Annual Surveys of Journalism and Mass Communication

Using the Integrated Postsecondary Data System (IPEDS)

Jisu Huh, Lee B. Becker and Tudor Vlad

Abstract

In 1988, the methodology for the Annual Survey of Journalism & Mass Communication Enrollments was simplified. Administrators were asked to report on enrollments by sequence, enrollments by gender, and enrollments by race/ethnicity. Similarly, administrators were asked to report on degrees granted by sequence, degrees granted by gender and degrees granted by race/ethnicity.

Methodological details for the surveys before 1988 no longer exist. The records from 1988, however, show that the level of reporting of units of the characteristics of their students has declined sharply. This decrease in reporting took place though the actual measures used in the enrollment survey have remained unchanged. The decline has been greatest in terms of gender, but the decline for race is most striking, since it never has been very high. The strong decline in reporting on race and ethnicity from 1998 to 1999 has been reversed slightly, with 53.5% of the programs reporting gender of currently enrolled students and 44.5% reporting on the race/ethnicity of the enrolled students.

Since 1988, a standard projection technique has been used to replace missing data. Membership in the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication (ASJMC) and accreditation by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) have been treated as defining characteristics of journalism and mass communication programs.

Huh, J., Becker, L. B., and Vlad, T. (2002, August). using the Integrated Postsecondary Data System (IPEDS). Paper presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Conference, Miami, FL.