Aug. 13, 2007

New Media Meets Campus Media

Questions about the skills college journalists need to master to prepare for successful careers in a new media landscape aren’t new — but the answers keep changing.

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For instance, in 1995, an article in Quill, a publication of the Society of Professional Journalists, deemed the ability to “deal with new media such as electronic newspapers or World Wide Web pages” as “nice, but not necessary.” So David Wendelken, an associate professor of journalism at James Madison University, told a chuckling crowd Friday during the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s annual convention in Washington.

Suffice to say, precious few journalism educators would agree with that assessment today. And yet journalism education is lagging behind industry in embracing the new media technologies that students will need to be competitive in the work place, according to a paper presented Friday.

“We don’t face the same problems economically that the industry is facing,” said Eastern Illinois University’s Bryan Murley, who found in a survey of college newspaper advisers that 58.7 percent in 2006, and 53 percent in 2007, thought campus media had not kept pace with the advances in commercial media. “But the industry is requiring reporters to have different skill sets.”

Advertising revenue and readership for college newspapers remain strong — Daniel Reimold of Ohio University cited one study that found that about three-quarters of college students pick up the print versions of their campus newspapers at least twice a week. But the success of the print model at the college level masks its struggles in commercial media, and while college media outlets have made gains in incorporating new media platforms, the progress has been slower than it should be, Murley said.

About 91 percent of college newspapers had online presences in 2007, but the percentages are much lower for other forms of college media — 36.3 percent for radio stations, 20.9 percent for television stations, 18.1 percent for magazines and 6 percent for yearbooks. There were, however, “appreciable gains” in the proportion of college media outlets using multimedia technologies in 2007 compared to 2006: For instance, in 2006, 20.9 percent used podcasts, versus 38.4 percent in 2007. The use of Weblogs increased from 19.8 to 35.8 percent, RSS feeds from 23.5 to 35.1 percent, streaming video from 16.6 to 30.5 percent, embedded video (including YouTube) from 9.6 to 42.4 percent and comments features from 39.6 to 57 percent.

Meanwhile, even the smallest commercial newspapers, with 10,000 readers or fewer, are looking for reporting candidates with experience writing for the Web and uploading stories to the Internet, according to a survey of newspaper managing editors conducted by Wendelken and Toni B. Mehling of James Madison University. Of nine respondents in the “large daily newspaper” category (those with a circulation of 44,000 and above), eight required reporters to have skills in capturing audio while four required audio editing skills. Five required reporters to have skills in capturing video, while one required video editing expertise. Major newspapers, said Wendelken, “are looking at reporters to do these things from the start.”

When discussing barriers to new media education, panelists and audience members cited costs (although Murley stressed that many of the technologies can be used fairly cheaply), in addition to resistance from some faculty who lack multimedia skills themselves or otherwise don’t see the need to instruct undergraduates in the emerging platforms. But they also cited resistance from journalism students themselves.

“A lot of college students select their medium in high school. When they come onto campus, they’re already a TV person or a radio person or a newspaper person,” said Wendelken.

“I’m a print journalist,” he continued, imitating the attitude of many aspiring journalists. “Why do I need to learn video?”

— Elizabeth Redden

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Comments

It’s a new century

Today’s J students need to come out with those skills in today’s ever-shrinking print market.

Jeff B, at 12:50 pm EDT on August 13, 2007

The editing course I teach has a print-centric tradition, but I am introducing online elements this semester. These include writing headlines for online and writing cutlines for a Web slide show. I figure this is only the beginning of the transformation.

Andy Bechtel, Assistant professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, at 2:00 pm EDT on August 13, 2007

A student perspective

As a recent J-school graduate, I’m glad to see that the use of multi-media at university papers is on the rise, but I think it is appropriate to note that at my school, there were no journalism courses other than photojournalism that taught an click of multi-media editing. I can also speak for the battle to introduce more multi-media courses at my alma mater. It’s an interesting predicament. Yes, the emphasis should still be on writing, but new and evolving web technologies should be used to publish that writing. We are journalists because we want to tell stories, and we want the information to reach as wide an audience as possible. We have to look out for our current readers and attract new ones. Multi-media is the way to do both, and it’s worrisome that our schools are standing in our way. Universities should be cutting edge. New grads should be getting offers left and right. We should be the young guns with the new-fangled know-how not the veteran reporter. There’s something wrong with this picture.

Briana, at 2:00 pm EDT on August 13, 2007

Better J students in a converged world

When I was SPJ national president, I remember traveling to Austin, Texas, and listening to senior print reporters there complain about posting copy to the Web — that was seven years ago.

