“In 1945, what is now the Carleton University School of Journalism and Communication was founded on four essential priorities, one of which was that education in journalism must provide “”specific knowledge of social, fiscal, industrial and political problems.”” Journalists, in short, should know their subject matter. Over more than 50 years, the School has earned a reputation for the quality and responsibility of its graduates. Although we have not had a specific program designed to train business journalists, our alumni have gone on to careers as senior, respected business and financial journalists. Recent graduates currently work at Bloomberg, the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business, the Wall Street Journal, B.C. Business Magazine, Dow Jones, the Financial Post (soon to be the National Post), as well as a number of speciality newsletters.While Carleton has produced many of Canada’s leading business journalists, we have not had a concentration in business journalism, nor is there a specialization of this kind in Canada at present. However, there is a growing demand for more journalists to interpret, explain and clarify the increasingly compelx issues and affairs of finance and commerce. At the same time, there is mounting concern from the corporate sector about the quality of much of the business journalism in this country. In reponse to this growing concern and with a determination to provide the first class training that our reputation demands, we will establish a Chair in Financial and Business Journalism at Carleton University.The Chair will oversee the creation of a specialization in Business and Financial Journalism within the School, ensuring that in the future Carleton graduates will be as literate and knowledgable in financial matters as they are currently in political and social issues.At present, the lack of such a specialization at the most insistently academic School or Journalism in the country is clearly a liability for the nation’s journalism. The business and financial communities do not expect their media coverage to be slavish and uncritical. Responsible business professionals are well aware that the boardrooms of the nation should be as conscientiously monitored as the corridors of political power. However, they do expect that media coverage of economic affairs should be knowledgable, accurate and informed. It is a persistent frustration to encounter journalists whose grasp of fundamental principles and concepts is woefully inadequate. It is in the mutual interest of both business and the media — which are for the most part themselves businesses — that the professionals who document the affairs of commerce be thoroughly and unimpeachably competent.”