Journalism students Undrea Steele, Leon Ha and Kerry O’Grady.
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Journalism major thrives at UMass Amherst.
“People think students aren’t interested in current events,” says Professor Karen List, head of the Journalism Program. “And some people think students don’t major in journalism these days because they don’t want to change the world. From where I sit, they still do.”
List is in her cozy office, looking out on the courtyard of Bartlett Hall, musing about the reasons why the major she oversees remains so popular. The range of courses is one attraction. They include the nuts-and-bolts like “Newswriting,” “Feature Writing,” and “Covering the Courts,” to the “History of American Journalism,” “The “Philosophy of Journalism,” “Freedom of the Press,” and even “Journalists in the Movies.” The opportunities for student internships is also a draw – Journalism majors have found spots with NPR stations, magazines in New York, and television broadcast affiliates, List says.
“The qualities common to our majors are a greater connection with current events than the average student, a commitment to writing, and courage in looking at the world in a fresh way,” says List.
List points out that over the years UMass Amherst Journalism alumni have had their bylines on publications around the world. The roster includes investigative reporter Kevin Cullen ‘81 of
The Boston Globe; Cosmo Macero, Jr. ‘90, who just ended a 9-year run as a business writer and editor at The Boston Herald; Dan Wetzel ‘94, a national columnist for Yahoo!Sports and author of the 2005 book Glory Road; and Teresa Hanafin ‘84, editor-in-chief of Boston.com, a news site affiliated with theGlobe
.And for every J-major who goes to work in the media, many more with no plans to become professional writers vie for a place in the program because they want to become excellent writers in whatever field they go into.
“They see it as a major that will give them a lot of flexibility in what they’ll do eventually for their life work,” says List.
That’s exactly how senior Undrea Steele sees it. The Boston native – who is one of only a handful so far to take on the rigors of the newly-offered Journalism/Communication double-major that came out of discussions between the two departments - plans to eventually go to graduate school in public relations or marketing, not journalism.
“Studying journalism puts you in touch with the things that are happening around the world,” she asserts. “It forces you to stay involved.” As her interest in journalism grew, Steele became a member of the ED2010 Club, a national group of aspiring young editors interested in magazine writing. With the program’s emphasis on newspapers and few classes in writing for periodicals, the club brings together students who want to learn what it takes to put together a magazine. The first issue of its magazine is due to debut online this month.
Kerry O’Grady will graduate in a few weeks and take her degrees in Journalism and English (with a minor in Psychology) to
The Arizona Republic. The Bellingham, Massachusetts native grew up in a family that devoured newspapers; that early exposure to world events prompted her to apply to the Communication department with plans to go into broadcast journalism. The technical emphasis turned out not to be a good match for her interests. But when she saw that The Daily Collegian, the campus student paper, where many Journalism majors first cut their teeth, was looking for an advertising person, she sensed that she was getting closer to the right fit. She was right, and switching to a Journalism major, she felt she’d found her passion. By her senior year, she was a peer advisor, helping other undergraduates pick classes that would help them fulfill the program’s requirements as well as bring them closer to their personal and professional goals.
While her years as a Journalism major refined her writing skills, she says she is “too restless” to sit for the requisite hours in front of a computer and write stories. Her job in Arizona will be an upgrade of what she did at
The Collegian: she will be starting as an account manager in the advertising department.
“My biggest asset is that I’ve combined journalism with the fact that I’m a business girl,” she says with confident laugh. “I can understand both sides. You need to make snap decisions in the newspaper business, like where to draw the line between content and advertising.”
Leon Ha, a first-semester senior who changed majors from Chinese to Journalism, says he instantly felt at home, even though he knew very little about writing beyond academic papers. From his first day in Karen List’s “Journalism and Law” class, he felt electrified by new ideas.
“Journalism plays a necessary role in this society – watch-dogging the government and making sure people are informed to make decisions,” says Ha. “We talked about journalists who’ve done prison time because they refused to reveal confidential sources,” he adds. “In an ironic way, they were jailed for protecting the system” whose Constitution spells out the rights of journalists. “A lot of people aren’t aware of that.”
Beyond his classes, Ha felt drawn in by the enthusiasm percolating in the program, where many of the faculty and visiting lecturers are working journalists. Their own passion for their work, and their conviction that it is important, worthy, and necessary, is infectious, he says.
“The professors here pay more attention to students than I experienced in other departments. They really go the extra distance for the students.” Ha doesn’t necessarily see himself hitting the streets with a reporter’s pad and camera, but he hasn’t ruled it out, either. He’s hoping to get into a popular “Magazine Writing” class in the fall, and is already guaranteed a place in “Web Writing” and “Photojournalism” courses. Regardless of what he ends up doing, he feels that majoring in journalism has sensitized him to the role of the press in society – and that awareness will serve him well for the rest of his life.
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