Their reasons: scooping yourself and giving your competitors an edge on a breaking story, interrupting your chain of reporting, putting news online that wasn’t thoroughly checked out, etc.

Today, readers who post underneath published articles (just as I’m doing here), are correcting copy for factual errors, grammatical problems and other copy editing goofs. And readers have to rely on other readers to “flag” inappropriate content.

Not all bad, but not necessarily all good.

If schools are behind, don’t blame the equipment ... blame the people in charge. Most J schools won’t accept practitioners in their classrooms unless they are contracted adjust positions only, keeping out a large pool of highly talented and qualified instructors from the real world.

And if they do accept newsroom types on staff, they insist that those individuals must get higher degrees to stay on staff — despite concentrated time spent in the field. Exceptions are made only when titles and awards come into play.

The better J schools do make exceptions and provide their students with real-time experience from real-time practitioners.

Break down the academic caste system and your next generation J students will be better prepared.

Kyle Elyse Niederpruem, at 2:15 pm EDT on August 13, 2007

J-Schools and Schools of Education

I just finished teaching a print workshop course at Ithaca College for Journalism majors as a visiting prof. What was most encouraging was that students could write and write well on deadline. I had recently retired from the Christian Science Monitor, the last five years of which I was community producer for the Monitor’s website, the Old Man and the Sea so to speak on web skills.

J-schools, unlike Schools of Education with their legislated certification monopy, will compete for students who will enroll if they think the curriculum will land them a job in journalism/media or whatever you want to call it. Good writing, speaking, and organization will always win out.

From what I experienced at Ithaca, J-schools will compete successfully for students. They don’t have a closed shop to spur relevance like many, many, worthless schools of education. J-schoolsand their students will come through this transition to new media based on market forces: good writing, technical skills, and a nose for news. Jim Bencivenga

P.S. Beware an emphasis on student blogging. It’s like walking, anyone and everyone can do it. It’s also the journalistic equivalent of solipsism. The linguistic equivalent to jogging and running — rather than just being able to walk — is a student who has written frequently on a wide range of subjects in various formats, been edited frequently, and who edits others.

Jim Bencivenga, Visiting Adjunct Prof — Print workshop at Ithaca College, at 4:40 pm EDT on August 13, 2007

Although I am seeking a degree in journalism, my concentration is in public relations. With that being said, as a University of Memphis student, I am required to take classes in an array of areas. Even PR students must take classes pertaining to reporting, advertising, marketing, media writing, TV news writing, etc.

Although this does add to an already full plate, it leaves me with a more ‘full’ mind when it comes to journalism expertise. I consider myself lucky to be coached in many facets of the world of journalism, but not every school has this sort of curriculum policy. I wouldn’t be so quick to judge those that don’t have every skill. Professionals: Remember that, after all, they are still students, not full-blown professionals.

Students: if you are looking to get more out of your college experience and have one foot in the door upon entering the workforce, join your local Public Relations Student Society of America Chapter.

R. Kelly McFall, University of Memphis, at 5:30 pm EDT on August 13, 2007

J- Schools and New Media

Two years ago I took my daughter to visit my Alma Mater- The University of Missouri in the hopes that she would want to go to J School there. I was amazed at how little it’s approach to teaching journalism had changed in the 30-something years since I was a student there. Most disturbing: they told my daughter that she would need to know which branch of journalism she wanted to study before she entered J-school.Maybe they have changed that view in the past two years but my daughter didn’t give them a second chance. To her they were old school. I couldn’t have agreed more.

Elana Centor, blogomist, at 7:20 pm EDT on August 13, 2007

I’m an ‘03 J-School graduate and I honestly can’t believe how behind the times my courses were for the job market I entered into.

Most of the programs and situations that I utilize and encounter each and every day in the real world were used as peripherals, while the emphasis remained on the “old school” cut and paste methods of design and editing.

Partly, this was a resource issue, but it seemed that more of the blame rested upon a faculty that, while it had a number of years experience within the field, had been out of the field for so long that they were seemingly unaware that the methods they were teaching were fast becoming a thing of the past.

Kevin, at 7:20 pm EDT on August 13, 2007

Tell your Congressman

In the case of publicly funded colleges and universities, a journalism program’s slowness to adapt may have something to do with funding and regulations from the top administrators. If you want better journalism programs in your state, write to your members of Congress. Ask them what they have done lately to protect a free press in a democratic republic.

Even if the j-school can find great professionals who know online and are willing to teach courses as adjuncts, in some cases it can be difficult for the students to fit those courses into their schedule. Why? Because of time conflicts with other, required courses, for one example.

