Sorry Folks, posted on the wrong spot.

Here is the re-hash of what I wrote in Dr, Royal's wordpress blog. 

The first comment that I would make concerning the three articles we read this week is, the Texas State decision makers all need to read those articles. One common thread that I took away from the reading is that anybody considering a career in on-line journalism, first needs to learn the fundamentals of journalism. Good research (investigative) skills, sound critical thinking (problem solving skills), broad social, economic & political knowledge plus the ability to organize and tell a story are crucial abilities to possess no matter what type of journalistic career one might choose. In the “Old Thinking” article Taylor makes some good points about the gap between what is offered at colleges and universities and what is needed to be fully functional as an on-line media professional, but some of the responses were more pertinent to me, in that, they discuss the major issue I just wrote about. No matter how computer savvy one might be if you can’t report credible stories with clarity and conciseness and a little flare. Your just a blogger not an on-line journalist. “Mind the Gap” reflects these concepts and offers good reasons for the “Gap” and sound solutions for keeping current with technology. While running Knight Line Productions I was introduced to the Art Institute of Houston, because they were looking for industry professionals to sit on their school of video production industry advisory board. This board was not a ceremonial body. Board members met monthly at first and then quarterly with the school decision makers to let them know the latest trends, technologies and needs we had in the Houston Media and Video Production business. The school then attempted to adjust their curricula to better prepare student to fill those needs. The Art Institute did a poor job on the follow up, but put together a very impressive board of the top companies in Houston. I actually learned a lot from these gatherings from some of the large companies that I was lucky enough to be able to meet with at these advisory board meetings. Finally, the “Newspapers that Twitter” was informative in that, I knew that newspapers were going to the Web and that they were finding it difficult to come up with economic models to be financially successful; bringing their top reporters and readership together again in an on-line atmosphere. What this really tells me is that they are stating to get the fact that the Internet is INTERACTIVE and to make the best use of it their reporters and their organizations need to be interactive to rebuild old relationships and foster new relationships on this powerful medium.