Editorial: Electives must compensate for loss of journalism track

When Pitt announced in January that it might collapse the journalism writing track into the… When Pitt announced in January that it might collapse the journalism writing track into the creative nonfiction track, we were immediately taken aback.

While the future of the study of journalism at Pitt remained murky for a few months, David Bartholomae, chair of the English department, recently announced that the creative nonfiction and journalism tracks would be merged into a single nonfiction track.

In an e-mail sent to Pitt’s journalism faculty, Bartholomae explained the reasoning behind this decision. As Pitt doesn’t have a journalism school or a department dedicated to journalism, Pitt’s English department was wary that the journalism course listings couldn’t compare to those offered by universities with journalism schools.

Even with our past and current qualms regarding the disintegration of journalism at Pitt, we feel this decision reflects the English department’s belief that it’s acting in the best interest for students — including those studying journalism.

But to keep the pursuit of journalism at Pitt viable, Bartholomae and the department must not water down the journalism curriculum. Despite the nixing of the track, relevant journalism electives must still be available to students.

Bartholomae said in his e-mail he hopes the department will offer an expanded selection of journalism electives such as a course in online journalism and a course in ethics. But we feel the department should have had a definite collection of journalism electives before it finalized its decision to merge tracks. Under the revamped curricula, the Newspaper 1 and Newspaper 2 courses will probably not be offered, Bartholomae said.

Without the core newspaper courses, the choice of electives becomes increasingly imperative. An online journalism course and a course on journalistic ethics sound innovative and pertinent to modern journalism, but these electives must also fill a gap left by the absence of the core newspaper courses.

While the two core nonfiction classes — Nonfiction 1 and Nonfiction 2 — intend to incorporate journalistic writing skills, we hope students will be aptly prepared for more rigorous journalism courses such as Advanced Reporting. Newspaper 1 and 2 were designed as prerequisites for Advanced Reporting, and the department should make sure students can obtain the skills offered in these classes through the electives in light of their absence.

Of course, even with suitable course offerings, we’re saddened to see the termination of journalism as an official track. It’s understandable that, as a division of the English writing major, the journalism track program wasn’t as extensive as schools with exclusive journalism schools and programs.

Yet, journalism is a field of writing that continues to attract students, and journalistic writing skills are pertinent to fields outside of journalism. While the merging of the tracks inevitably changes that nature of journalism instruction at Pitt, at least journalism courses won’t disappear from Pitt’s curriculum. Only the future will tell how this change will affect journalism students at Pitt.