I Believe the Journalism Curriculum Needs to Change: How Annenberg Can Better Serve Journalism Students

By: Tamanna Sood ‘24

In the fall semester of my senior year of high school, I toured USC for the first time. At this point in my life, I was extremely lax about choosing my future college. I had always been the type of person who looked at life day by day. The idea of going to college hadn’t fully set in. 

To add to this, I was a confused kid, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do. This hasn’t really changed, honestly.  All I knew was that I loved to write, and I loved writing for my school’s newspaper. The options for majors seemed endless, and I was completely overwhelmed with the idea of assigning myself a field of study. I always thought that I would go into college undeclared and change my major multiple times along the way. 

This changed when I walked through the doors of Annenberg. I fell in love with the school in an instant. I knew that I needed to pursue journalism, and I knew for a fact that I needed to do it at USC. 

At the time, Annenberg felt like the most perfect school in the world. The gorgeous building, the glorious media center, the passionate student body, the state of the art equipment, every resource imaginable at your fingertips, and most of all, the amazing professors built a complete utopia in my mind.

The day I received my acceptance letter to the school was one of the happiest days of my life. I was so unbelievably happy to be an Annenberg student, and I still am. 

Annenberg is and will always be my home here at USC. I love the school, and I will forever be grateful for the fact I’m able to attend this institution. However, throughout my time here, I’ve uncovered plenty of cracks in the program. Hopefully, one day, Annenberg can make changes to become even better. 

Streamlined Curriculum

Annenberg would benefit immensely from standardizing its curriculum from class to class. One of the privileges of attending Annenberg is the fact that we are taught by journalists who are currently working in the field and have a lot of experience, insight, and connections. However, sometimes adjunct professors can make for poor educators. Some of my favorite professors are adjuncts, so I won’t generalize and say this is always the case. But the classes I have struggled the most have been taught by professors that are clearly amazing journalists but below average teachers. 

It’s hard enough being an 18 year-old adjusting to college, and it’s so much harder when you have a professor with unrealistic expectations. This is compounded by confusing grading metrics or constantly shifting expectations. While struggling with a professor is bad enough, it’s even worse when you discover that peers in other sections of the same class, simply being taught by a different professor, have vastly different workloads. Sometimes, when comparing notes with friends, you’ll realize the two professors have given information that contradict one another.

A lot of my sophomore peers were extremely overwhelmed by our classes. We couldn’t find solace in one another because 90% of the time, we were being assigned completely different tasks with polar opposite expectations—even within the same class code.  

There’s even exact repetition in assignments across completely different courses. In my 207 and 307 classes, we started both semesters by having to create presentations that covered topics like newsroom diversity and the concept of objectivity. These presentations lasted a month in both semesters. It felt like Groundhog Day. It seemed like the professors had no clue that this assignment had previously been used in another course. I don’t doubt the importance of reiterating conversations about objectivity and diversity in the newsroom in J-School. However, it’s counterproductive to use copy and paste assignments to do this.

I’m willing to give Annenberg the benefit of doubt and believe that these issues arose because it was the first year back to in-person learning, but I know these are not isolated incidents. 

Broadcast or Print — And nothing more! 

I find myself a lot more passionate about the field of journalism as a third year student than I was as a second year student because I’m able to dabble in lots of different electives now. These electives have really opened my eyes to how vast the industry really is and how there are so many different types of jobs and careers that I wasn’t previously aware of.  

One of my biggest complaints with prerequisites as a journalism major is that they often only provide students with an idea of what it would be like to be a print or broadcast journalist. For the longest time, I thought that those two career paths would be the only ones I could pursue, and I was terrified because I wasn’t excited by either option. My heart was really in long-form digital and online content that highlights human-based stories. I felt suffocated by the idea that my education in  journalism would only teach me about two limiting options, and I was seriously considering switching majors. Still, I truly love media studies and the field of journalism, so I stuck it out. 

In my third year, I’ve taken so many interesting electives in Annenberg that have opened my eyes to multiple interdisciplinary occupations in journalism including digital media, product management, audience development, and web design. These career  tracks were never mentioned in my first and second years, and honestly, if they had been, I would have been able to pick out classes and minor study options that were true to what I wanted to pursue much earlier. These career options should be discussed and highlighted in prerequisite courses and shouldn’t have to be sought out by students. I know that Annenberg does its best to provide students with a well-rounded journalism education, but the curriculum needs a serious update. 

Media Center Shifts

“Media center shifts are three hours and fifty minutes long, and your experience really depends on when your shifts fall.”

The Annenberg Media Center is one of the biggest privileges of attending Annenberg. A working newsroom that produces high quality journalism and runs efficiently is extremely hard to come by in a university, and Annenberg Media provides students with these real life opportunities. I appreciate that Annenberg incorporates actual newsroom experience into the curriculum, and I can attest to how much working in the media center has helped me develop my skills as a journalist. However, I don’t think I’ve met a single journalism major that didn’t dread their 206 shifts in some capacity. 

The first time I walked into my first 206 shift, I truly didn’t know what was going on. I spent my first semester confused and terrified by the chaos around me. The first couple shifts are designed to integrate students into the culture of the newsroom, but it’s rarely a smooth introduction. Generally, juniors and seniors lead the incoming sophomores and teach them the ropes. 

While these junior and senior students are extremely capable, the stress and tight deadlines often mean the sophomores get forgotten. Sometimes, this leads to sophomore students spending their shifts waiting for directions or dawdling around. There can be better systems put in place to make sure that students are able to get the best experience possible. 

Media center shifts are three hours and fifty minutes long, and your experience really depends on when your shifts fall. For example, if you are working a morning shift, you get the opportunity to pitch stories and reach out to sources. If you are working an afternoon shift, you’ll start developing these stories, scheduling interviews, and writing drafts. If you are working a night shift, you get the opportunity to interview, pull the story together, and publish the story. 

The learning experience could be vastly improved by splitting the media centers shifts to be half the length and making sure students get to experience different shifts. It would allow students to make the most of their time in the media center without feeling like they’re sitting around doing nothing and would allow them to experience two different parts of the production process. This would also leave room for students to see through the stories they start.

Overall, Annenberg is an amazing school that provides its students with many opportunities to succeed. I have no regrets in my choice to attend Annenberg or stay in the journalism program. But, as with any experience, certain areas that need improvement become clearer. If we don’t start these conversations, there will never be any positive change, and because I love the program so much, I just want to see it grow and improve. As an Anneberg student, I am excited to see what the future holds for the school. 

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