by Vivian B. Martin

Welcome to the first issue of Teaching Journalism and Mass Communication: A Journal Published by the Small Programs Interest Group of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Although the editorial team has crossed off a number of tasks on the to-do list on our way to this first issue, from recruiting writers to wrestling with the technical details of electronic publication, writing this inaugural letter seems to me to be one of the most difficult tasks to date. I have procrastinated mightily and can’t really blame my teaching load or even the recent October snowstorm that knocked out power for nearly a week. I think my footdragging has something to do with the challenge of stepping up and succinctly describing the vision the editorial team, SPIG officers, and I have for the publication, while also acknowledging and hoping this creation grows beyond our initial goals for it. Moreover, part of the challenge is to explain what we tried to do with this first issue, at the same time hoping that the work speaks for itself [...]