UC journalism embarks on a program expansion

Growing student enrollment and a program expansion in the University of Cincinnati’s Department of Journalism reflects the department’s reputation for academic excellence and stellar internship opportunities.

And that something new, both Blevins and Calfano tout enthusiastically, are efforts to establish a UC Center for Urban and Political Affairs reporting, with a corresponding urban and political affairs certificate program. 

“Experiential learning is such a big part of what we do that establishing the center is just the next logical outgrowth,” Blevins says of partnering with UC’s Department of Political Science to establish the center, and certificate program for a 2021 launch. The certificate will allow the regular offering of courses such as Race and Reporting, Post-truth and Fake News, U.S. Media Public Policy Research and Reporting and a course in Journalism Literacy.

This outgrowth, Blevins says, stems from several support mechanisms from within and outside the university.

Thanks to a grant from the Scripps Howard Foundation, for example, the UC departments of Journalism, Political Science and Communication collaborated in 2018 on the Common Ground Project, an ambitious research program designed to explore patterns of media engagement in the Greater Cincinnati region and analyze their effects on political perceptions. In July 2020, through an innovation grant from the college, the department was able to offer two internships with community-based and minority-owned news outlets: The Cincinnati Herald and Streetvibes. And, in August 2020, a grant from the Murray & Agnes Seasongood Good Government Foundation will support two more internships at these publications in conjunction with the certificate program.

“We have more students doing paid internships than ever before,” says Blevins, “but not all publications have the financial resources to support experiential learning.”  

In support of UC’s strategic direction called Next Lives Here, he says, grants for internships help advance the university’s commitment to urban impact, creating an opportunity for UC to establish a relationship with Cincinnati’s urban communities and providing students with real-world, ground-level experience producing relevant news for marginalized communities — Black, Latino, LGBTQ and homeless communities.

“Grants such as these really fit well with what we’ve done so far,” he adds, citing that both the research endeavors and the investigative reporting instruction students receive at UC is raising the department’s visibility.  

In 2018, for example, one UC journalism student and several recent UC graduates and faculty contributed to a Cincinnati Enquirer series, “Seven Days of Heroin,” which won a Pulitzer Prize. The department also has received recognition through the national Investigative Reporters and Editors organization with a collegiate award for reporting on athletic spending at Ohio’s public universities.

Featured photo of student conducting a video interview. Photo/Unsplash.