The Impact of Endowed Chairs on Journalism Education: Final Report for 2004
By
Lee B. Becker, Tudor Vlad, Angela Hains and Ick Lee
Abstract
The respondents were asked to distinguish between a chair and a professorship at their own university. The answers suggested considerable diversity in how these terms are used. In general, a chair required a higher level of funding than a professorship. The respondents were asked to use whatever definition of these two terms existed at their own university in responding to the questions.
An estimated 230 chairs and professorships existed at the nation’s 460 journalism and mass communication programs in the autumn of 2004, according to these answers. This estimate is based on an actual count of 180 chairs or professorships. The projection technique used to estimate the high number assumes that nonresponding programs would have reported similar numbers to those reporting. The 180 documented chairs and professorships were located at 76 universities. The most prominent funder of chairs or professorships is the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Knight foundation has funded a chair at 17 of these 76 universities, or at 22.4% of them.
The copyrighted full report is available here.
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