What a journalist needs to know
Lots of discussion on some of the blogs I read about students in journalism schools and how (un)prepared they are for the real world of journalism.
Mindy McAdams writes: Tell the next generation that even though writing is not dead, it is not enough. They need to know more, they need to do more. And she lists a bunch of necessary Web skills.
Martin Stabe weighs in with this: Journalism isn't about printing newspapers or broadcasting television programmes. It's about stories -- and finding the best way to tell them. So I have no idea where this romantic attachment to the printed word comes from.
Kevin Anderson: Whenever I speak to students, instead of saying that they need to learn Flash, or Final Cut or Rails, I say you need to learn reporting, audio-visual storytelling and research. You don't need to know how to do everything on your own, but you need to know what is possible and doable in this digital age. The software will change. The technology will change so most importantly, you need to be nimble and curious.
Howard Owens addresses it here and here.
Rob Curley nails it: Skillset is important. But mindset is most important.
When you combine strong traditional journalism skills with a great mindset, you've got a journalist who's going to be fine regardless of what new things or technologies come our way.
It's true, best I can tell, that the j-schools are underserving aspiring journalists in terms of their multi-media knowledge. We get few here who know how to program or do video or build multi-media programs or blog. That said, our experience is that the student fresh out of journalism school or with one or two years of experience are hungry to experiment and learn new online skills. They view video online, listen to podcasts, read blogs and participate in communities in their personal lives. They understand where people are going and how they are spending their time because they do it themselves.
With this perspective, it's a short leap to learn how to do it for a living. After a year in which we essentially treaded water, our goal this year is to become a new media newsroom, with a room full of digitally savvy journalists. Everyone will learn new online tools, and we intend to teach them in-house. We're offering a smorgasbord of training, including audio, video, blogging and multi-media. We don't have everything we need in terms of equipment and software, but we'll make do. It's the mindset.
In the end, it's about the stories, as Martin Stabe says. And the visuals, I'd add. We tell great stories and we are going to tell them on newsprint and online, with words, video and sound.
Comments (5)
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Or perhaps, your forward-thinking style and willingness to try the new makes you an attractive place for journalism grads who are excited about the future. Obviously I can't draw conclusions from anecdotal evidence, but you may be seeing the fruit of your earlier efforts.
I'm not trying to stroke your ego, but if I were coming out of j-school, looking for places where they were trying new things, I think the News-Record would be on the short list with places like lawrence, ks., bakersfield, ca, and the likes.
Posted on January 16, 2007 10:53 PM
"With this perspective, it's a short leap to learn how to do it for a living."
I've been reading newspapers all my life. When are you retiring? Looks like I'm qualified for your job.
I watch a lot of Law & Order too. Need legal advice? Don't waste your money on a lawyer.
With my driving experience, I'll be able to do tune-ups on the side.
Man, new media is so kewl. Can't wait to see the great journalism that comes out of the N&R in coming years. My 12 year old has a MySpace page. What salary will you offer him to start?
Posted on January 16, 2007 11:03 PM
Bryan makes a good point. As someone who's a year out from graduation I definitely have my eyes on papers that are embracing all these new tools at their disposal. Your blog being one of them.
Posted on January 18, 2007 7:18 PM
I think the argument of today's journalists being underprepared is getting old.
The reality is that people learning skills in new media at the college level today are spending so much time learning both journalistic principles AND the technology that there just not enough time to do this type of work while you're in school. We are reaching an era where larger media organizations are expecting more experience in terms of online, and web friendly newsrooms like the NR are finally helping push media forward. They are figuring out how to dedicate resources to this type of story telling and blurring the gap between print and online.
I had to produce two huge projects from scratch in the last 3 days and the breaking news multimedia projects I did at the NR were definitly helpful in preparing me for my new work load at Time.
I think journalism schools and today's college journalists are learning more than people are giving them credit for. Even if they don't know to code, they do know how to think visually and think in terms of what is possible online even if that means they have to turn to a techie for help. I think we need to turn the microscope back on industry professionals now and see how willing they actually are to make this shift in their office. I do commend the NR for the work they are doing and their goal for the new year. My guess is it isn't actually happing at many local papers across the country.
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