John Burks' 10-Point Plan
Better communication, new technology part of the scheme for improving the department
SLUG! REPORT
EDITOR'S NOTE: During the faculty meeting at which he was elected chair, (see Burks Named Department Chair) Acting Chair Burks discussed 10 areas where he hoped to make a difference. "I hadn't aimed to develop a Ten-Point Plan, nor do I consider what follows a plan," Burks told SLUG! "It's more a compendium of hopes, wishes, ideas, intentions, follow-throughs, pledges and steps to be taken."
Here they are, in Burks' own words.
1- Communication
Our newsletter, SLUG!, has existed almost forever, old as dirt, an on-again off-again sort of publication. Some semesters there would be a single issue, some semesters two and three SLUG!s, some zero. As a means of keeping tabs on the J-Dept, lets just say it was unreliable — a situation I do not find tolerable.
There needed to be a better channel of communication for all of us — by "us" I mean students and faculty and grads and journalism professionals who take an interest in our program.
Thus, SLUG! is being reborn as an online site, geared for breaking news. It's capable of providing instant communication — precisely what the Web does best, — is and definitely in step with the direction journalism is going.
Beyond SLUG!, we will update and upgrade the department's home page so it can better serve our public. And to act as a sort of demonstration project, showing that we take second place to nobody when it comes to producing a Web site.
More about communication: I want to produce at least one major lecture/forum program, open to the public, annually. An example of this was our November event, exploring the Hearst Corp.'s big buy: "The New Chronicle: Greater Than The Sum of it Parts?" We have a responsibility to help the public better understand major issues in the news media.
A good possibility for Fall 2000 would be an event looking at the role of diversity in journalism, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the department's Center for the Integration & Improvement of Journalism
More about communication: I know. Everybody's always stressing the need for improved communication. The difference here is that we're running a damn Journalism department; we can admit to no other option.
2- Teching up
Anybody who's been paying attention is aware of a sea change in the Department of Journalism. We're teaching old courses in new ways. We're teaching new courses, like Digital Skills and Visual Storytelling, in new ways. We're finding new ways to emphasize diversity in media, and urban and community journalism. We're moving away from a stand-and-lecture classroom style toward one-on-one coaching.
These changes result from a sweeping curriculum revision project — our year-long collaboration with the Poynter Institute of Media Studies, titled "Rethinking Journalism Education in the Academy." It's no exaggeration to say that our association with Poynter, which is nationally respected, has focused the attention of journalism educators and professionals nationwide on the SF State J-Dept. If our changeover goes well, it will embolden less adventurous souls to more fully embrace 21st century journalism.
It should be obvious that this changeover will require teching up. If it's not obvious, let me make it more so.
No part of our new curriculum is more dramatic than our new publication, the Golden Gate press, which debuts in Fall 2000. GGX unifies our three existing student publications — the newspaper, the magazine and the online news siteinto one. The new publication will come at its readers both as a print weekly (which combines newspaper and magazine formats) and as a daily online news site. All reporters and photographers and editors will work on this single publication.
To make this work, we require a major upgrade of our new media technology.
We are also moving from a "wet," chemical-based darkroom to a digital, computer-based photo lab. This change, like our new publication, reflects happenings in the profession. And, like the new publication, it demands a considerable infusion of new tech.
Our multimedia journalism lab (home to the NewsPort site, produced by the students in the Intro to Online Journalism class) limps along on equipment that seemed state-of-the art four years ago, but in the meantime has become seriously outmoded. More new tech required.
University officials seem appreciative and sympathetic to our technology Needs — none more so than the Dean of the College of Humanities, Nancy McDermid.
No one yet has guffawed at our request for new digital gear. But if all our dreams do not come true, we will have no choice but to jump into major fundraising mode (see item No. 8, below.)
3- Curriculum revision
Item No. 2, immediately above, speaks to the "what" of our change in direction. Here I'll concentrate on the "why."
The nutshell version: We're trying to make sure our graduates are truly prepared for the challenges of 21st century journalism.
Meaning what? Nobody has a clear fix on what journalism will look like and how it will be practiced 20 years along. You should look with extreme suspicion on anyone who claims to.
Surely, however, the fundamental things will apply. "The central purpose of journalism," says Bill Kovach, a founder of the Committee of Concerned Journalists, "is to provide citizens with accurate and reliable information they need to function in a free society." This purpose is not subject to change, no matter how far-out new formats for news delivery might appear. Nothing in our new curriculum undercuts this imperative.
We live in a time of media convergence. All the news formats (despite their differing cultures) are inexorably moving together. This tells us our graduates not only will need superior reporting, photographic and editing skills — they must also be versatile, nimble enough to navigate the new media waters.
