Philip Merrill College of Journalism
Encyclopedia
The Philip Merrill College of Journalism is a journalism school
located at the University of Maryland, College Park
. The college was founded in 1945 and was named after newspaper
editor Philip Merrill
in 2001. The school has about 600 undergraduates and 70 graduate students enrolled.
The school awards B.A.
, M.A.
, M.J. and Ph.D.
degrees in journalism
. Undergraduates can focus on print
, magazine
, online
, or broadcast
journalism.
A Washington Post recruiter has said the college is one of the nation's best journalism schools.
The university's student newspaper
, The Diamondback
, is not affiliated with the school. However, the school provides opportunities for students to publish work with the Capital News Service, a wire service serving papers in the Washington, D.C.
region and Maryland Newsline, a live half-hour news broadcast that reaches over 500,000 households in the greater Washington metropolitan area, as well as Baltimore
City. The three college-sponsored student news outlets—the nightly television show, online news magazine, and weekly radio show—have all been named the best in the nation by the Society of Professional Journalists
in the last few years.
The school is also home to the American Journalism Review, a preeminent publication focusing on the status of the media business.
winners – Jon Franklin (who is also an alum of the school), Haynes Johnson, David Broder, Ira Chinoy, Deb Nelson, Jan Schaffer, and former Philadelphia Inquirer
editor Gene Roberts, who also led the Inquirer to 16 Pulitzers in his seventeen years as Editor. Other notable faculty members include former Washington Post
sports editor George Solomon
, who was ESPN
's first ombudsman, ESPN's Around the Horn panelist Kevin Blackistone
, and Lee Thornton, a former CNN and CBS correspondent.
The college moved into a new journalism building, the John S. and James L. Knight
Hall, on January 4, 2010. Tawes Theater is also scheduled to undergo extensive renovations in the next few years.
Journalism school
A journalism school is a school or department, usually part of an established university, where journalists are trained. An increasingly used term for a journalism department, school or college is 'J-School'...
located at the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
. The college was founded in 1945 and was named after newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
editor Philip Merrill
Philip Merrill
Philip Merrill was an American diplomat, publisher, banker, and philanthropist who committed suicide while traveling alone on his boat in the Chesapeake Bay.- Career and philanthropy :...
in 2001. The school has about 600 undergraduates and 70 graduate students enrolled.
The school awards B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
, M.A.
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
, M.J. and Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
degrees in journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
. Undergraduates can focus on print
Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
, magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
, online
ONLINE
ONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....
, or broadcast
Broadcast
Broadcast or Broadcasting may refer to:* Broadcasting, the transmission of audio and video signals* Broadcast, an individual television program or radio program* Broadcast , an English electronic music band...
journalism.
A Washington Post recruiter has said the college is one of the nation's best journalism schools.
The university's student newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
, The Diamondback
The Diamondback
The Diamondback is the independent student newspaper of the University of Maryland, College Park. It was founded in 1910 as The Triangle and renamed in 1921 in honor of a local reptile, the Diamondback terrapin...
, is not affiliated with the school. However, the school provides opportunities for students to publish work with the Capital News Service, a wire service serving papers in the Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
region and Maryland Newsline, a live half-hour news broadcast that reaches over 500,000 households in the greater Washington metropolitan area, as well as Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
City. The three college-sponsored student news outlets—the nightly television show, online news magazine, and weekly radio show—have all been named the best in the nation by the Society of Professional Journalists
Society of Professional Journalists
The Society of Professional Journalists , formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is one of the oldest organizations representing journalists in the United States. It was established in April 1909 at DePauw University, and its charter was designed by William Meharry Glenn. The ten founding members of...
in the last few years.
The school is also home to the American Journalism Review, a preeminent publication focusing on the status of the media business.
Faculty
The school's faculty includes seven Pulitzer PrizePulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
winners – Jon Franklin (who is also an alum of the school), Haynes Johnson, David Broder, Ira Chinoy, Deb Nelson, Jan Schaffer, and former Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
editor Gene Roberts, who also led the Inquirer to 16 Pulitzers in his seventeen years as Editor. Other notable faculty members include former Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
sports editor George Solomon
George Solomon
George Solomon is a former sports editor and columnist at The Washington Post and was the first ombudsman for ESPN.Solomon is a 1963 graduate of the University of Florida. He began working at the Post in 1972. He served as assistant managing editor for sports from 1975 to 2003. From 2003 to his...
, who was ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
's first ombudsman, ESPN's Around the Horn panelist Kevin Blackistone
Kevin Blackistone
Kevin B. Blackistone is a columnist for Fanhouse.com, also a frequent panelist for ESPN's Around the Horn and on Sundays for Comcast's Redskins Postgame Live. On radio, he appears as a frequent guest cohost on the Sports Reporters on DC's ESPN980.-Career:He was born in Washington, D.C...
, and Lee Thornton, a former CNN and CBS correspondent.
Building
The school was formerly housed in the Journalism building located next to McKeldin Library; the building was the smallest on campus to be home to a college. Much of the broadcast facilities, including the Maryland Newsline studio, is located in Tawes Theater.The college moved into a new journalism building, the John S. and James L. Knight
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is an American private, non-profit foundation dedicated to supporting transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts....
Hall, on January 4, 2010. Tawes Theater is also scheduled to undergo extensive renovations in the next few years.
