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The journalism program at San Antonio College is back in operation after a year and a half on hiatus.
Journalism Coordinator Jim Dalglish, who was hired by the college to build the program’s next chapter, said Thursday a website for a new online student newspaper will be ready and waiting for students to publish stories this fall.
“Everyone is very supportive of the program coming back. We just need students in it,” he said. “I think a lot of students thought we didn't have a journalism program anymore, and so they're not coming our way. But there are still great journalism programs in high schools in San Antonio and great programs that our students can transfer to at colleges and universities in Texas and all around the country.”
The newly revived program has been combined with the college’s Radio, Television and Film Department. Dalglish said the merger will better prepare students to become multimedia journalists.
“In the past, they were kind of siloed. Journalism was in a different building, and it was really focused on print and [the] traditional type of journalism,” Dalglish said. “We don’t want to lose that, but we want to also recognize that [SAC’s radio station KSYM] has been around for 50 years, and they have radio news [and] they have television news.”
In addition to classes on writing, interviewing, editing, and photography, SAC journalism students will also be able to take classes on video production, audio editing, and advertising.
They can write for the online newspaper, or learn to produce newscasts for radio and TV. “They can pretty much customize it depending on what they're interested in. I had a student contact me the other day about [how] he wants to make documentaries,” Dalglish said.
SAC’s journalism program was put on pause in December 2021, when three long-time faculty retired and the college’s 95-year-old student newspaper, The Ranger, closed.
SAC’s previous newspaper was named after the college’s former mascot. But now that SAC haschanged its mascotto the armadillo due to concerns about the history of the Texas Rangers, Dalglish said he will get community input on what the name of the new online student publication should be.
“We have a 95-year history of a great student publication, award winning student publications. We're going to build on that,” he added.
He said his main message for students is that journalism is still a viable career.
“It’s changing, but it’s not going away,” Dalglish said. And the changes he’s making to the journalism program are intended to prepare students for those changes.
