THE HOPEFUL THE DEWITT WALLACE CENTER

For journalism junkies, moonlighting as Duke students, the message from the news industry these past few years has been clear: Turn back. Jump ship. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.

Let's put it this way-if you want to be a journalist right now, that's fine, but maybe you should try something where the odds are a little more in your favor. Like winning the lottery. Or getting struck by lightning. Or setting the curve on an Econ 51 exam.

And with newspapers across the country battling with declining revenue and dwindling readership, cutting staffs and even closing their doors in droves, the reasons to choose different career path aren't exactly mysterious.

"You wouldn't believe what you have to go through to get a job," says Janie Lorber, a 2008 graduate who now writes for The New York Times. "There's absolutely no jobs in journalism. It's depressing. And the money is really bad. There's just a lot of talented kids who are going to be better rewarded in other industries."

For Lorber and other students whose dreams are written on newsprint, the future looks flimsy, and the siren's lure of law school or the comforts of an investment banking salary are never far out of mind. But not everyone at the University is predicting the apocalypse just yet. Another group of journalism nuts on campus has its sights set on reshaping the future of the struggling industry. And if they succeed, it might just be enough to give the AP style once more.

The DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy in the Terry Sanford School of Public Policy cuts a strange profile on campus. At a university dedicated to the liberal arts, where a journalism school is as foreign an idea as a degree in firefighting, the center teaches students to study the news.

Inside an institute of public policy, where the humanities, social sciences and quantitative studies tangle into one of those "interdisciplinary fields" touted in college guides, DWC offers know-how in the age-old field of simple writing. And most of all, in a journalistic world convinced of its own doom, DWC sees something more.

But before it can think about the future of the news, DWC has its own future to consider. Despite a dizzying slate of responsibilities that includes conducting research, hosting "media fellows"-visiting professional journalists from around the world-and offering the undergraduate certificate in policy journalism and media studies, DWC has long lacked a prominent presence on campus.

Enter DWC's new faculty appointment, Sarah Cohen. A long-time reporter for the Washington Post, she won a Pulitzer in 2002 for a series of investigative pieces on the failures of D.C.'s child welfare services and carries a resume stacked with other teaching and reporting credentials. She was also among the earliest proponents of computational journalism and is one of the emerging field's most well-respected experts. In 2007, for instance, she used computer-assisted reporting to sift through stacks of farm subsidy data and uncover glaring abuses of the system in a collection of Post pieces titled, "Harvesting Cash."

At Duke she will be joined by her Post colleague Philip Bennett. He, too, carries an impressive stack of credentials and experience. A 30-year veteran of reporting, he led to the Post to ten Pulitzer Prizes over the past four years as the paper's managing editor, including a record six in 2008 alone. But this year he made the surprising decision to step down from his position at the Post and come to teach at Duke.

"I've become convinced that the best place to discuss the future of journalism is no longer newsrooms but is increasingly becoming universities and foundations that had traditionally not offered very much to journalism in terms of ideas," Bennett says. "I think [DWC is] in position to become a national leader in thinking about the future of news media."

That's just what leaders at DWC hope: for it to become an incubator for the kind of ideas that will save journalism from extinction. Cohen and Bennett will be the workhorses of their effort-writing, researching and leading conferences.

Both Bennett and Cohen will also teach classes to undergraduates, but as DWC officials are quick to point out, they're not pre-professional classes for reporters. And with good reason. Remember that whole problem where jobs for reporters don't exist anymore? As Ken Rogerson, the director of the media certificate for undergraduates, puts it, "We're teaching about the media, but we're not necessarily training journalists. Maybe in some cases, but not necessarily."

What they are doing for the undergraduate population is something more nebulous. A wide sampling of Duke students take the certificate, and for varying reasons. Aspiring journalists study the bylines they hope to someday replicate, while those not planning to pursue a career in journalism learn to pick apart the news that they will be reading for the rest of their lives.

Lorber says the certificate program helped fuel her interest in journalism, but she supplemented her coursework with internships and freelance writing and applied for more than 20 entry-level positions and internships after graduating. "The program is really good," she says, "but most of the technical and practical work still has to be done outside of school." Plus, she maintains, finding work in journalism is still a tooth-and-nail fight, no matter what your qualifications are.

But there's one man who still has his journalism job on lock. And Jay Hamilton aims to keep it that way-by ignoring those ready to give up on newspapers and tackling the hard questions of the industry's survival. Will it be enough to save newsprint from obliteration? It's a tall order, but at DeWitt Wallace, they're not ready to stop the presses just yet.