U.T. May Ax Photojournalism program
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 8:44 p.m. ET

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The University of Texas, alma mater to a dozen Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers, may cut its undergraduate photojournalism program to focus on studies that emphasize video and other new media.

It's a proposal that's still on the table,'' Lorraine Branham, director of the university's journalism school, said Tuesday.This program has such a good reputation. We're not making this decision casually.''

The proposal was prompted because of changes in the news industry, especially a growing appetite for online news. Branham noted there are fewer jobs for photojournalists who take only still pictures, while there is greater need for photographers who can also shoot video and edit digital images and videos for Web sites and other media.

The university can't afford to keep the undergraduate program while also expanding the graduate program, she added. If the journalism school and the university administration agree, the undergraduate program would be dropped in the 2004-05 school year.

Some skills taught by the photojournalism department might still be taught to undergraduates as part of a new visual communications program, department head Dennis Darling said.

I think downsizing is the better word,'' he said.I guess what I'm trying to do is redefine what a photojournalism degree is.''

Ryan Pittman, managing editor of the campus newspaper The Daily Texan, said the paper would struggle to find good photographers if the program is eliminated. The department's reputation helps attract high-quality news photography students, he said.

``This is where many of the luminaries from the photojournalism department started their careers,'' said Pittman, a senior.

Jim Dooley, director of photography at Newsday in New York and founding president of the Associated Press Photo Managers, said the university has the right idea in focusing on multimedia, but photojournalists need a strong undergraduate foundation.

George Frey, a former photojournalism instructor at Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City, agreed.

You have the potential of losing the journalism part of the photography,'' he said.You don't manipulate photos. You don't alter photos. You don't, at times, run the best photo because the best photo may not tell the story accurately.''

The photojournalism program began in 1908, when a physics professor taught the science and art of photography. It remained in the physics department until 1951, when the journalism department took it over.

Pulitzer Prize-winning alumni include Judy Walgren, a 1988 graduate who was part of a team of journalists who shot photos for a series of stories examining violence against women around the world.

``I'm sad that they're thinking about cutting it because that's where I learned how to become a photojournalist,'' said Walgren, now a free-lancer in New Mexico.

This seems really stupid. I would think one way to retain the courses is to add or REQUIRE some photojournalism courses when one is attempting to gain a degree in video production. I also think that the skills which create a good photo are still usefull in attaining a good video. As I gather they are going to drop the undergraduate drgree program but KEEP the Graduate courses?! Who's brilliant idea was that? Graduate courses are always smaller than the undergraduate courses. So more money will be spent for fewer students at the graduate level. I would imagine within say 3 or 4 years the graduate courses will also have be stopped because of lack of funding. It seems like planned obsolescence. This will of course start immediately because there will be fewer graduate students applying. After all everyone expects that a university which does not have a undergraduate ciriculum of a subject will NOT have the graduate curiculum(sp). Looking at the universitys web page indicates that the university is heavily weighted toward science and engineering. Which explains much. Engineers are generally not advised to take anything non scientific. And scientists frequently do the same thing on their own. One solution to the problem is to have the photojournalism courses be hosted within the physics department again. That would probably shield the courses from getting the ax. Bsteph

WTF? Bleeh... I don't buy it. (*

Dobby thinks he should have prefaced this post with an explanation and provided some context...

The article itself is not the real issue. The real issue is that number of media gatekeepers (the companies that control what you see and hear about the world around you) is diminishing, and it is changing the way these companies gather and disseminate information. This is happening because many smaller companies are being bought by large international and multi-national conglomerates. Subsequently, many magazines, newspapers, local TV stations and news related websites are now owned by a single parent company.

In an effort to reduce operating costs, more and more of these companies are looking at ways to reduce the number of people they employ. One way is to have a shooter (photojournalist) that can shoot video for the tube, get the still shot for print, and have either available for the web. Let's face it, it is cheaper to have one person on location than two, or possibly three.

If you look at many of today's digital camcorders, most have the ability to capture a still frame while shooting video. It is true that these images are generally of low quality that is not suitable for print publication, but that is changing. I know for a fact that a number of manufacturers are working on integrating a high quality CCD into their existing video cameras, so that with a simple touch of the finger a high resolution image can be captured while shooting video footage without skipping a frame.

Dobby is not going to make a judgement on whether this approach is right or wrong. At the moment it just is. The point Dobby is trying to make is that anyone interested in pursuing a pj career should know that this is coming. UT is not the first to alter their program for teaching photojournalism to adapt to this new paradigm, nor will they be the last.

What Dobby will say is that the lines between true journalism/photojournalism are becoming more blurred with each passing day. The gatekeepers are becoming more powerful, and much of what we see and hear has become a combination of propaganda and info-tainment. This is the real threat. Because once one can control people's knowledge of the world around them, then manipulating that knowledge can get them anything they want.

"Let's face it, it is cheaper to have one person on location than two, or possibly three." The summary of decade 2000 economics. [Though somehow it is still affordable to have six managers back at the ranch watching over this one person...] Hopefully creativity will continue. Hopefully bandwidth will remain cheap and uncensored. But the monolithic news agencies supplying the masses should be a concern.

It's still not the same!!! (Is this form of art and communication a sacrificial lamb in the name of economics and technology? Bah.) (*

Did I miss the point here? Sorry Alpha I focused on the article not the point you may have wanted to make. I realize that companies always want a larger bottom line. And will do basically anything to make it larger. This has been occuring for some time. Pre 2000 and infact probably pre 20th century. HOWEVER, I still think that campuses ( campusi? ) which play in to those silly notions further emphasize what the companies want to do. After all if there are an equal amount of photo journalists and videojournalists with photo journalists ability we know which one will be hired. So IMHO I would think one way for the university to keep it's standing of "churning" out marketable undergraduates AND still have a continuous stream of undergraduates is to continue offering a photojournalism course in addition to videojournalism. That way one may desire to go to a university because they believe the university offers a curriculum which is educational and is marketable. Regading keepers or the gate. I assume you have all seen Citizen Kane? Right...Remember reading about the problems Orson Wells had making it? Bsteph

Many different sides to look at: One wonders if a student now pursuing a degree in Multimedia will have the same opportunities to take still photography classes as the student under the old Photojournelism program? I suspect there will be some budget cuts in less popular areas. Changing the name of the program seems to open up broader possibilities for students. If they've "cheapened" the curriculum, it is a sad thing, but as Bsteph pointed out, the school will just lose in the long run. I guess I have this Midwestern ethnic-agriculture view of things that says the schools have the responsibility to prepare the students for jobs. If the jobs are changing, the schools should change. Are the jobs changing for the better? With nation-state Corporations controlling the fabric of everything, with Mission Statements strung together with the latest fad words? It is real possibility that Alpha has hit a key point; if the schools are watered down, and the ways we raise our children are suspect, then we should expect exactly what we are getting. From the point of view of a "pure" Photojournalism graduate, such a graduate should be pretty p____ off driving a taxi cab because all the journalism jobs require different skills. Everything is connected. Nothing is simple. Trust no one. The Truth is out there.