Soon it will be mandatory for prospective journalists to be able to work with HTML and digital data-based reporting just as it was necessary for previous generations to type fast. It would be irresponsible for us as journalism educators to ignore this.
Our focus has always been on preparing our graduates for success. Still is.
Addendum to my comment concerning the national attention to our new curriculum: It's not just national, its international. Over the past couple of years, we have hosted several delegations of journalists from around the world — from South Africa, Bulgaria, Khazakstan, Great Britain, Australia, Brazil, Pakistan, Lithuania, Burma, Thailand, Bangladesh and several more nations eager to learn how they might practice and teach a 21st century journalism back home.
Indeed, in December I was invited to Bangkok to participate in the Thai Press in the Next Century conference, where I delivered a paper titled "21st Century Journalism: The New Curriculum" to editors of virtually all leading Thai newspapers, and scores of journalism educators.
In other words, we're hot!
4- New publication: The Golden Gate press
For a description of the new publication, see item No. 2, above, about the amalgamation of our publications and their staffs to produce the Golden Gate press. I helped shape GGX; I'm excited about it; I do whatever I can to make it work.
I have just two further observations to offer here.
First, organizing and managing this combined new venture — which will have a staff of 90, the size of a medium-sized daily paper — will not be easily accomplished. We're working overtime to make a smooth transition into this new world and we're crossing our fingers. The candidates for the GGX editor-in-chief position are full of ideas, highly enthusiastic and appear to be well-organized, all of which bodes well.
Second, it's going to be a real adventure. The other day, I heard Ken Kobre excitedly discussing this aspect of GGX. Sure, it will have its start-up problems, Ken said, but it's also going to a wonderful opportunity to create something brand new. Maybe so new that we'll run ahead of, and provide inspiration for, the profession.
Whatever the case, it won't be the same-old same-old.
5- Community journalism
We've agreed we want to place greater emphasis on both the community press and urban journalism, and we've already begun introducing an emphasis on urban journalism in our Reporting course.
Concerning community journalism, I have begun working to build a collaboration between our Center for the Integration of Journalism (CIIJ), the university's Urban Institute, the Independent Press Association and others toward creating a summer training/continuing education workshop for community journalists.
More about this later, as it takes shape.
6- Faculty stability
During long stretches of the '90s and continuing to today, senior Journalism faculty members — often several at the same time — have taken extended leaves and sabbaticals, pursuing academic and personal interests. This is their right, and a healthy thing for the department.
But their absence leaves a relative handful of tenured and tenure-track faculty stretched nearly to the limits, scrambling to handle department affairs, from student advising to fundraising to committee work. This is not healthy for the department.
So I'm leaning toward a new tenure-track hire, preferably someone with extensive new media experience, to fill out our ranks. Whether we can afford such a move — that is the question, and a matter I must take up soon with the dean and the administration.
7- Better communication with the university's upper echelons
If it's a matter of becoming more visible, I'm willing to get "out there" on a regular basis. If it's a matter of opening dialogues with members of the Academic Senate and the administration, I'm already on the case.
8- Fundraising
We have a good record in this area. We raised half the money during the '80s to create our first computerized classroom. CIIJ just won a $525,000 grant to work on its coaching and mentoring programs. And more a detailed listing of Journalism's fundraising successes would go on and on.
Suffice to say that our ambitions, especially those relating to new tech, carry a sizeable price tag. We can't let it worry us unduly if the university won't fully pay the tab. As we've done so many times in the past, we'll roll up our sleeves and begin chasing down more outside money.
My background as president of the San Francisco Study Center suits me for this task; never mind whether it's my favorite way to spend time. The Study Center, a non-profit organization in the business of doing media work for community organizations, is a million-dollar-a-year operation — all funding deriving from foundation and agency grants. In other words, fundraising.
9- Diversity
CIIJ, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, is nationally acclaimed for representing the interests of non-traditional journalists throughout the United States. It's role in the coaching and mentoring of our students is irreplaceable.
At our 27 March faculty meeting, I pledged to work in as close collaboration with CIIJ as have previous chairs. This is any easy pledge to make; I am very proud to be associated with CIIJ and its programs.
10- The journalism of social responsibility
I won't let us forget that the American free press exists because the Nation's founders, those old radicals, believed that journalism, with all its warts, was fundamental to a workable democracy.
The First Amendment says the people have an absolute right to know. Its corollary is that journalists have an absolute responsibility to work toward the betterment of society. That's the tradition were here to pass along to future generations of journalists.
Anything less and we should get out of the business.
