Illinois newspaper directory. History of the Illinois press association

Illinois Newspaper Directory and Historynewspaper profession clearly recognizes that there must be an educational minimumrequirement of all beginners in the field and that some definite means must beprovided whereby the qualifications of those entering the profession of journalismmay be tested and their standing determined.2. The second point is a step toward the first. We recommend that a symposiumbe made an important part of the program of the next fall meeting on"What we want the cubs to know." It is the purpose of the committee to asksome questions of a select list of newspaper men in the state whose answers wewill assemble and dissect as a means of getting the idea of what our active newspapermen think the minimum requirements for reporters should be.I should suppose that this might be regarded as a report of progress. Anysuggestions you may have to make will be gladly received.Very sincerely yours,Frank W. Scott.The committee's next step was to write to a selected list of competent newspapermen inviting them to express their views on what a cub reporter ought to know. Adiscussion of the subject was incorporated in the convention program of the press associationthe following fall and between the written replies and the convention symposiumthe committee gathered a representative body of opinions on the subject.During the summer months Frank Scott had been called to New York to becomeeditor in chief of the D. C. Heath publishing company and President Gravenhorst hadappointed Lawrence W. Murphy, Urbana, as committee member and chairman inhis place.The first report to the association, therefore, was made at the fall meeting in 192 5by the new chairman. It asked that the committee be made a permanent standing committeeof the association and that the membership endorse the pronouncement of thecommittee that "journalism has ceased to be a free for all field" and "that the bestinterests of the newspaper will be served only when the newspaper profession clearlyrecognizes that there must be an educational minimum requirement of all beginnersin the field and that some definite means must be provided whereby the qualifications ofthose entering the profession of journalism may be tested and their standing determined."This report was presented at the sixtieth annual meeting of the association at Urbanain the fall of 1925.The association took the action recommended and the committee at once went towork to devise a plan for determining professional standing.By March 6, 1926, on the occasion of the Mid-Winter Meeting of the press associationin Chicago, the chairman of the committee, Lawrence W. Murphy, made thefollowing comments and report:"With your consent I will make a few remarks before presenting the committeereport. Your committee has a most difficult job. It is seeking to help you raise thestatus of journalism and the competence of the newspaper men of the future by solvingthe educational problems bearing on the profession. It is calling upon the experience ofthe entire journalistic world in seeking to get at the fundamentals of journalistic educationand professional standing. It has called upon editors and publishers of large newspapersand small, upon teachers of social sciences and presidents of universities; it hassubmitted questions to the convention of the Illinois Press Association for discussionand debate; it has sent questionnaires to teachers of journalism, conducted examinationsof journalism students, and has done a substantial amount of reading in the field ofjournalism texts and references.238