The year 1952 associates several firsts with the Department of Journalism of the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava: The first university-level study of journalism in then-Czechoslovakia. The first full-time journalism students crossed the threshold of academia in 1952. The first head of the new Department of Journalism and Librarianship of the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University was a former journalist, literary critic and active publicist, then vice-dean of the Faculty of Arts, Assoc. Prof. Michal C h o r v á t h, who taught at the Department of Slovak Language and Literature. The Bratislava school entered public awareness under the name Department of Journalism and Librarianship of the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava. After Assoc. Prof. Chorváth left the faculty in 1953, the department was taken over by Assoc. Prof. Vladimír K l i m e š from Prague. When he returned to Prague in 1955, the department was headed for a long period, until 1971, by lawyer Assoc. Prof. Dalibor M. K r n o. Under his direction, an independent Department of Journalism of the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University was established in 1960.
In the 1960s, journalism theory began to develop, mainly thanks to Professor Mieroslav Hyska, upon whose work the Journalistic Study Institute built. During the 1960s, a qualitative change occurred in the conception of journalism studies – emphasis began to be placed on journalistic subjects. This entailed the need to create a graduate profile prepared to work in print, radio, television and a press agency.
As part of a reorganization of the workplace, in 1975 the single Department of Journalism gave rise to three specialized departments and a cabinet – the Department of Theory and History of Journalism (headed by Prof. Fraňo R u t t k a y), the Department of Periodical Press and News Agency Reporting (headed by Prof. Jozef B o r í s e k), the Department of Radio and Television Journalism (Assoc. Prof. Leopold S l o v á k) and the Cabinet of Theory and History of Journalism with its own library (headed by Prof. Ľudovít J a c z) became the research unit.
In the 1990s, the content of the study fundamentally changed. It became comparable to the focus of journalism studies in European Union states and the United States of America. The department's teachers and research scientists began intensive work on creating a new curriculum, improving pedagogical performance, and engaging in scientific publication activity. From 1989 alone they published over 60 of their own textbooks and monographs. In 1990, the research unit Mass-Media-Science Association was established within the departments, which to this day publishes the professional journal for the theory, research and practice of mass media communication Otázky žurnalistiky (Questions of Journalism), published since 1958.
The year 1992 also brought a change in the organization of study. The dean of the faculty decided to merge the three departments into one – the Department of Journalism of the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University. Its head became Prof. Juraj V o j t e k. The role of the former departments was filled by operational divisions (today sections). Alongside single-major studies, double-major journalism study in combination with another field of study (both fields studied separately) was very successful – for example with political science, English and American studies, other philologies, and so on.
Initiatives in the field of photojournalism were reflected in the founding of the FOCUS Gallery in 1992 at the department on Štúrova Street. The regular exhibitions in the photo gallery were primarily the work of PhDr. Ján Lofaj, an internal faculty member of the department who stood at its head. Other specializations also became active – teachers of radio and television journalism were instrumental in the establishment in 1993 of the student radio transmitter Radio Zóna on the frequency of Radio Ragtime on the department's premises. Prof. George Frajkor from Carleton University in Ottawa, who was a visiting scholar at the department at the time, began publishing with students the internet magazine Naše slová (Our Words) about events in Slovakia, in Slovak and English editions.
In 2000, Assoc. Prof. Jozef V a t r á l became head of the department. It was also the year that Comenius University began implementing a credit system of study based on the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). Its aim was to achieve compatibility with leading foreign universities, to allow students to optimally shape the content and pace of their studies, and to offer them international mobility. The basis became a 10-semester study program, which for the department meant a transition from a 4-year to a 5-year study. The Department of Journalism of the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava received full accreditation for all three levels of university study in journalism: bachelor's (Bc., 6 semesters), master's (Mgr., 4 semesters) and doctoral study in the field of Theory and History of Journalism (PhD., full-time 4 years, part-time 5 years). It was also granted the authority to conduct rigorous examinations (PhDr.), habilitation procedures (associate professor) and inauguration procedures (full professor).
In 2006, the student internet newspaper Webjournal.sk and internet radio broadcasting RádioAktiv were established at the department. Within the framework of the Austrian-Slovak project Mediaregion (SSN), our students participated in the production of documentary films about municipalities in the border region. The department signed several cooperation agreements with Slovak media and publishing houses.
In 2009, the baton of department head was taken over by Assoc. Prof. Svetlana H l a v č á k o v á. Under her leadership, the teaching staff was rejuvenated. In 2010, the Accreditation Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication from the United States of America evaluated the department's study programs very positively. Successful graduates who felt the need to give back to the department something of what it had instilled in them became involved in teaching, along with prominent journalists from practice. Lectures and workshops are also regularly led by professors from prestigious foreign journalism schools and prominent journalists from abroad. Holders of the most prestigious journalism award – the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism – gave lectures on the premises of Comenius University and led workshops at the Department of Journalism: Tvrtko Vujity from Hungary (2010), Joshua Friedman (2011) and Tim Weiner (2012), both from the USA.
Despite turning sixty, the Department of Journalism of the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava is not heading for retirement. It is full of energy and plans. It is delighted by the realization that its successful graduates are aware of the equation: a quality school is the hallmark of a quality education. Besides professional goals, it also has one personal objective for the future – that future colleagues and graduates will remember us in another 60 years, that we were here and that we did our work well.
Doc. PhD.Svetlana Hlavčáková, PhD. Head of the Department of Journalism of the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava http://www.fphil.uniba.sk/index.php?id=kzur