Recovering the Midwestern Ethos of Journalism Research

This chapter is a reminder that practice and theory have gone hand in hand since the beginning of professional journalism. However, this history and this partnership have been lost somewhat, particularly when it comes to PhD research. By calling back to the land-grant mission at the universities home to the first schools of journalism in the United States (the University of Missouri, the University of Illinois, the University of Wisconsin), the chapter recalls how the focus on skills and on understanding mass communication was aligned with the mission of journalism education. The chapter examines the founding of the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois and its PhD program that focused on applied journalism and mass communication research, explaining the role of legendary journalism scholar James Carey in recentering (and decentering) the tension between practice and research.