The emergence of the Internet, social media, and digital technologies in the twenty-first century accelerated an evolution in journalism and communication that fit under the broad term of convergence. That evolution changed the relationship between news producers and consumers. It broke down the geographical boundaries in defining our communities,…

Explores how university disability professionals can assist advertising or public relations campaigns teachers in accommodating the Learning Disabled (LD) student in the team or group-based learning situation to foster a cooperative environment among students and faculty. Attempts to open the discussion about what faculty should consider when…

Surveys diversity research in journalism and mass communication education. Examines student admissions and retention, faculty and administration hiring and retention, and curriculum. Explores historical context of diversity efforts in journalism and mass communication education. Finds few departments are developing multicultural courses or…

Reports on a national survey of faculty needs and preferences administered to a sample of administrators of institutions offering instruction and degrees in communications programs, and a content analysis of 803 advertised faculty openings in programs of journalism and mass communication. Finds an increasing need for well-qualified communications…

Examines the learning environment of journalism education. Considers historical perspectives of journalism education before laying the groundwork for a new research area. Suggests that the experiential learning approach offers a way of assessing the quality of learning and of breaking new paths into the study of journalism education. (SG)

Presents a case study of the use of constructivist theory in mass communication higher education. Reports the participants' observations during and critique of a quasi-experimental study in which students could follow a traditional route and use the instructor's syllabus, or they could immediately put constructivist learning theory into practice…

Asks program administrators to determine the status of two aspects of journalism and mass communication education that have been widely debated: The relative weight of skills development and conceptual content; and the extent to which students study the liberal arts and sciences in their courses. Concludes the administrators think their programs…

Finds that journalism and mass communication programs appear to be entering another period of rapid enrollment growth, swept up by overall increases in enrollments at United States universities. Finds that only about four in ten of the journalism and mass communication programs report enrollments by race, suggesting many administrators are not…

Finds that a large majority of high school social science teachers in two of the nation's largest school districts believe that: students should be taught how to be informed media consumers; the social science curriculum is the appropriate place for that instruction; and while they feel qualified to teach about the media, they have received little…

Presents results of focus interviews with 25 "practitioners turned professors" regarding their transition from industry to academia. Finds a general consensus that all advertising and public relations programs should implement a formal mentoring process to include teacher training and inservice, greater explanation of and assistance with promotion…

Finds, for 1996: (1) undergraduate enrollment increased 7% over 1995; (2) graduate enrollment decreased 4%; (3) number of degrees increased; (4) 86% of programs offered traditional journalism sequences; (5) women dominated enrollment at bachelor's and master's level, but men dominated at the doctoral level; (6) journalism programs became more…

Explores the perspectives of 132 creative executives who review the portfolios of entry-level advertising candidates. Suggests that advertising educators should consider creating a special track for creative students, and that educators can effectively prepare students for creative positions by concentrating in creative courses on those skills the…

Looks at the entire entity of journalism and mass communication coursework. Raises broad issues and recognizes that the Association of Journalism and Mass Communication needs to pay more attention to the basic question of overall curriculum. Discusses the role of media education; theory versus practice; media education's relationship to the…

Reports results of a survey investigating what practices journalism faculty advisers perceive as appropriate and ethical (when advising theses and dissertations) in several potentially troublesome areas: problems with appropriation of student work; problems of joint authorship; appropriateness of adviser input; reasons for writing a thesis or…

Investigates the success of mass fund-raising appeals to alumni, showing the efficacy of personalized notes and targeting a specific audience. Shows that a brochure brought a higher response rate than audiotapes or audiotapes and brochures. (SR)