Journalism Week celebration resumes

This year's festivities consisted of a trivia night and picnic.

By Amanda Wysocki

Published April 30, 2009

MU is celebrating Journalism Week for the first time in 11 years.

Journalism Scholars Association President Lauren Zima said it had been a goal of JSA to start Journalism Week again.

"The journalism school is so prominent and it's known as the best journalism school in the world," Zima said. "We wanted to get Journalism Week going again."

Because of budgetary limitations, Zima said JSA was only able to put on two events for this year's celebration, but students hope to expand it in the future.

Several teams participated in a trivia night Wednesday, where the majority of questions were journalism-related.

There will be a picnic held to celebrate Journalism in Peace Park Friday afternoon beginning at 2 p.m.

"We really wanted to do something to promote interaction between students and faculty," Zima said. "Our goal was to get them to engage with each other and enjoy their time."

Zima said JSA would like to see Journalism Week become as big as Engineering Week in the future.

"Journalism students are so prevalent on campus," Zima said. "They are really the market to tap in terms of getting involved and getting Journalism Week to be a huge event in terms of student and faculty participation."

Zima said she thinks it is important Journalism Week remain unique from events like Engineering Week or Business Week.

Zima said if JSA had more money, they would have liked to bring in a speaker as one of the events.

Journalism Week first began in 1910 and continued annually until 1985. It was held last in 1998, but no other year between 1985 and now.

In the past, there have been several significant events during Journalism Week. In 1922, the stone lions from China were dedicated, and Ted Koppel broadcast a special edition of "Viewpoint" from Jesse Hall in 1983.