Teaching Journalism in the Age of Trump

My head felt rummy, and I walked across campus on November 9 in a surreal haze. What had happened the night before? Did our country really just elect Donald Trump to be its next president? I couldn’t believe it, still, but knew we would need to discuss election coverage in my first class of the morning, Introduction to Journalism. I just didn’t know what to say, and worried that saying anything might initiate another crying jag, similar to the ones that had kept me awake most of the night before.

            A month after the election, I went on a semester-long sabbatical, a welcomed break from the classroom that also saved me from having to engage students in the chaotic news unfolding in Washington, D.C.: President Trump’s inauguration, the first months of his presidency, his antagonistic relationship with the media, his fake news provocations, and his incessant need to Tweet.

            But alas, the sabbatical is nearly over, and in a few weeks, I will once again be teaching Introduction to Journalism as part of my load. Putting together a syllabus feels almost like a fool’s errand, given the day-to-day shifts in the narrative of journalism unspooling before us, and the ways journalists are covering this presidency. When long-esteemed publications are accused of being unreliable; when the president’s advocates say things that are verifiably untrue; when a significant proportion of the country places no trust in mainstream media; when the president refrains from condemning white supremacists and Nazis who march openly on city streets: when all these elements exist, what’s a journalism teacher supposed to do?

I imagine there are faculty members in other journalism schools across the country wrestling with a similar quandary. But here’s an added complication. The university where I teach, while ostensibly Quaker, has a large population of evangelical Christian students who have grown up with Fox News as their parents’ source of information. For years, many of them have been told to distrust mainstream media; some are embarking on a journalism career to provide a faith-based counterpoint to the heathens they’ve heard occupy the country’s newsrooms.

And so I need to tread carefully, else I too easily am perceived as one of those lefty professors whose only goal is converting students to socialism, feminism, or some other presumed enemy. A liberal professor asking journalism students to trust mainstream media outlets? I might as well deem myself Satan’s Tool already, and be done with it.

This summer, I’ve considered, and then abandoned, a number of potential approaches to teaching journalism in the age of Trump. I’ve wondered about a young journalist’s role in calling out the racist, sexist culture Trump and his White House represent. I’ve worried that, with journalism’s changing landscape, I will not effectively be able to teach my students at all.

Quite honestly, I’ve also despaired.

Finally, I think I’ve landed on the appropriate course direction, and have decided to proceed with teaching journalism in ways similar to what I’ve done in the last almost-decade, when I somehow inherited the class from an aging colleague who had a stroke. Back then, in my first semester teaching Introduction to Journalism, students weren’t yet distracted by smart phones, getting news from Twitter wasn’t yet a thing, and our university received national attention when a first-year student was expelled from the university for hanging Obama in effigy. That student was in my class, writing about the event for a journalism course assignment about breaking news, and a peer in his critique group turned him in to university officials.  

Turns out, covering politics in America brings out the best—and the worst—in reporting.

Now more than ever, though, the principles that informed my first teaching effort in the class need to be part of the curriculum: that is, the fundamentals of good journalism. This includes finding solid, credible sources, and doing the hard work of creating connections with folks willing to tell their side of the story. For some of my students, this work is overwhelming, the thought of talking to others—especially strangers, or those in power—so imposing that a journalism major suddenly seems far less appealing.

And, of course, students must learn to make sure to hear from more people with different perspectives on an event. If the first seven months of Trump’s presidency have shown us anything, it’s that a credible source can break open a story, can counter baseless claims and narratives short on evidence and long on speculation. Cultivating strong sources, and using those sources to tell a story, is the bedrock of any good reporting. Always has been, and always will be, despite what a president says to undermine the credibility of White House “leakers” willing to talk with the press.

Strong writing has also been foundational to good journalism, and so my course will continue to develop students’ writing abilities, practicing the skills needed to clearly convey stories. We will discuss the connotative power of words, and the ways reporters’ biases are reflected as much in word choice and sentence structure as in how they shape their narratives and the sources they use. Journalists who tell the truth are always aware of their biases but strive for objectivity, rather than promoting subjective stories under the guise of fair and balanced reporting.

I would be remiss as an instructor if the class did not consider the First Amendment and the important role journalists play in a contemporary political climate that challenges—and necessitates—the importance of a fourth estate. We will definitely address the ways this administration has attempted to erode the public’s trust in media outlets, and why now more than ever, journalists must work with utmost integrity to inform citizens about their government’s actions. And, we will explore the significance of have a varied news diet, else we slip into the kind of echo chambers that have fostered partisan news outlets, a deeply divided country, and no doubt, a Trump presidency.

Some people will probably say that I need to more aggressively condemn the deeply flawed, even dangerous, ways a Trump administration has dealt with the media; and that as a journalism instructor, it is my moral duty to rebuke a presidency that has done so much damage to so many. To be clear, I will definitely denounce those media sources whose reporting is racist, sexist, homophobic, or discriminatory against people with disabilities. But I also want my students to develop for themselves the tools necessary to write and report justly; to recognize, through the learning process, that hateful rhetoric about journalism and its credibility can undermine a democracy; NS to seek truth through reasoned discussion and critical thought, rather than being told exactly what they should believe. 

In other words, I want my journalism course to do what any good liberal arts class might. That is, developing young adults to become discriminate in the ways they gather and process information. Helping them develop their ability to distinguish credible news from that easily identified as “fake.” Asking them to learn from history’s mistakes. Compelling them to become critical thinkers and responsible citizens who will, one day, not only be leading the country, but making it a far better place to live than it seems to be today.