, nor do mas-41ter's degree and doctorate programs per se,nor the prevalence (or lack of it) of science,mathematics and statistics in studentprograms—indicative of a math-scienceslant to the curriculum. Related to thepresence of environmental communica-tions researchers, however, is graduate-level environmental communicationseducation. Related to both environmentalSize of J-school orenrollment seems to havelittle bearing on theincidence of environmentalinterests.researchers and environmental teachers ona staff are ongoing relationships, formaland informal, with faculty and other spe-cialists in environmentally-relateddepartments.The Future—Of the 171 respondents,103 answered the question concerningtheir perceptions of future relationshipsbetween their departments and the matterof the environmental era. Only one of these103 respondents was coded as anticipatingdivergence in the years to come. Half of theremainder (51%, ±10%) believed that thestatus quo, such as it may be, would bemaintained, and half (49%, ±10%) foresawgreater inclusion of environmental mate-rials in department activities. Multipleregression indicates a strong relationshipbetween ongoing interfaculty liaisons andthe perception of greater inclusion of envi-ronmental materials in the future.What it all meansThis study provides evidence to suggestthat faculty interested in environmentalcommunications can affect the inclusion ofenvironmental materials in the curriculum,the sponsoring of environmental activitiessuch as workshops for professionals andthe maintenance of internships with envi-ronmental agencies and organizationswhich may lead to placement of graduatesin such professions. Of particular interestis the repeated finding that such activitydoes not require a department with largestudent enrollment, potentially an impor-tant indicator that environmental pro-grams may still grow in an era of tightbudgets, given dedicated faculty.The analysis also shows that graduate-level activity, particularly an environmen-tal communications program, could affectthe inclusion of environmental materials inthe curriculum and the placement ofgraduates.It also appears that the maintenance offormal or informal faculty liaisons withothers in environmentally-relateddepartments—such as joint projects, guestlecturing—is an important element in thepresence and work of environmental com-munications researchers and teachers on ajournalism or communications staff. Per-haps such activity maintains the interdisci-plinary stimulation and input particularlynecessary to the cross-cutting nature ofboth environmental problems and com-munications research.If the available evidence is accurate,does the environmental impact onjoumal-ism education represent some deliberatespeed, some significant scope of adaption,or relative resistance?11 is hard to say, We know of no compar-able formal study of the rate of adoption ofbroad issues in university curricula. Inaddition, lack of time-series data beforeand after Earth Day seriously inhibitsinferences of process, growth, or decline.The data do suggest, however, that schoolsand departments of journalism and masscommunication have not been immunefrom one of the pressing public issues ofthe era, in keeping with Alexander Meikel-john's observation that American collegesand universities are not something apartfrom the social order to which they belong,"They are that order,"EDUCATORS HAVE VOICE: An Educator Academy, established in1981, is a section of the International Association of BusinessCommunicators,42 Journalism Educator, Summer 1982

Ecology and Environment: They\u27ve Been Integrated into J-Education Thinking

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Ecology and Environment: They\u27ve Been Integrated into J-Education Thinking

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