Academic Associations

Developing Media Education

College and university-level study of mass communication in the United States grew out of courses and programs in many fields, chiefly English and speech, sociology and political science, and later psychology. Other subjects, including management and law, were also contributors. While mass communication education and research in some universities dates to the 1930s, major growth took place only after World War II. By the 1950s, as media programs spread to more schools, a degree of specialization was already evident—a trend which would intensify in later decades.

Over time, the study of “communication” divided into several large subtopics, proponents of which rarely bridged into other areas. These included, among others, speech, journalism, radiotelevision (or electronic media), mass communication, film studies (starting in the 1970s), and international and comparative studies. This splintering led in the 1960s and 1970s to more freestanding media programs, rather than those subsidiary to a legacy field (such as speech, English, or theater). Most journalism programs, for example, began with a focus on the news/editorial function of the newspaper press, and slowly expanded to incorporate photojournalism, magazines, radio and later television journalism, public relations and advertising, political communications (and news in other fields), sometimes documentary film and video, and, most recently (in the late 1990s), the online world.

A more fundamental divide (which is still evident) is that between practical and sometimes professional training and more theoretical liberal arts–based media education. Sometimes working well together, but in other cases at sword point in opposition, the two traditions grow from very different backgrounds. The professional approach appeared first, developing out of media business needs for trained personnel, and student interest in media careers as well as in actually using media. [Page 8]Courses in newspaper reporting and editing, and in radio, television, and film production, for example, were important as far back as the 1930s in some places and remain very popular. So were courses in broadcast performance, which grew out of the speech tradition. The more broadly theoretical liberal arts approach, on the other hand, developed largely after World War II, growing out of developing media research in traditional academic fields, including sociology and psychology (media “effects”) and political science (media policy and regulation), as well as in communication programs. All of these variations are evident in academic media associations.

Academic Media Associations

Academic associations typically form for several reasons. Faculty active in a field of study seek out like-minded colleagues to compare notes on teaching and research topics and funding. This leads to conferences, some focused on specific topics, others dealing more generally with a broad subject area. Conference panels, discussions, and papers are also a means of gaining recognition beyond a professor's own campus. Another key factor in association formation is to create one or more viable research journals, usually issued quarterly, that help to reflect and project the ways the field is developing. Associations are often at the forefront of introducing new material into programs—such as media ethics in the 1980s. Finally, academic associations help to create national standards, albeit many of them informal, of both teaching and research. The growth of individual academic programs is sometimes encouraged by associations—and they may, in turn, contribute to the expansion of associations on both a regional and national level.

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