Middle Tennessee State University offers a “Social Justice Journalism” track of study for undergraduate students.
The track is called the Social Justice Journalism concentration, which students can declare if they are pursuing a major in journalism. A concentration is a specialized track of study an undergraduate student can pursue within their declared major, according to Academic Info.
“The concentration offers journalists an understanding of how to report on the issues of communities whose stories of injustice and mistreatment receive little to no attention in the press,” according to the concentration’s online catalog description.
The Social Justice Journalism concentration helps students understand “why coverage of the oppressed is necessary and required,” the description continued.
The Tennessee Star reached out to the MTSU School of Journalism and Strategic Media Director Katherine Foss for comment but received no response.
Foss has a Ph.D. in mass communication and researches how epidemics are covered by news and popular media. She publicly advocated for colleges to institute a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for all students, faculty, and staff, according to a 2021 blog post.
Among the courses students may choose to earn credit for the concentration are “Media, Environment, and Climate Change,” “Race, Gender, and Class in Media,” and “Crime, Gender, and Media.” According to the various course descriptions, students who take these courses learn about “gender disparities in the ‘cultivation of fear,’” inequality in the prison system, the “role of media in environmental and climate justice movements,” and “diversity in mass communications.”
The concentration’s “foundational course” is titled “Community Engagement Journalism.” The course “explores the key concepts, best practices, and philosophy of engaging with communities usually ignored in a meaningful way by mainstream media,” according to the course’s online catalog description.
Tennessee’s Divisive Concepts Act protects college students from being penalized or discriminated against for refusing to agree with “divisive concepts” that are sometimes associated with the concept of social justice. For example, a concept that says “meritocracy is inherently racist or sexist” or that “promotes division between, or resentment of” a class of people cannot be forced upon students, according to the law.
MTSU notified the Tennessee Higher Education Commission of the new concentration in 2023 after the degree was approved in 2016, a Commission spokesperson told The Star. While the Commission does approve “new degrees or degree programs,” it is not responsible for approving new concentrations, according to Tennessee law.
Former Tennessean reporter Leon Alligood is currently listed as the Social Justice Journalism program coordinator. Alligood, a former MTSU associate professor and faculty advisor to the school’s student newspaper, retired from MTSU in December of 2023, according to an X post by the School of Journalism and Strategic Media.
The Star previously reported Alligood assisted the MTSU student newspaper’s editorial board in creating an apology statement for publishing a story that highlighted a student with friends in Israel during the October 7 attack by Hamas terrorists and civilians of Gaza. The statement led to the resignation of the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, who authored the story in question, The Star reported.
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Matthew Giffin is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Matthew on X / Twitter.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify that the Tennessee Higher Education Commission is not responsible for approving new concentrations.
The best thing you can do for your kids is put them out in the workforce instead of in college which today is nothing more than communist finishing school. I do not know one college graduate that is working in the field they took up in college. Many are working jobs they could have gotten 4 years sooner and been financially in a much better place.
journalism is dead, and replaced by communist propaganda studies 101
By the way, It seems the MTSU journalism site is “down” … making changes in response to this article?
I hope screenshots were taken and the videos above are downloaded or they will change their story to wiggle out of TN taxpayer scrutiny.
The leader of the program admits that the classes focus on social justice issues and projects … as if the “social justice” topic is “fact” and the correct view point! The journalism students are not taught varying viewpoints but are being trained within the paradigm created by leftists concerning so called “social justice”.
How can they give factual reports when they are in the box of leftist thinking?
All they are being trained to do is be an activist, to push the narrative. smh
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3214470865511375
Our tax dollars are paying for this mess!?!
This degree is not merely about reporting – it assumes a leftwing view as “fact”, then teaches political activism rather than unbiased reporting of facts. See the link that states: Social Justice Journalism, Prof Leon Alligood, Concentration Head, Fall 2023: JOUR 3020 “Community Engagement”: Equips reporters to identify root causes of injustice and provide best practice applications to engage communities and benefit society”
This is reporting? Sounds more like its training to be a community activist with a leftwing point of view.
https://www.mtsu.edu:8443/journalism/includes/FebruaryNewsletter.pdf
In their own words this degree is NOT about actual, non biased reporting. It is about being a political, left wing activist!
“Social Justice Journalism which will be about social, political, economic inequalities and looking at addressing some of those issues through media, journalism particularly.”
https://www.facebook.com/MTSUSOJSM/videos/243145791460555/
Future Tennessean reporters for sure….