Abstract
Journalists play an important role in the realization and protection of human rights worldwide, framing and shaping the public’s understanding of issues. In the United States, however, studies show that media coverage of human rights is inadequate and frequently inaccurate, with US journalists typically framing human rights as an exclusively international issue. This study helps to explain why this is the case through an examination of the human rights content of journalism education in the United States. Journalism education is dominated by undergraduate programs in the United States, yet data from this study show that human rights education is not part of journalism training programs at the undergraduate level (at the top 10 schools, ranked according to the number of graduates, there are no human rights courses for journalism majors) and is not a focus of most graduate-level training programs. Those schools that do teach human rights do so largely with a focus on events and violations abroad. The fact that journalists are not educated about international human rights law and standards or taught to view events through a human rights lens means that crucial opportunities are missed to frame topics as human rights issues, to inform the public, and to hold governments and other human rights violators accountable.
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Notes
Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia.
The ACEJMC’s accrediting standards require that students take a minimum of 72 semester hours in courses—75% of their course loads in liberal arts and sciences courses—outside the journalism and mass communications major (ACEJMC 2017).
I borrow the term “possibly human rights” from Brandle 2015.
Total enrollment at all schools was 213,055: 198,410 bachelor’s; 12,892 master’s; and 1752 doctoral (Becker et al. 2014b).
Total degrees granted by all schools was 57,705: 51,929 bachelor’s; 5465 master’s; and 311 doctoral (Becker et al. 2014b).
University of Wisconsin-Madison ranked 78th (tying Kentucky U-Louisville and California State U-Los Angeles) in the number (206) of bachelor’s degrees granted.
In 2016, the University of Alabama merged the Journalism department and the Telecommunication & Film department to create the Department of Journalism and Creative Media. The new department offers majors in news media and creative media.
For the University of Central Florida, course descriptions are not available online. Content analysis was performed only on the list of course titles.
“JOUR 4700 Mass Media and National Security: Examines the role of the mass media in maintaining national security. Topics include history, legal, and operational concerns from both media and the government perspectives. Discusses the tension between maintaining national security and American traditions of civil liberties and the role of both the media and government in these discussions.” (Middle Tennessee State U School of Journalism. Journalism.)
For example, two “special topics” courses (J676 Special Topics: Internet and Political Mobilization; J676 Special Topics: New Media and Society) mentioned “political mobilization” and “democracy,” but those were the closest themes to human rights (U of Wisconsin- Madison. School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Course Descriptions).
Total enrollment at all schools was 213,055: 198,410 bachelor’s; 12,892 master’s; and 1752 doctoral (Becker et al. 2014b).
Total degrees granted by all schools was 57,705: 51,929 bachelor’s; 5465 master’s; and 311 doctoral (Becker et al. 2014b).
Only Boston University and Michigan State University appear on both the top undergraduate schools and top graduate schools lists.
Syracuse University’s Newhouse School offers 16 master’s degrees, including 4 journalism degrees: Arts Journalism, MA; Broadcast and Digital Journalism, MS; Magazine, Newspaper, and Online Journalism, MA; and Computational Journalism, MS. As well as a PhD in Mass Communications.
For Boston University: MS in Journalism; and MS in Science Journalism.
For American University: MA in Journalism and Public Affairs; and MA in Journalism and Digital Storytelling; PhD in Communication.
For Ball State University, most but not all course descriptions are available online. Content analysis was performed on course titles only for courses without descriptions.
Ball State University’s online MA program offers two specializations: Reporting and Storytelling; and Media Analytics and Management.
Michigan State University’s PhDs are in: Information and Media; Communication; and Communicative Sciences and Disorders.
For the University of Southern California, course descriptions are not available online. Content analysis was performed on course titles only.
For the University of Southern California: Journalism MS; Specialized Journalism MA; and Specialized Journalism the Arts MA.
Course titles are: China Seminar, Covering the 2016 Presidential Race, Gendering Migration: An Intensive Course on Women and Girls Crossing Borders, Tactical Technology for Reporting. I include China Seminar as a possibly human rights course even though there is no mention of rights in the course description. As Brandle (2015) shows, the majority of US television news coverage of human rights is reporting on China. Therefore, I would expect a course on China to include human rights as a topic.
JOUR 422 US Security and Civil Liberties, JOUR 480 Privacy and Civil Liberties, JOUR 490 Medill Justice Project, JOUR 490 Politics, Partisanship, and Foreign Policy in the 2016 Election.
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Reilly, J.E. Reporting Without Knowledge: the Absence of Human Rights in US Journalism Education. Hum Rights Rev 19, 249–271 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-018-0493-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-018-0493-7