Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (often abbreviated to The Cronkite School by its students and faculties), is one of the 24 independent schools at Arizona State University and named in honor of veteran broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite. The school, which is at the downtown Phoenix campus, offers programs leading to a bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication, master of mass communication, and in fall 2011, the school launched its first journalism and mass communication doctoral program. The Cronkite School began as the Division of Journalism under
Walter Cronkite added to the McCain-Feingold-Shays-Meehan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2001 that would have required TV broadcast companies to provide free airtime to candidates. Cronkite criticized the present system of campaign finance which allows elections to "be purchased" by special interests, and he noted that all the European democracies "provide their candidates with extensive free airtime." "In fact," Cronkite pointed out, "of all the major nations worldwide that profess to have democracies, only seven – just seven – do not offer free airtime" This put the United States on a list with Ecuador, Honduras, Malaysia, Taiwan, Tanzania, and Trinidad and Tobago.