Journalsim adds new majors

Students of photojournalism and new media will finally be able to declare their majors in the fall of 2009.

This fall, photojournalism and new media will no longer be regulated to the “concentration” status. On Sept. 9, the academic senate ratified the new majors unanimously.

“In keeping with the times, students need the creative and technical skills to create online content,” said Kent Miller, a CMU journalism professor. “If they have those skills, they’re much more marketable. It presents an opportunity for new ways of storytelling.”

With the media shoveling its content from newsprint to the Internet, students are being given the opportunity to gain new skills.

“Viewers can demand different ways of receiving content,” Miller said.

One of these ways is demonstrated in Online Visual Storytelling, or JRN 423. Miller asks his students to create slideshows, videos, and online portfolios.

By offering both photojournalism and new media as a major, students will be able to boost their resumes when they meet with potential employers.

“The value of a major is your degree says ‘this is what your degree is in,’” said Maria Marron, the chairperson for the journalism department. Before, the degree only told employers that applicants were journalism majors, Marron said.

In creating the new majors, some new classes are being added to the curriculum. Some classes are being brought over from other departments while some are being created.

For example, a few of the classes the department is adding are Online Journalism, Online Visual Storytelling, and Multimedia Reporting. These will be part of the new photojournalism major.

To meet these demands, new professors will be added.

The additions of these majors have been in the works since April of 2005.

Students may be able to enroll in one or two of the new classes by as early as this spring, Marron said.