I've asked the faculty. I've asked the department's professional advisers. Now I'm asking you.
What new directions should college journalism programs take in the next 10 years?
On one side of the discussion are those who are convinced that changes in the technology of communication will fundamentally alter the way news is gathered and distributed. They point to the use of blogs, discussion boards, cell phones, video cameras, etc., to argue that more people will, and must, become integrated into the process of creating news. And they certainly have a point. Many stories today would not exist, or would be less complete, if not for citizens taking on the role of watchdog journalists. But to what extent should journalism schools teach students to integrate such practices into what they do? Do the uses of these new communication devices fundamentally change the way "professional" journalists are taught how to recognize and shape news stories for a mass audience? People in this camp tend to favor a curriculum that is more broad than deep, exposing journalism students to a variety of ways to shape a story for the eye and ear. Many suggest every journalism student should be highly competent with a digital still camera, digital video camera, Web-authoring softwares such as DreamWeaver, design software such as InDesign, etc. Products of such journalism programs would be expected to write it, shoot it, edit it, get it on the air, on the Web, in the paper, etc.
On the other side are those who say journalism programs shouldn't worry so much about the changing technology of the day as much as they should focus on the skills necessary to tell a good story, and how the new technology augments this process. These kinds of people favor a curriculum that has a broad slice of liberal arts, but a deeper emphasis in one particular area of journalism. To tell a story really well, they suggest, requires a thorough grounding in one particular medium, such as print. They believe it is probably impossible to be a great journalist across all media; better, they say, to demonstrate excellence in one area and competence in others. The product of this kind of program would be slanted toward employment in a more traditional slice of the journalism industry, but would adapt to changes as they come.
We are grappling now with deciding how much to adjust the curriculum in response to these new communication methods and media.
My own bias? A confession. I am a "late adopter." I'm the last person who bought a cell phone, a personal computer, an iPod. To some degree I am a traditionalist. But I am not a dinosaur.
..Mike Sweeney, journalism professor, Utah State University
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3 comments:
I'm with the folks who favor a curriculum rooted in the liberal arts, but with an emphasis on the craft of storytelling.
Journalists must understand narrative in order to capture the attention of their audiences. Their stories must not be insipid regurgitations of fact. They must know how to communicate – and communicate well!
They must also know how to explain.
As reporters, we often function as interpreters, mediating between people who speak different languages. We must be able to offer our sources and our readers a common vocabulary, so that information isn't lost in translation. This requires a breadth of knowledge an interdisciplinary education can help provide.
Technology may change how news is gathered and presented, but it will only make a difference to media consumers if the content on offer is fundamentally good.
I say we stick to the basics and leave the rest to on-the-job training.
Welcome to the BlogoSphere, Mike, the not-so-new frontier of citizen journalism.
Technical mastery of the underlying media should be a prerequisite for using the media for journalism, communitarian projects, and infotainment.
To the extent that journalism students don't already have that mastery, there should be courses available to bring students up to speed on all relevant technologies.
After that, learning to use the new media to enhance the journalistic enterprise should be paramount.
Leon is correct when he emphasizes development of narrative and storytelling skills. Beyond the basic communication skills, it's important to appreciate the idiosyncratic strengths and weaknesses of the various alternative media, so they can be integrated into a system of complementary parts supporting the overall journalistic enterprise.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
Etaoin Shrdlu.
Hello Prof. Sweeney,
I think there will be only two types of journalists survive in the future job market:
* investigative journalists
* technology geeks (especially those who knows how to utilize the power of social media, and of course, they need to command as many multimedia skills as possible. An individual should work as a team.)
I am a strong believer of media change driven by technology change, because I myself is a heavy user of social media - either reading news, or distributing news.
Hope that helps ;-p
Yacong
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