Education and New Media

This seems to be an interesting/confusing time in the media industry. There are those in the "old guard" who feel that traditional journalism is the only way to go. They believe that the internet is a fad and multimedia skills aren't that important. Then, there are those of us just beginning in the industry who know -- and see -- that the industry is evolving and it is necessary to be trained in all forms of media, especially new media.

Jones' article shows that j-schools may not really know what to do when it comes to the industry's evolution. She says that some are integrating new media while others are having a harder time evolving. Jones quotes Alberto Ibarguen who said "(journalism schools) are as proud as they can be that they are traditional journalism schools, devoted and dedicated to doing the journalism of the 1960s and 1970s". Many schools seem to be in that line of thought. However, there are a few that are offering more multimedia skills courses. I like the program that Arizona State University is implementing -- offering an online multimedia class and allowing the students to continue using the skills they learn in future coursework. I also like the Medill School's "locative journalism" course at Northwestern. I think it's a great idea -- not only for a school -- but for working in the "real world" of journalism. More schools need to implement more multimedia courses to help prepare a new generation of journalists. Schools that don't offer these courses are doing a disservice to their students. It does seem though, that the students who are interested in learning web/multimedia production are finding out a way to do it on their own -- whether by finding a course at a community college or figuring it out for themselves.

Taylor's article surprised me a little. I figured a school like NYU would be on the forefront of what is going on in the media industry. The fact that she is the only blogger in the class surprised me as well. I like how she lists NYUs thinking about the media industry. From getting an internship to learning to write for a newspaper because "blogging isn't journalism". As I stated earlier, I think most of those in the traditional media see multimedia as something less than what it is. Students need to be trained in all aspects of journalism, whether it's print, broadcasting or web. I would think that journalists/journalism schools would want to be on the forefront of new technology in order to get information out to the public. I do think though that there is something to be said for having the "hard copy" of a newspaper. One of the comments on Taylor's article said bringing a paper is not a lot to ask and I agree. The comment also says that not all of the information is right there on the homepage. It's almost easier to find something in the paper edition than searching for it online.

I'm kind of surprised at the number of papers that twitter -- and I don't know why! I'm not surprised that bigger papers like NYT, Houston Chronicle, and the Wall Street Journal do it. I am surprised that a weekly auction guide like Farm and Dairy twitters.