Long Island's local journalism programs must be protected

Suffolk County Community College recently cut its journalism program. This comes as the media is constantly attacked, and as Long Island students need affordable education options.

These decisions are made around enrollment data. It’s a business, I get it. SCCC's administration pointed to an enrollment decline and a lack of job prospects in the industry as reasons for the decision. But taking away the opportunity for students to learn about and participate in a fundamental aspect of democracy is not the answer.

Contrary to what many think, journalism and its adjacent fields of production, content development, and social media management are thriving. Having the skill to tell balanced stories, attract and engage large audiences, and build new platforms for story distribution and streaming is critical for our modern forms of media. Rather than shut down journalism programs, our higher education institutions should evolve their offerings to fit the mold of today’s rapid content consumption habits and market those programs effectively.

Elon Musk routinely refers to X as the media. He’s not wrong. Social media presents powerful tools that can inform and engage countless people. Our responsibility as journalism educators and advocates is to teach young journalists how to use those platforms to create content with objectivity and balanced storytelling. This starts with journalism education programs built with an eye toward innovation.

The pace of change in higher education is woefully slow. Creating a long-term plan to preserve its journalism program should have started at Suffolk County Community College years ago. It’s still not too late to evolve its communication offerings to include journalism and mass media courses that reflect today’s content demands.

For many students, SCCC presents an entry point to the media. Some may not have had the opportunity to create content in high school, so their first taste happens in college. Generally, campus media is staffed by journalism students but open to anyone interested in news. This journey naturally progresses from an associate degree to a bachelor’s program at a larger college, allowing students to gain valuable experience by dipping their toes into the fundamentals of journalism at an affordable rate.

While I’m advocating for Suffolk County students who will no longer have journalism as a major at their local community college, all higher education institutions should take a level approach to evolving their journalism offerings.

SCCC is sending a message: It doesn’t believe in journalism. That’s worth sounding an alarm. The college cited state employment data and a lack of career opportunities. But U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows production and director jobs should grow over the next 10 years at a clip of 8% faster than average, writing careers at 5% faster than average, photography and videography at 4%. and public relations at 7% faster than average. Did SCCC open its search queries to include journalism-adjacent career paths like social media, production, and streaming? Those industries are booming and need objective storytellers.

SUNY, meanwhile, should be commended for launching the "Institute for Local News" initiative that will engage students in university-led reporting programs with local media partners, giving them real-world learning experiences in multimedia storytelling. We need more of this. Dozens of local news outlets in Nassau and Suffolk counties would love to have SCCC journalism students create content.

We must project journalism education programs, or we’ll continue to lose a valuable and essential part of democracy.

This guest essay reflects the views of Chris R. Vaccaro, vice president of the Society of Professional Journalists and a past president of the Press Club of Long Island.