Columbia J-School Suspends Environmental Program
October 21st, 2009 · 1 Comment · Posted in Blog
Venerable institutions are crumbling
I had planned on writing something about my kohlrabi this morning but was stopped in my tracks by this news bit: Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, the tops in its field, is suspending its program in environmental reporting because of the sad state of the newspaper business. After 14 years turning out reporters trained in environmental issues, the school will not be accepting applications for next year.
In a letter to interested parties, the directors of the program stated:
“As you know, media organizations across the county are in dire financial straits and thousands of journalists’ jobs have been eliminated. Science and environment beats have been particularly vulnerable. Although our graduates have done well in their careers, even those still employed are finding few opportunities to do the kind of substantive reporting for which the dual degree program has trained them, as they scramble to do their own work plus that of laid-off colleagues.”
With civilization literally hanging in the balance because of global warming, this hardly seems like the time to give up on environmental reporting. But apparently that’s the state of the news biz these days. Scary.
For more, see the piece in Columbia Journalism Review here.
I share your reaction…. Wow. What a shame. I wonder how this whole crisis in journalism will shake out — it’s clear things will never again be what they once were. But of all programs to cut, upsetting that they cut this one.