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Michigan State University J-School to marry art, journalism with an innovative program
Contact: Jane Briggs Bunting, School of Journalism, (517) 355-1520; or Russ White, University Relations, (517) 432-0923, whiterus@msu.edu
The arts have returned with a vengeance to Michigan State University’s College of Communication Arts and Sciences with a new program that will strengthen visual thinking and design skills for its communication students, helping to better prepare them for the modern media market.
Veteran Newsweek journalist Karl Gude has joined the faculty of MSU’s School of Journalism as the graphics editor-in-residence to spearhead a cross-disciplinary information design initiative, including journalism, advertising, telecommunication and studio art.
The former Newsweek and Associated Press information graphics director wants to train artists to be journalists, so they will possess the type of skills he was always looking for in a job candidate when hiring employees for the news magazine or the Associated Press.
“What attracted me to MSU’s School of Journalism was its innovative plan to marry its news and art programs,” Gude says. “Other journalism schools mostly teach information graphics to writers, not artists or designers. I have yet to see a writer who could diagram a detailed look inside the human body or illustrate a three-dimensional cutaway of the World Trade Center showing its architectural weaknesses.”
Such explanatory visuals have become required and expected elements in print, online and broadcast news coverage. The information design program recognizes this revolutionary growth of graphics reporting and execution in a challenging news environment.
“At MSU we plan to do this training through a series of courses within the journalism major and in courses outside the major, such as studio art. We will be developing artists with news judgment and solid research, reporting and editing skills,” Gude says.
For more information on this program, visit newsroom.msu.edu/site/indexer/2817/content.htm
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