Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Arizona State University
Arizona State University
Welcome from Dean Callahan
Welcome to the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. The Cronkite School is a nationally recognized professional program that prepares students for careers as reporters, editors, producers, correspondents, anchors, media managers and public relations specialists. Our students go on to online media outlets, television stations, newspapers, magazines, radio stations, newsletters, public relations firms and corporate and government public relations departments. We consistently rank in the top 10 in the annual Hearst intercollegiate journalism competition, often called the Pulitzers of college journalism (in 2007 we were first in the nation following two consecutive years at No. 2). And our students have finished first in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Mark of Excellence competition for two straight years. Our faculty consists of award-winning professional journalists and world-class media scholars. We are in the middle of one of the nation's largest media markets. And each year we draw extraordinarily bright, inquisitive, passionate and diverse students from across the country. ASU’s journalism program exploded onto the national education landscape in 1984 when the school was named in honor of Walter Cronkite, the longtime CBS Evening News anchor. For more than two decades now, the person who is often called “the Most Trusted Man in America” because of his journalistic excellence and integrity has helped shape and grow the program into a national journalism powerhouse. In 2005, we entered a new era when ASU President Michael Crow made the Cronkite School the 12th independent school on the Tempe campus. Our mission is simple: to take this excellent journalism school and make it the preeminent professional journalism program in the country. And while that may seem like an ambitious plan, we’re already well under way. In the first few years of independence, we have added more than a dozen top journalists and scholars to the faculty, people such as former CNN anchor Aaron Brown, former Minneapolis Star Tribune Editor Tim McGuire, BET Vice President Retha Hill and former Akron Beacon Journal Publisher Jim Crutchfield. We launched a downtown reporting bureau where our best students prepare stories and news packages under tight deadlines for newspapers, TV newscasts, radio reports and news Web sites around the state. We started the New Media Innovation Lab and the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship to help develop the next generation of digital media solutions and opened the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism. We are transforming our award-winning weekly newscast, ASU NewsWatch, into a daily show. And we have a career development center that helps our students get the best internships and jobs possible because, after all, the most important measure of a professional journalism program is where students go after graduation and beyond. But all of that is truly just the beginning. We have plans for new professorships, chairs and programs that will specialize in coverage of Latino issues, business journalism, journalism ethics, health and medical reporting and news diversity. Perhaps the most exciting part of our future is where it will happen. In August 2008, the Cronkite School will move to the center of downtown Phoenix. Our students will be learning in a new, state-of-the-art journalism building that will be one of the most sophisticated journalism education complexes in the nation. They will be just a brief walk from The Arizona Republic, three major network-affiliated TV stations, the state’s dominant news Web site, radio stations, public relations agencies and much more. In fact, our students will be closer to a major metropolitan newspaper and big-market TV stations than any journalism school in the country. And our students will have as their news laboratory one of the most dynamic, complex and fastest-growing cities in the country. The core of our journalism curriculum is demanding, real-life fieldwork, and our students will be performing those assignments and internships in the heart of the nation's fifth-largest city. Students will be just a short walk from City Hall, federal, state and county courthouses and government agencies, the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, cultural venues such as the Herberger, Orpheum and Dodge Theaters, and sports arenas such as Chase Field (home of the Arizona Diamondbacks) and U.S. Airways Center (home of the Phoenix Suns). It will be an unparalleled opportunity for aspiring journalists and communications professionals. Even with all of these exciting new initiatives, our biggest asset remains the foundation of excellence and integrity that has been the hallmark of our school, guided by the values and standards set by Walter Cronkite. I hope you have the opportunity to take a look through our Web site and stop by the Cronkite School. Sincerely,
Dean Christopher Callahan |
