If you were a fly on the wall inside any North American j-school, I think you would conclude that some faculty members are very forward-looking, some others have chained themselves to the barricades of old, outdated techniques, and a lot more are caught in the middle. There’s a lesson in this for newsrooms.
Vin Crosbie observed […]

I was recently reminded that not every person who uses a computer every day understands the instruction “Minimize that window.”
I watched someone hesitate for a really long time after I said that. Eventually I realized that I had to tell him how to do it, and even what it meant.
Now, don’t get all highfalutin and […]

Most visited posts on this blog from February 1, 2008, through March 1, 2008, according to Google Analytics:

6 tips for comments on stories and j-blogs (this post garnered more than 1,200 pageviews from StumbleUpon in the one-month period, with those visitors spending an average of 1 min. 37 sec. on the page; in contrast, […]

Like a lot of j-schools, mine has been discussing updates to the curriculum. Much of that discussion concerns skills. So we ended up saying we need a list of skills. Then someone said, yeah, I’ve seen that kind of list, and I don’t know what some of that stuff means. If you say the students […]

While my internships post is still relatively fresh, I’d like to offer something else to journalism students who are really keen on becoming journalists — and maybe some of you in the newsrooms will weigh in as well.
Dear students:
This post is for your mom and dad, who are pressuring you to go to grad school […]

Here’s Paul Conley’s latest advice for those who are training the next generation of journalists:

Give up on trying to convert your peers.
Instead, push to give your students the tools that will allow them to see the world and the publishing industry clearly.
Fight to have a business finance and/or accounting course as a requirement for graduation.
Force […]

Go to work for 10 or 12 or 15 weeks without any pay.
Give up your ability to work full-time and save money for the coming school year.
Pay rent in two places, if you can’t sublet your costly university-town apartment.
And — oh, yeah — pay for three academic credits (at full price) at your university while […]