Journalism Education --perspectives from students

Rebecca McKinnon at Berkman at Harvard gives an "unlecture" on what should journalism education and schools be teaching. She asks, what do j schools do in terms of "added value?" Can j schools innovate and teach new skills and then not frustrate students who end up in news orgs where the CMS is old and there is a bias against innovation. J school might be a "sandbox" where experimentation and trying out new things is a good role for school, even if it will cause cognitive dissonance in the students. The teaching needs to go beyond just e-reading. Students need to be constructing experiences by connecting sites they read and using them, not just reading. How can journalists resolve the tension between the old journalism of me the author and expert with today's conversational style of communication? When everyone lectured, then lecture worked. When people start interacting and involving community, then lecturing won't work. "You will have to less of a prima dona about everything going through you." So, going into journalism to be famous or important is not an effective plan, especially in the networked world. Public wants journalism to serve public discourse by getting information the public needs. Do you serve by lecturing or by presenting voices and information and facilitating the discussion by the community? In China, the pro journos who are censored will work with bloggers who can bring attention to things in MSM. This is journalism for the right reasons even if it isn't the way things have always been done. As a professional, she didn't find much value in j ed and what it added. Now as journalism educator, living in a working world where hires are young web savvy techies or seasoned pros, and the middle group is out of luck and being overlooked by news organizations. News orgs are hiring j grads who have the web savvy and web experience, from making web pages to having exp'y writing online. Journalism educators say they are training young people with serious news orientation, including a sense of ethics and news values but these people get hired to do fluff infotainment. In the world of citizen journos, bloggers, and new media, is there a role or what is the role of professional journalists? Suggested roles for Journalism education: Research & development, experimentation -- McKinnon calls news that corporate news media won't touch but is news, "low-hanging fruit" ripe for student journalists to pursue. J schools can go after the low-hanging fruit in novel ways as through citizen journalism or blogging. J schools need to address how students can work as entrepreneurs, but this is difficult and not traditional McKinnon's master's students will blog, but must get others to link to their site. They must look at each other's work and react to others' work as well as just writing or broadcasting without regard to interactivity or feedback aka community online. News orgs now have really good Web 1 sites -- but now we are in a Web 2.0 world. She notes that Word Press CMS is more flexible than Reuters pro system. Web employees of media companies may be stuck in a pre-RSS, UGC world.