COURSES IN JOURNALISM

The power of the press to mold public opinion, makes journalism one of the most important of modern professions, and also makes it essential that writers in this field should be well-trained and educated. For some reason, perhaps financial, Harvard has neglected this subject. Whether the Nieman bequest--if it ever reaches Harvard--is used to establish a Graduate School of Journalism or not, several elementary courses in the subjevt should be given.

Composition courses in the College emphasize the writing of poetry, short stories, plays, and novels. Although several of them, such as English A-1, permit almost complete freedom in the choice of subjects for compositions, lectures deal with topics outside the range of journalism. Hence these courses are of limited value to those interested in non-fiction writing.

Some of the instructors in the English Department feel that journalism is too vocational a subject for college, and that it ought to be left for graduate schools. However, training in writing poetry, novels, and plays is hardly less vocational in character. Journalism is simply another from of writing.

The field of journalism is a big one, and the subjects included in it are numerous. While it is unreasonable, therefore, to expect that a fairly plete training could be given in the College, it should be possible to offer several elementary courses in journalism. A few would be better than none at all, for they would balance the lop-sided emphasic placed on purely creative writing.