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.
No interior yet. Getting there. Gotta start somewhere. Low-poly background detail for a medieval theater…
This is manageable. Far better than some semesters.
Creating textures for background buildings in a medieval theater simulation project. I can always improve…
Nothing in this stack is pressing, but they do include rough drafts of final papers,…
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Representing the Humanities at Accepted Students Day.
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Amazing, but so true -- blogging on my SHU site for six years may get me a job very soon. I mentioned that I used Moveable Type all that time, and the prelim interviewer said, "That was the right answer."
Even if I don't get that job, it's comforting to know that I do have knowledge head and shoulders above the other thousands of ivy-league j-students.
And you know what? I did it in a small school in my hometown. I saved going to Seton Hill, and at one time, thought I was missing out -- I had no idea at the time how cutting-edge we really were. It was when I went to NYU, and met print professors trying this "blogging" thing out that I knew. NYU was great for developing my documentary/tv news background, but really -- Seton Hill has got it with online media. No doubts now whatsoever.
Dennis,
It seems to me that with so many papers moving online, as you've discussed recently (http://jerz.setonhill.edu/weblog/2009/03/scenes_from_the_recession_-_th/), blogging may well become an even more important skill for journalists to employ. Others have discussed this idea before (http://www.ojr.org/ojr/blog/200512/931/index.cfm).
Seton Hill's courses point the way for online writers of the future. Interestingly, the top blogging newspapers mentioned by the NYU School of Journalism are all still going strong (http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/blueplate/issue1/best_nwsps/). Cities like Seattle or Ann Arbor whose papers have recently gone entirely online already have a high online penetration by their reading public so the switch makes sense anyway; though it is certainly an historic, some might say sad shift away from the tangible, print medium of centuries past.