{"id":15436,"date":"2013-08-12T13:30:40","date_gmt":"2013-08-12T18:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/communication-grads-give-their-alma-maters-mostly-good-grades\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:30:01","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:30:01","slug":"communication-grads-give-their-alma-maters-mostly-good-grades","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2013\/08\/12\/communication-grads-give-their-alma-maters-mostly-good-grades\/","title":{"rendered":"Communication grads give their alma maters mostly good grades"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"FT_Journo_Students\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n\n

Journalism educators attending last week\u2019s conference held by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication<\/a> were greeted with news of the shrinking population in their classrooms. According to a new report from the University of Georgia<\/a>\u00a0(pdf), undergraduate enrollments in journalism and mass communication programs declined 2.9% in 2012, marking only the second time in two decades that they have dropped for two consecutive years. They fell 0.5% in 2011.<\/p>\n\n

The drop is \u201csignificant,\u201d says Lee Becker, the director of the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research<\/a> at the University of Georgia. At the same time, the report finds that the number of full-time faculty in communications and journalism programs increased by 5.9% in 2012.<\/p>\n\n

But in the middle of a rapidly changing media environment, are students finding their journalism education worthwhile? Do j-school graduates feel prepared for their first day on the job? Findings in another new report from the Cox Center<\/a> on a range of questions about the quality of their education suggest that most recent journalism and mass communication graduates appear quite pleased with their training\u2014with a notable exception.<\/p>\n\n