Langara Journalism celebrates 50 years
May 12, 2015
Vancouver, BC - Langara’s Journalism department, the oldest in western Canada, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. This is being marked by events throughout the year, looking at the past, present, and future of media.
The journalism program’s origins began in the former King Edward High School in 1965, as part of what was then Vancouver City College, with courses in shorthand, industrial cost accounting, use of the camera, and public opinion. It has now evolved to a program at Langara College, where students cover the news with cameras, their iPhones, digital recorders, tweets, blogs, and, very occasionally, drones. Throughout all the change, the department has stayed focused on the core of journalism: finding facts and stories that are important to the public and presenting them in interesting ways.
“The best quality of Langara’s Journalism Department is the way it has maintained that balance between the important, traditional skills of journalism - checking to make sure things are true, for instance - and the sometimes stormy currents of new journalism,” said Frances Bula, Department Chair.