Keeping J-School Relevant

This article describes how the Columbia School of Journalism is redesigning its program in order to integrate new media and business skills into the traditional journalism program.

Currently, most student work in the introductory course is in print
— sometimes published by a professor on a course’s Web page. It is
Grueskin’s hope that, in the future, these students might produce more
multimedia-driven pieces at this early stage as well.

“It’s
important for the school and for our students that Web training not be
segregated from the core journalism curriculum,” Grueskin said. “I
think it’s important for us to address digital skills training for
everybody, not just those who will be new media majors. Students who
are multi-talented will have the intellectual dexterity to adapt to
some of the technological change that will come in the next 5 to 10
years. Still, at the core is journalism. All of the [new media] tools
in the world don’t cover up bad journalism.”– David Moltz, Inside Higher Ed

Seton Hill’s new media journalism program includes “Writing for the Internet” and “New Media Projects,” along with plenty of blogging in the other journalism classes. Students also learn about being a freelance writer, how to deal with agents and copyright and other nuts and bolts in “Publications Workshop.”

Recently I was thinking about what kind of a math course might appeal to English majors, since journalists have to deal with statistics, and reporters who know their way around a balance sheet or a corporate annual report will be well equipped to sniff out information for a story.