Jacqueline E. Sharkey Soldwedel Family Professor of Journalism and Department Head

WELCOME!

Welcome to the electronic home of The University of Arizona Department of Journalism. Our newly redesigned Web site should better help visitors learn about the students, faculty, courses and programs of the Department of Journalism.

And speaking of new, our new home in the Marshall Building will enable the department to be even more effective in preparing students to face the complex challenges confronting journalists in the 21st century. In the department's new computer laboratories and seminar rooms, students are working on stories that appear in real-world news media, and are studying the political, economic, legal, and ethical issues that journalists must deal with in the global information age.

Successful alumni working in the field speak to our program's merits. Our graduates have gone to work for major news media ranging from The New York Times to CNN, have won every major award in the profession - including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Magazine Award - and have written stories that have changed state and national laws and policies.

The Journalism Department has been accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications for more than 40 years. Indeed, that organization looked to our department for ethics materials during a national study of ethics education in journalism since we have been a leader in that area for some 20 years.

Within our site, you'll find details on some of the department's interdisciplinary initiatives of which I'm particularly proud. Our international journalism program has sent students to Latin America since 2004-05 with the university's Center for Latin American Studies and Center for Middle Eastern Studies to report on and write about world issues. The community newspaper of South Tucson that our students have produced since 1976 is expanding its coverage to issues affecting those living along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Professor Maggy Zanger has developed a new focus for the Journalism Department's News Analysis course, which will emphasize news coverage of wars and humanitarian crises in the Middle East. Classes are open to all undergraduate and graduate students in the Journalism, Latin American Studies and Near Eastern Studies programs. In summer 2007, she is leading a group of students to Cairo for eight weeks where they will study Arabic and conduct journalism field work centered on the skills and abilities needed to effectively report from the Middle East.

The other interdisciplinary initiative is Information Technology and Society, which involves Journalism, the Department of Communication, and the School of Information Resources and Library Science. The three units are developing courses and research projects that examine the ways in which technology influences the content and perceptions of information.

If you have any questions after your virtual tour, please contact us.

Sincerely,
Jacqueline E. Sharkey
Journalism Department Head
Soldwedel Professor of Journalism

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