Everything you wrote is spot-on, but there’s also much more to this issue than you were able to fit into a short essay. Don’t even get me started on access to equipment, like video cameras.

Mindy McAdams, at 9:45 pm EDT on August 13, 2007

Technology is a necessary tool

Although most of us agree that multimedia skills should never REPLACE teaching students the basics of how to find and report a good story, we do NEED to give students the technological tools to execute the storytelling. If we don’t, it is similar to stating: “We have a great writer who doesn’t know how to type.”

Students will gravitate toward particular delivery methods that will be their areas of interest and expertise, but — in this day and age — it is necessary that they understand the value of (and have basic skills in) all storytelling methods.

Laura Ruel, Assistant Professor at UNC-Chapell Hill, at 10:45 am EDT on August 14, 2007

Thanks for mentioning student resistance

Nora Paul of the U of Minnesota and I were on a careers panel at an SPJ conference several years ago trying to explain to our audience of students how important it was to have cross-platform skills. The near-graduates were indignant that we would suggest such a thing after they’d completed journalism majors in traditional tracks. We tried to explain that the media landscape was changing very quickly, and they countered that there would always be work for straight print or straight broadcast reporters. I wonder if they believe that today.

Mark Plenke, Normandale Community College, at 10:45 am EDT on August 14, 2007

The conversational revolution

It’s good to see journalism educators adapting to the reality that journalists no longer serve a single medium.

But there’s another change taking place that isn’t getting the attention it needs.

Journalism now functions in a conversational environment, alongside and potentially integrated with citizen media.

We still need people who can report and write (for multiple media), but they also need to be able to interact, facilitate and lead community processes.

My friend Mary Lou Fulton refers to this as breaking the “arms-length framework” of old-school journalism. I think that’s a good explanation.

You need only to look at the troubling Pew data to see how disconnected and alienated the “people formerly known as the audience” have become. A lot of people resent professional journalism for a host of reasons.

We can rebuild those connections, but only if we understand how people today relate to information and one another (and us) through these new networked tools.

Our universities could serve us well by using their campus media to research the processes, to discover the possibilities, and prepare the next generation for the challenge that journalism faces.

What we don’t need is another crop of reporters who think posting news on the Internet is “scooping yourself,” or that engaging in conversation with members of the community is a waste of time, or that reading the news on a daily video is going to save journalism.

Thanks,

Steve Yelvington

Steve Yelvington, Principal strategist at Morris DigitalWorks, at 12:00 pm EDT on August 14, 2007

Not just skill set — mind set

I’d like to echo Steve Yelvington’s point: The mantra is that we aren’t gatekeepers anymore — but then what are we? Community managers, facilitators, moderators, guides and more. That is a skill set that is not being taught in journalism schools — yet every Web 2.0/community website needs a person who is both media savvy and people/community savvy. Journalists are actually a natural fit for it — if we start to recognize that this is an important and worthy role for us to play.

Journalism schools are still catching up to the idea that students need to learn to upload stories to the web, photo and video — all that is great, but skill sets change, technology changes. Learning flash now is great, but it won’t help you in 10 years. What will help is the mind-set and experience of working with communities in a connected world.

David Cohn, at 2:00 pm EDT on August 14, 2007

Cross-platform/Multimedia

When I graduated from J-School 11 years ago (yikes!), it was with a newspaper concentration and having just learned pagination. In the industry and at the magazine I worked for, we weren’t pushed to do anything with the words multimedia and cross-platform. When I returned to another J-School for my master’s degree last year, not much has changed, unfortunately. Just now, as I’m preparing to assist a graduate seminar, are we hearing more about engaging students in a multi-level, multidisciplinary approach to storytelling. But it’s driven largely by a few faculty members, not administrators (not yet, anyway). The problem, too, is that there just aren’t enough real-world models out there that do this type of thing well and successfully. Until that happens, the learning curve and the desire to learn on that curve will be a bit steep.

Kimberly Davis, at 5:05 pm EDT on August 15, 2007

A PDF of the paper

Just an FYI, I’ve posted a PDF of the paper that was mentioned in this article here: New Media and College Media — the results

thanks

Bryan Murley, Asst. Professor at Eastern Illinois University, at 3:20 pm EDT on August 16, 2007

Link to the PDF

Apparently, the link to the paper got stripped out of the earlier comment. The weblog address is collegemediainnovation.org/blog. The permalink to the paper is

collegemediainnovation.org/blog/2007/08/16/new-media-and-college-media-the-results/

Bryan Murley, Asst. Professor at Eastern Illinois, at 4:55 pm EDT on August 16, 2007

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