The development of educational programs in broadcasting has been a slow process. Undergraduate broadcasting degree programs began appearing at Big Ten universities and other institutions in the 1930s (Sterling,1994, p. 8). According to a United States Office of Education survey, approximately 300 universities and colleges reported offering at least one course, which existed primarily in speech and English departments, in radio by 1938 (Head and Martin, 1956). By the late 1940s, when television became an important broadcasting medium, colleges and universities responded by adding television courses to the broadcasting curricula (Niven, 1961).
The number of students involved in …