Students find j-schools lacking
I’m liking this blog by Penn State journalism student Katharine Lackey: Beyond Print: Looking Into the Prism. Yesterday’s post springboards off a blog post at the MediaShift site in which a journalism student at NYU discusses the general cluelessness of many others in her course called “Reporting Gen Y (a.k.a. Quarterlifers).”
I don’t mean to bash the kids, but if I hear one more journalism student say, “I’m not really online savvy at all,” I might have to scream! WHY NOT? I want to cry out.
We journalism educators also find ourselves dealing with the few students who are super-super Web savvy. Those poor kids are sitting in the same class with all the ones who don’t know much yet. Sure, that’s an age-old problem for teachers, but it seems particularly sad now, knowing the way this generation has come up with the Internet. They know too little about the medium they know the most about.
I was hoping that NYU would offer more classes where I could understand the importance of digital media, what it means, how to adapt to the new way of reporting, and learn from a professor who understands not only where the Internet is, but where it’s going. (Alana Taylor, writing at MediaShift)
It’s true there are curriculum issues, and there are also issues with what the professors know or don’t know themselves. But Lackey doesn’t pull any punches:
Every student who pays a ridiculous amount of money to go to J-school, in my case, well over $100,000, should come out knowing how to edit audio, edit video, stream live video, use Flash, use Soundslides and more.
I have to agree with her.
Update (1:35 p.m.): Two years ago, I wrote this post — Adding online skills to journalism courses. Two years ago!?
a subscription Lynda online is $25 a month.
If you can’t learn:
how to edit audio, edit video, stream live video, use Flash, use Soundslides and more.
in a couple of months – then face facts hundreds of thousands can and have.
September 8, 2008 at 10:02 amPeter is right. Train yourself. Unless the curriculum is cutting edge, you’re wasting your money. You don’t need to spend a 100 grand to learn multimedia. For working journalists that feel cheated by their college education, a couple of workshops and a good mentor will set you on the right path. Man, I’d hate to see that student’s first loan payment.
September 8, 2008 at 3:20 pm[...] Mindy McAdams, eine meiner liebsten Medienblogger, bingt es immer wieder auf den Bildschirm. Den jungen Journalisten fehlt es an Web-Fähigkeiten. Sie erkennt vor allem bei amerikanischen Journalismus-Schulen großen Aufholbedarf in Sachen Internet. [...]
September 8, 2008 at 4:37 pmI will agree that you have to be your own advocate in learning these types of technologies, but if a degree in journalism is a requirement for most entry-level jobs in the field, shouldn’t I be learning the skills necessary in class?
September 8, 2008 at 5:11 pmAnd I can’t tell you how much I have learned on this blogsite, Mindy. Thank you for keeping this going for your faithful readers.
September 8, 2008 at 9:14 pm@katharine – are you referring to the principles underlying the tasks, or just which buttons to push to get a particular result?
If the former then yes by all means take classes in (eg) audio production. Learn how to read a waveform monitor, learn how to use EQ to improve dialogue,how to apply compression etc. But you you are in a minority.
If (like the vast majority) you just want to learn which keys to press to convert your photos into a slideshow and add a VO track – there is no point in trying to memorize those details – the recommended methodology changes every few months.
You are wanting a map to a city that is just now beginning to take shape – no such thing exists – break out the sextant.
September 9, 2008 at 10:04 amI have to agree that a person who is savvy about online journalism should know how to edit and stream audio and video. But you can learn this stuff by taking 4 – 5 $500 evening classes. You don’t need to spend $100,000.
Also, who in the world spends $100,000 to get a degree other than an MD or JD? An MS in journalism at NYU or Columbia certainly doesn’t cost that much.
September 10, 2008 at 3:13 amI’m an out of state student so tuition and fees per semester is $13,073 for 2008-2009 for a lovely total of $26,146. Multiply that by four years and you get over $100,000. When I started here four years ago, tuition and fees were probably closer to $22,000 a year. This of course does not take into account living expenses — cost of an off-campus apartment and food.
September 10, 2008 at 9:49 am