Hub Brown Comments on the Value of a Journalism Education and the Importance of Local and State Investigative Reporting
Hub Brown, dean of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC), is quoted in “Media is in Flux. Don’t Let That Dissuade You from a Journalism Career” published on NBCUAcademy.com on April 17.
The article focused on the many reasons why a journalism education still matters.
“It’s harder to imagine a time when journalism and journalism education were more relevant and more important than it is right now,” said Brown. “There are a whole lot of things that are masquerading as information that’s misinformation and is steering our society in the wrong way. People need good, reliable, trustworthy information from journalists.”
According to Brown, UFCJC faculty and researchers have been experimenting with new teaching methods in the Consortium on Trust in Media and Technology.
“Journalists and journalism instructors don’t necessarily have all the answers when it comes to [trust],” he said. “If we think the way to get out of these problems is to have just more traditional journalism, we’ve lost already, because that’s not where the next generation is getting their information.”
Brown pointed out that journalism schools have a key role in educating future journalists who will continue to uphold democracy. He said journalists need to give the people the information they need to be free and self-governing.
Brown was also interviewed on Texas Public Radio’s “Texas Matters: The GOP v. H-E-B” broadcast on March 30.
He spoke about the importance and relevance of grass-roots community-based journalism and referenced the Collier Prize for State Government Accountability and a recent $8 million endowment the College received to strengthen support for local and state investigative journalism. He explained that state-focused journalism is stressed and under-resourced. With newspapers and broadcast operations shrinking, resources are still needed to report on what happens in state government.
“We see state house bureaus getting smaller and smaller and then finally disappearing. And obviously there is a lot of important legislation going through the state and it may be things that get discussed at the national level,” he said. “It’s really about giving people the information they need to help in their own state government. It does take familiarity and you need to understand what is happening.”
“One of the big things that the [Collier] Prize does is that it shows managers and media what is possible with a little bit of investment. The kind of stories that help people understand what going on about major issues and controversies in their local area. We want to make sure that the process is still there and that the media as a watchdog over government is a still a role that is taken seriously in this country,” Brown said.
He adds, “When [our students] understand the importance of good accountability in journalism this will enhance the mission of what we do in the UFCJC. It improves the level of discussion around these things and inspires students to be the next generation of great accountability journalists.”
Posted: April 19, 2024
Category: College News, Trust News
Tagged as: Collier Prize for State Government Accountability, Community-Based Journalism, Hub Brown, Journalism education, NBCU Academy, Texas Public Radio
