A journalist and educator with more than three decades of experience, Melita Garza has worked for several publications, including the Chicago Tribune and the Milwaukee Journal, and also has served as associate editor of The McKinsey Quarterly in London. In addition to her continuing academic work, Melita Garza currently serves as an associate professor in the journalism department at the Bob Schieffer College of Communication at Texas Christian University.
The department faculty is dedicated to ensuring students receive high-quality guidance in seven essential areas, called “The Schieffer Seven”:
1. Writing and editing: clear and concise use of language
2. Statistics, research and technology: effective communication using these essential concepts
3. Free media: values, principles and the history of a free media system
4. Diversity: the impact of a global society on the assembly and reporting of information
5. Critical and creative thinking: independent approaches to professional projects
6. Theory: a firm grasp of concepts and how these can be used in the dissemination of information
7. Ethical standards: an understanding of professionalism, and making ethical choices
Ms. Garza teaches two undergraduate-level courses that directly address all of these aptitudes: Diversity and the Media, and the Historical Development of the Mass Media. Underpinning both courses is the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, which in part urges journalists "to boldly tell the story of the diversity and magnitude of the human experience."
