It has been said that journalism schools have been lagging behind in their adaptation to new media and the rapid evolution of journalism (flashback: in 1995, a publication by the Society of Professional Journalists contended journalists’ new media skills were “nice, but not necessary.”). This is starting to change though – or is it? What should tomorrow’s journalists be learning? Jeff Jarvis, Roy Greenslade, and Keith Woods from the Poynter Institute describe their own experiences for the Weblog.

Jeff Jarvis is a journalist, founder of Entertainment Weekly and BuzzMachine, and a well-known proponent of new media. He is an associate professor and directs the new media program at City University of New York's (CUNY) Graduate School of Journalism.

Roy Greenslade is a Professor of Journalism at London’s City University. He blogs about media for The Guardian and has worked across several of Britain’s national papers. He describes himself as a ‘mere’ weekly lecturer though, and admits not knowing much about the journalism programs led in the direction of new media, but offers some of his views, in contrast with Jarvis’.

Keith Woods is the Dean of Faculty at the Poynter Institute. He has worked as a reporter, city editor, editorial writer and columnist at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans. He answered through email.

What are some examples of forward-thinking programs and schools?

Greenslade: We’re like the rest of the profession, we’re floundering, although our school is taking strides towards implementing multimedia skills for students, but this is hardly unique now.

Jarvis: CUNY’s journalism program is only one-year old, but we’re going in the right direction. Every student has a Mac laptop – note, laptop. That alone matters in terms of multimedia capacity and mobility, so they can work from anywhere. All students are required to take the ‘Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism’ course during their first semester. This course has two main goals: firstly, they learn the basics of multimedia and how to produce all the forms out there, including audio, video, wikis, blogs, new methods of storytelling, and more. Every student must feel comfortable in every medium, although that doesn’t mean they’ll become experts. Secondly, they learn how the changes have impacted on the journalism industry. Apart from their new skills, it’s more of a seminar about changes and opportunities in journalism.

I also teach a journalism entrepreneurship course, which gives students a business perspective on these changes, so they understand that it might be more difficult to get a job in a (print) publication today, but that this also gives them the opportunity to be more independent. Although some get worried about their career choice, a lot of them are energized by the idea of independence. Just look at Brian Stelter, TVNewser’s founder, who at 21 now works for The New York Times. And I teach some business to students, because they must learn we have to take our responsibilities to sustain journalism. Back when I was learning journalism, business was an entirely different thing. I’m not suggesting journalists should be business people, but they must understand how their content is valued.

After the first semester, students still choose (platform-based) tracks, although we’re trying to work towards a more fluid structure. They also choose a subject track, such as health, business, urban, or arts & culture. This track-based system is still in place because there’s a job reality: if they want to go into broadcast, or print feature writing, there are some specific skills they still need to learn. But we keep the convergence going by having students take one course or take up one project in another track every semester. Will tracks disappear in the future? What I know is that there’s a constant simplification of technology and tools that will make it easier for journalism students to learn different media. Think about it: in the past, a journalist who wanted to learn photography had to learn everything about the dark room, nowadays they all know how to use Photoshop.

Woods: Many programs, such as the Medill school of journalism, the University of Southern California, the University of North Carolina and Arizona State University, have moved boldly to incorporate multimedia not as an add-on, but as the central focus of their storytelling.

What are the main obstacles faced by journalism schools?

Jarvis: I hadn’t thought about it that way. None that I know of. So no trouble with the ‘old media’ professor? No, not in our program anyway. When working out the programs over the summer, all faculty studied multimedia courses together. They actually asked for more multimedia sessions.

Greenslade: If we are to have professional journalism in the future, we must uphold standards. We must teach our students and show that journalism is still useful at a time when everybody can publish their ‘news.’

Woods: For the many (schools of journalism) who don't (include multimedia as the central focus of their storytelling), there are several obstacles:
-- Faculty aren't versed in the new technologies
-- Financial constraints make it hard to provide a meaningful multimedia curriculum
-- Old habits die hard
With all of the other institutionalized requirements in college curricula, it's hard for some universities, given existing structures, to equip journalism students with all those skills. That challenge will test the ability of journalism schools to remain relevant in this new century.

What are journalism schools doing to further their interaction with media outlets and better the products of both organizations?

Jarvis: Our News Service program sends our students to newspapers and publications to collaborate during the school year. We also have a mandatory summer internship program that sends students to media outlets of all sorts (both traditional and new media, such as the citizen-driven venture New Haven Independent). We got a grant from the Knight Foundation to make sure all students could afford these internships, which are sometimes unpaid.

Journalism students typically come from the demographic newspapers are trying hard to reach. But are they representative of this demo, do they come in ready to embrace changes in journalism, or do they still think platform-centric?

Jarvis: Most students come in open to what’s next. Although it’s true a number are initially intent on a particular form of journalism, such as feature reporting, which is typically most adapted to print.

Greenslade: These students grew up in a period of transition. Almost all of them have grown up with the Net. The oddity is that they’re all seeking ‘old media’ jobs, because these are perceived as being more stable, although this traditional media structure is all in the period of breakdown. I don’t think they’re yet convinced of that though – they’re not taking this fragmentation seriously. It’s mostly people who worked in the media in the past who are witnessing this fragmentation.

On the other hand, the difference is that today’s journalism students have the multimedia skills and background if they need them. When I asked my class who was signed up for Facebook, virtually everybody raised their hand.

Do you see students who are coming up with ideas that could pioneer new forms of journalism?

Jarvis: Yes. In that same entrepreneurship course, most students offered ideas that were websites. But one of them is working on a project for a Facebook news outlet, because students find that there’s plenty of content but not enough social networking components. Another student has a TV-like idea for a two-minute news show, which could be online or broadcast. There’s also a project focused around the idea that the public should be telling us what to do, not the reverse.

Greenslade: After going through the program, several students immediately became videojournalists, so I suppose that’s a form of pioneering. On a more philosophical level, there’s the example of Dave Lee, probably Britain’s leading student journalist blogger.

Any other thoughts about changes in journalism that programs should be addressing?

Woods: News organizations themselves have been blind-sided by the pace of change in technology and the institutional and societal mandate to change immediately. Only now can they project with any real accuracy what competencies they'll need for incoming college graduates. They'll continue to need the basics of reporting and storytelling, but students will also need to have a fundamental familiarity with software and some knowledge of how and why to use audio, video and still pictures to tell stories.

Greenslade: As before, we must make sure journalists have a complete knowledge of law, ethics, and know how to use and interact with their sources. But now, journalists must also learn how to choose their sources among bloggers, and they’re the ones to decide which ones are most credible and must promote them as credible. There’s a lot more fact-guessing, fact-checking and collating than there was before, due to the unlimited number of sources.

Jarvis: As far as multimedia storytelling, many pieces simply collate different media, one next to the other. For example, people tend to think video must be packaged into a text article, whereas journalists could use these new multimedia elements as simple illustrations, stand alone, as has been the case with photos for years. We must also explore the possibilities of links and permalinks, which give a whole new potential to the depth of content, because they can be used to link to everything, including quotes, sources, background information, other comments on a same topics, and more. There’s also the idea of turning the journalistic relationship around, as the public can now decide on the selection of news content. Does this run the risk of turning all news news into tabloid, gossipy content? First of all, if you asked the public what they would like to learn from Pro Publica’s investigative journalists, I’m not sure the answer would be Paris Hilton. Secondly, popularity shouldn’t be the only factor. And like Jay Rosen said, that’s the role of the editor, who will still be there to make those calls.

Source: Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine – Roy Greenslade, Guardian - Keith Woods, Poynter Institute