We’ve gotten so much reaction on my recent journalism education reform speech, that my colleagues created an infographic to explain the new degree system I’m suggesting would make professionals and scholars equal. 

My basic argument is the “teaching hospital” model is the best for journalism and communication education in the digital age. To have a good teaching hospital, you have to have not just researchers but doctors. 

This system would have a professional master’s (as some schools do already) but also a professional doctorate (kind of like an MD).

The main feature of a new degree system would be to honor people who can do both scholarship and excellent journalism with a “higher doctorate” and a “higher master’s” that would outrank the other PhDs and Master’s degrees.

As I was working on the infographic, I realized that my original speech wasn’t entirely clear in the naming of the various degrees, so I’ve tweaked it to align with the graphic above.

By Eric Newton, senior adviser to the President at Knight Foundation