Following the cancellation of the Washington Journalism Center for the spring 2010 semester, journalism students lost one of the most prolific opportunities offered to them at BU. Though planning to revamp the program for fall 2010 is in the works, the administration is citing lack of student interest as one of the main reasons it was suspended for the upcoming spring. It is hard to believe that here at BU, which boasts one of the most renowned journalism schools in the country and some of the seemingly most ambitious journalism students, there is enough student apathy in this valuable program to cancel it entirely.
It’s not news that print journalism is suffering ‘-‘- newspapers and media giants are going under across the nation, and graduates with journalism degrees are finding it harder than ever to secure relevant jobs. That being the unfortunate truth, it makes no sense that BU’s journalists are refusing the inimitable opportunities offered at national news bureaus in Washington, D.C. by BU. Anyone who has ever participated in the news writing process knows that great reporting and editing cannot be learned in the classroom ‘-‘- fieldwork is essential to producing a quality product. And though many internships available to undergraduates in Boston at major publications may look sharp on a resume, they often don’t offer much in the way of independence and experience. Filling coffee cups won’t teach you much about reporting ‘-‘- but the Washington, D.C. program would. Not to mention, interns participating in the D.C. program become correspondents for newspapers nationwide, providing them with affordable coverage that they might not be able to afford if a professional journalist were covering D.C. events for them. Truly, the program helps not only aspiring journalists but also journalism as profession.
When the program does return, as it is expected to next fall, it won’t last for long if students don’t show interest in it. It is the responsibility of the journalism major to fight to keep their trade alive ‘-‘- but how can they if they themselves don’t support an opportunity generously offered to them by BU to help expose them to one of the richest experiences available to an undergraduate? As with many ailing fields right now, the craft of journalism needs resuscitation from the millennial generation ‘-‘- it’s necessary to pick up where our parents left off, utilizing our new technologies and new convictions to revive the news media. But that can never happen if journalism students don’t take the necessary initiatives first. The rise and fall of the Washington Journalism Center is just one example of the exact type of apathy that will further drive the printed news media towards extinction. Hopefully tides will change come fall.
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