Mark A. Butzow

Mark Butzow has taught college journalism since 1989 and joined Western's faculty in 2004. He teaches Reporting I and II, Copy Editing, Introduction to Mass Communication, Media in Society, and Ethics in Journalism. He also serves on the campus advisory board for the Western Courier newspaper.

A Peoria Journal Star copy editor for twelve years, Butzow for seven years prior to that worked in broadcast news in Tampa Bay (WTSP-TV, WEDU-TV), Knoxville, TN (WBIR-TV), Fort Wayne, IN (WPTA-TV), Charlotte, NC (WPCQ-TV) and Peoria (WHOI-TV, WEEK-TV).

He got his start in journalism at Illinois State University in the late 1970s, where he was news director for the student radio station (WILN-FM), city council reporter for the NPR station (WGLT-FM), reporter and anchor for the student TV newscast (TV-10 News) and reporter for the student newspaper (Daily Vidette). He also worked off-campus at WIHN-FM, WBNQ-FM and WJBC-AM.

College Media Advisers Inc. honored Butzow with its Ken Nordin Research Award in 2007 for a study of intimidation and censorship threats at college newspapers. A version of that material was published in College Media Review in October 2008. Another research interest is the rise of the Internet as a platform for news "delivery" and how that is changing the “skill set” that future journalists are going to need. An article looking at how small programs are trying to provide that training was published in August 2009 in Quill, the magazine of the Society of Professional Journalists. And Butzow is busy on another project, this one analyzing the quality of media ethics courses and textbooks.

Butzow is a member of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, including its scholastic journalism, newspapers, and  media ethics divisions; the Society of Professional Journalists, including its journalism education committee; and College Media Advisers, including its law committee and research committee.