Ask the Editor: Why teach journalism?

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Friday, June 2nd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Up next, a WJI edition of Ask the Editor. WORLD Radio Executive Producer Paul Butler is here with us, good morning Paul.

PAUL BUTLER, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Good morning Myrna, ‘morning Nick.

EICHER: Well Paul, today we wrap up our WJI Collegiate program after more than two weeks of instruction, mentoring, and discipleship. I’m feeling two-weeks tired, because we all had our day jobs, too. But what an encouragement! How do you feel?

BUTLER: Whew! Same! What a ride! Mixed emotions as always. Glad to celebrate with the students today as they finish up their final projects, receive their certificates of completion, and start to pack up for the rest of their summer plans. But I also hate to see it come to an end. It’s been a lot of late nights and early mornings, but these are easily my favorite two weeks of the year.

BROWN: You two can probably guess what I enjoyed most about this year's WJI class - and what I'll remember about our students: their willingness to say yes! We stretched them. We challenged them. We made them sing! And as you said Nick, along with the instruction, there was also discipleship. And I'm thankful I got to be part of that.

EICHER: Paul, you're a former professor, talk about why you think it’s important for us to take the time to build into these college students. Many of them are already in journalism programs at their schools …

BUTLER: Nick, you know this well. You’ve been with WJI from the beginning. There are some really good journalism programs around the country to be sure—and many of them have sent us their best students—so we’re just building on the excellent training they’ve already received. But there are a lot of students here coming from schools without journalism programs, or from programs who approach journalism from a secular or a materialistic point of view. So we have the privilege of opening their eyes to Biblical objectivity—teaching them how their faith can—and should—inform their journalism. And to be honest, it’s a new idea for most of the students who come each year.

EICHER: We got an email this week from someone who lives here in Sioux Center. This person happened to be walking by one of our students talking on the phone to someone back home. And the email writer reported having heard these quotes:

“I didn’t realize that you could build an entire Christian worldview around journalism, but I’m totally bought in…”

“I’ve learned more in the last 5 days than in my entire four years in college”

“Yeah, this is easily the best professional experience of my life; the people actually know what they’re doing and care about you”

I get the sense, Paul, that they were all bought in.

BUTLER: That did show, and that’s so good to hear. We had more applicants this year than ever before, so we opened the program to 32 students this time around. And now we hope that some of them will go on to do internships with us, and eventually join our team. But all of them leave here ready to bring the light of Christ and the gospel into whatever newsroom awaits them.

BROWN: In the weeks ahead, we’ll get to hear and read from a handful of this year’s class. Some will show up in WORLD Magazine, others online at WORLD Digital, and we might even see a couple on World Watch, or hear them here on The World and Everything in It.

EICHER: They really came up with some good stories, and this is like the four-year cicada politics in Iowa, all of our students got to see Republican candidate Tim Scott. A few others went and covered a Ron DeSantis event. Just up close, the way they do politics here in Iowa. Good experience.

But they found non-political stories too. One young lady spoke with the keeper of the cadavers for a university nursing program, another couple of students interviewed a beekeeper, one young lady got to interview a former missionary who’s soon to celebrate her 100th birthday!

BUTLER: One more thing that I’ve been particularly excited about this year is not just the new students, and the new stories, but also seeing the next generation of new WJI instructors stepping up. Harrison Watters, Lillian Hamman, Benjamin Owen, Michelle Schlavin, Lauren Dunn, Leah Savas. They are all WJI graduates within the last four or five years—what a delight to see them not only grow as journalists, but as instructors as they are here mentoring students and coaching stories. Someday, they’ll be the ones leading these courses—and that gives me great hope for the future of this program.

EICHER: Iowa is farm country, and that seems like a fitting metaphor for cultivating, and growing, and harvest applied to the work of journalism and building up journalists. And I don’t want to step away from this without adding a word of thanks to our WORLD Movers for making it possible to provide this program at no cost to students who pay back by working hard and taking this seriously. Yeah, I’m looking for great things from this group.

BROWN: Me too. That’s this month’s Ask the Editor. Thanks Paul.

BUTLER: Thank you both. What a joy teaching with you these last two weeks.

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