A journalist has to know how to gather news in more than one format — and also how to produce it FOR more than one format. But if someone tells you to produce it for all formats — to write Web text, write print text, and shoot and edit video, for example — that’s getting to the point of ridiculous.

I agree with you that a lot of people who apply for journalism jobs are not good reporters. And there are people who graduate with journalism degrees but cannot do journalism work.

Part of the blame for poor quality should be laid at the doorstep of the news organizations, in my opinion. If they paid people a living wage, they might be able to bring in a retain better workers. That’s the simple truth in any business.

All journalism schools must push multimedia education and anyone who wants to be in the business must pick up the skills. It’s a reality of the digital age.

Still, Mindy I caution you to take a more critical approach to your argument. Nowhere is there any discussion of the quality of the work that is being produced online, the quality of the journalists being turned out by journalism programs, or the affect these changes are having on the quality of life of people in the profession.

As an editor who has worked with a large number of freelancers – many who have full-time jobs at decent-sized media organizations – much of the so-called talent out here is shabby. (I’ve worked in newspapers, for wires and in an online environment).

Sub-par is mild adjective to describe the quality of the reporting, writing and research that I have seen. There’s little evidence self-editing and I’ve seen numerous instances of outright plagiarism. If I wasn’t a better editor, my most recent news organization could have been sued by companies with much deeper pockets. However, I was experienced enough to see inconsistencies and verify my suspicions.

The expectation that every journalist should have the ability to write, report, edit, record audio, tape video, design graphic elements and post stories online is ludicrous. As a daily newspaper reporter, if a story merited a photographer, one was sent out with me. If we were short on staff, I took a camera – and that was fine with me. I learned perspective.

But how on earth anyone is expected to turn out stories that matter, work that involves deep reporting, multiple sources and perhaps some expertise in a subject and be a designer, audio tech, videographer, is beyond my comprehension. Work that will make a difference, help people and make our leaders accountable – whether it’s the local school board or our president - takes the kind of effort, skill, intelligence and perspective that a multimedia journalist with multiple responsibilities won’t have the time, energy or expertise to tackle.

Journalists are human beings. We have to eat, pay bills and raise children just like the readers we serve. This has never been a profession that’s led to great wealth for many, but increasingly, the demands have become so great that throngs of quality journalists are moving to other fields. What’s left in many cases are news stories that are vapid, poorly reported and meaningless. We’re focused on Britney and Anna Nicole instead of poverty, a shrinking middle class and an unjustified war.

Will multimedia journalists be able to eke out the time to fill out FOIA requests? Will they learn how to uncover fraud? Will they be able to take the time to add context and depth to stories? I’m not sure, but in addition to learning how to set up a podcast and shoot video, journalists need to learn how to report and write well and news organizations need to figure out which people will play which roles. One-stop multimedia journalism will never replace the strength of collaborative efforts or work that’s produced when journalists are allowed to develop a specialty and hone the craft of being a journalist.

So you’ll need to know all those non-editorial skills: how to be a business person, how to market yourself and your work product, how to build and sustain professional networks, budgeting, professional service bookkeeping, buying health benefits, intellectual property licensing and contract law basics, liability insurance, supervision and team building, the laws of reporting in international jurisdictions.

In this new world, aren’t these survival skills?

Phil Wolff, editor, Skype Journal

You’re right, of course, about the hardware and software — usually we say, “Don’t teach button pushing,” yes? I teach less and less of it as the years pass. I assign books and Web sites and specific links and require the students to learn on their own.

Of course, when they get stuck, I’ve got to be able to at least give them good advice.

However, I do feel focusing on the technology too much is a mistake. Ultimately, new technologies and the new labor market have one thing in common: all the responsibility of using and managing things in your life gets shifted towards the individual.

Whether its Careerbuilder.com or a Web browser: it (seemingly) puts you in charge, control shifts to the user, and the quality of what you get out of it is dependent of what you put into it.

It is that kind of self-reliance and taking personal responsibility that we’re not teaching or we are not able to teach in our overcrowded, massified, standardized, and anything-but-creative higher education system. It tends to be up to individual and inspired faculty (such as Mindy!) to remind students and colleagues about the need to take charge, to lead - whereas most of us just follow (and hence get stuck in mid-20th century definitions of what “journalism” is and what “citizenship” means…).

And that is for a print newsroom job, such as reporter or photojournalist.