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Department of Journalism

Dr. William J. Thorn
Associate Professor

Johnston Hall 316
(414) 288-3447 Phone
(414) 288-3923 Fax
william.thorn@mu.edu

Courses Taught

JOUR 001: Practicum in Student Publications
JOUR 100: Publications Editing
JOUR 163: History of American News Media
JOUR 172: Religious Journalism
JOUR 175: Public Affairs Reporting

Education

Education: Ph.D. University of Minnesota (Mass Communication)
MA University of Wisconsin - Madison
BA Loras College (cum laude)

Why Marquette?

The Jesuit approach to professional education has always struck me as the best model for preparation of journalists because it demands a rigorous liberal arts foundation and insists on ethics and critical awareness of mass media as the context for skills training. Milwaukee's central city and the larger metropolitan area provide a wonderful laboratory in politics, arts, social patterns, and major media which naturally become part of our classes. Marquette encourages my work with the Vatican and with Catholic and religious media. More profoundly, Marquette's Catholic and Christian identity recognizes each individual — student, staff member, professor and news source — as having been endowed by the Creator with inherent dignity.

Research Interests

Electronic database networks for church documents; Catholics as a media audience, Catholic use of media at diocesan level; effects of media on religious imagination of children; Church and Generation X.

Professional Affiliations

Catholic Press Association; Union Catholique

Internationale de la Presse (past board of directors); AEJMC; ICA;
Religious Research Assn

Milwaukee Press Club

Professional Experience

newspaper reporter, editor; intern trainer (TV radio news); public relations.

Vatican committee on communication document;
USCCB committee on Communications;
Archdiocese of Milwaukee communications committee;
Chair, Santa Fe Communications Board.

Recent Publications

"Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement: Centenary Essays." William Thorn, Philip Runkel and Susan Mountin. Marquette University Press. 2000.

"Models of Church and Communication. Media, Culture and Catholicism." Paul Soukup, ed., Sheed & Ward. 1996.

"At the Third Millennium: Catholic Press of Europe and the United States." 1996.

"History and Role of the Catholic Press." Chapter in Reporting Religion, Polebridge, 1990.