I plan to be back to teaching journalism, my old calling, again this coming academic year, if enough students sign up. My old journalism professor Jack Schnedler, a wonderful mentor and journalist, once said that being a journalist was a calling like being a minister, more than a profession or a trade. That may seem to be an odd sentiment given the state of the profession today. But if you think about the reporter-narrator of Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, and you see what he means. The old Sun-Times newsroom pictured with my colleagues at the bottom of this post is no more, replaced by the Trump Tower in Chicago coincidentally enough. When I was there its ownership most of the time had a conservative tilt but not much by today’s standards, and the newsroom leaned decisively liberal like old-school college campuses. We were not really woke, though, either.

Ben Hecht once wrote about working for a newspaper was a sure source of complaints, but was an allegiance that involved a strangely deep team loyalty, and that was true. Besides the mentorship of Jack Schnedler, Steve Huntley, and others at the paper, I’m grateful too for those who put up with me when as an undergraduate I wrote an independent study thesis on journalism and objectivity. Yes, that was still a thing in journalism back then, and hopefully will be again, even in our fractalized online media world today. Ecosemiotics describes objectivity as filtered through the overlapping lenses of author, reader, text, and environment. Yes, the truth is out there, but anyone with a sense for the apophatic recognizes that old-school Scholastic attitudes toward a rationalistic truth won’t fully cut it either.

Not sure that the contrast between the two top photos below mark an improvement, though.

May the Lord help!

Below is the info on the seminar, which appropriately for our day and age is scheduled to be located at that wonderful “safe space” for free expression in our college town, the Open Discourse Coalition, where I am happy to have an off-campus office sanctuary. It is also co-sponsored by the Bucknell Program for American Leadership, a faculty association, which I direct.

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Do you want to strengthen your career options in communications, online media, and print or electronic journalism? Need to sharpen your writing and your professional skills in personal interactions for your beyond-Bucknell career? Do you want to be a thoughtful reader of media and thinker about objectivity in our informational world today? Check out the new Journalism Seminar, which has for-credit and non-credit options!

–Get journalism and communications experience by developing investigations and news angles with expert guidance, while considering issues of objectivity and ethics;
–Learn real-world journalism and communications skills from a Bucknell professor with professional experience at top urban and national publications;
–Build your resume with proficiency in professional communication work;
–Write concisely and fairly for a public audience, including training in reporting and researching for analysis, and in editing diverse opinions;
–Develop skills at how to approach and interview sources for information, a valuable skill in a range of professions.
–Develop a new publication for Bucknellians.

The Journalism Seminar meets twice a month for two semesters, each culminating in producing publishable articles and a publication; materials and snacks are provided.

Credit and Non-Credit Options

Those taking the course for non-credit upon successful completion at the end of the academic year will be eligible for Certificate in Journalism Education plus a $500 stipend from the Open Discourse Coalition.

Those wishing to receive full or partial Bucknell academic credit can propose an independent study with the instructor, Prof. Paul Siewers of English. Any for-credit independent study work, if approved, would involve additional meetings and writing.

Places are limited. For more information and/or to apply, please contact Prof. Siewers at asiewers@bucknell.edu.

Who can take the seminar?

This seminar is open to Bucknell students in all years and majors.

Meeting Calendar

Meetings will be on the second and third Tuesdays of each month when Bucknell is in session (with adjustments for breaks), 4-5:30 p.m.
September 10 and 17
October 8 (moved due to Fall Break) and 22
November 12 and 19
February 11 and 18
March 4 (moved due to Spring Break) and 18
April 15 and 22

About the Instructor

Prof. Paul Siewers is a former award-winning reporter and Urban Affairs Writer at the Chicago Sun-Times, and National Correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor. He holds an MSJ from the Medill School of Journalism along with a Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois. As an undergraduate, he was contributing editor at the Brown Daily Herald and interned with the Associated Press at the Statehouse in Providence, Rhode Island. He subsequently worked as an editor at the United Press International National Broadcast Center in Chicago before joining the Sun-Times and the Monitor. He has had experience also in radio and TV journalism, as well as writing for professional online publications. A winner of the President’s Award for Teaching Excellence at Bucknell, he is a previous Chair of the English Department, and is a former Fellow at the James Madison Program for American Ideals at Institutions of Princeton University, and member of the James Madison Society.

Above: Prof. Siewers (top row left in beard) as Urban Affairs Writer, with other reporters and editors in the Chicago Sun-Times newsroom.

This Journalism Seminar offered by Prof. Siewers is co-sponsored by the Bucknell Program for American Leadership and the Open Discourse Coalition.