Alumni
- Connie ChungConnie ChungConnie Chung, full name: Constance Yu-Hwa Chung Povich is an American journalist who has been an anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC. Some of her more famous interview subjects include Claus von Bülow and U.S...
, former CBS NewsCBS NewsCBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
presenter - Giuliana Rancic, E! NewsE! NewsE! News, previously known as E! News Daily and E! News Live, is a nightly entertainment newsmagazine program airing on E!: Entertainment Television. The program debuted on September 1, 1991 and talks about Hollywood celebrities and gossip...
presenter and TV personality. - Jon Franklin, two time Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
winner - Jane Healey, Pulitzer winner with the Orlando SentinelOrlando SentinelThe Orlando Sentinel is the primary newspaper of the Orlando, Florida region. It was founded in 1876. The Sentinel is owned by Tribune Company and is overseen by the Chicago Tribune. As of 2005, the Sentinel’s president and publisher was Kathleen Waltz; she announced her resignation in February 2008...
- Patrick Sloyan, Pulitzer winner with NewsdayNewsdayNewsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
- Sarah Cohen, Pulitzer winner with The Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
- DeWayne Wickham, Columnist for USA TodayUSA TodayUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
- Scott Van PeltScott Van PeltScott Van Pelt is an American sportscaster. He is an anchor for the 11 p.m. edition of SportsCenter on ESPN, the host of The Scott Van Pelt Show on ESPN Radio and has also covered various golf events for the network.-Early life:...
, ESPNESPNEntertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
SportscenterSportsCenterSportsCenter is a daily sports news television show, and the flagship program of American cable network ESPN since the network launched on September 7, 1979. Originally broadcast only daily, SportsCenter is now shown up to twelve times a day, replaying the day's scores and highlights from major...
anchor (left the university one course short of completing his degree requirements) - Tim KurkjianTim KurkjianTim Kurkjian is a Major League Baseball analyst on ESPN's Baseball Tonight and SportsCenter. He is also a contributor to ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com. He guests on Mike and Mike in the Morning on Thursdays at 7:44 AM, discussing the latest in happenings in Major League Baseball...
, ESPN BaseballBaseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
writerWriterA writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and reporter - Jimmy RobertsJimmy RobertsJimmy Roberts is a sportscaster for NBC. Roberts joined NBC in May 2000 after serving as a sports reporter for almost 12 years at ESPN, where he won 11 Sports Emmy Awards.-Early life and career:...
, NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
Sports Host - David MillsDavid MillsDavid Mills is an American atheist author who argues that science and religion are inherently opposed to each other and cannot be successfully reconciled . He is best known for his book Atheist Universe which was published in 2004...
, Emmy-winning TV writer and producer - Bonnie Bernstein, ESPN sideline reporter
- Pam WardPam WardPam Ward is an on-air personality for the cable sports television network ESPN.She is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park with a degree in communications....
, ESPN play-by-play commentator; first female play-by-play announcer for college football in television history - Carl BernsteinCarl BernsteinCarl Bernstein is an American investigative journalist who, at The Washington Post, teamed up with Bob Woodward; the two did the majority of the most important news reporting on the Watergate scandal. These scandals led to numerous government investigations, the indictment of a vast number of...
, who worked with Bob WoodwardBob WoodwardRobert Upshur Woodward is an American investigative journalist and non-fiction author. He has worked for The Washington Post since 1971 as a reporter, and is currently an associate editor of the Post....
to uncover the Watergate ScandalWatergate scandalThe Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
, attended the school but did not graduate - Jayson BlairJayson BlairJayson Blair is an American reporter formerly with The New York Times. He resigned from the newspaper in May 2003 in the wake of the discovery of plagiarism and fabrication in his stories. Since 2007 he has worked as a life coach in the field of mental health.-Background:Blair was born in...
, a reporter whose plagiarismPlagiarismPlagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
and fabrication scandal rocked The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization... - Gary Graves, USA TodayUSA TodayUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
Sportswriter - John A. JenkinsJohn A. JenkinsJohn A. Jenkins is an American journalist, author, President and Publisher of CQ Press in Washington, D.C..Prior to joining CQ in 1998, Jenkins served as a subsidiary president of high-tech magazine publisher Ziff Davis, Inc., a subsidiary president of France Telecom, and, for 23 years, as an...
, publisher of Congressional QuarterlyCongressional QuarterlyCongressional Quarterly, Inc., or CQ, is a privately owned publishing company that produces a number of publications reporting primarily on the United States Congress... - Aaron Kraut, newspaper writer
- Anna Eisenberg, Times Community NewspapersTimes Community NewspapersTimes Community Newspapers is a group of contiguous weeklies in Northern Virginia, USA, and the Piedmont, USA.Based in Herndon, Virginia, the newspaper group provides local news in the Virginia suburbs outside Washington, D.C. With more than 200 years of local newspaper history, the company grew...
Page Designer
See also
- Journalism Center on Children & FamiliesJournalism Center on Children & FamiliesThe Journalism Center on Children & Families is a nonprofit program of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park. The center inspires and recognizes exemplary reporting on children and families...
- Journalism schoolJournalism schoolA journalism school is a school or department, usually part of an established university, where journalists are trained. An increasingly used term for a journalism department, school or college is 'J-School'...
- University of Maryland, College ParkUniversity of Maryland, College ParkThe University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...