Reporting Words: Assignment 1

POWELL, AUSTIN

 

            Journalism schools across the country are changing their curriculum to better prepare their students to the ever-changing journalism market.  The journalist today must know how to write, film, and shoot video if he or she plans to find a job in the industry.

            In an article published by Association for Journalism and Mass Communication.org, 80 percent of journalism and mass communication schools in the United States have changed their curriculum.  This has included a growth in multimedia and digital print courses offered.  The study reported that 96 percent of the new curricula incorporates web writing.

            The University of Texas at Austin’s communication school is one of the journalism schools to implement such changes.  Changes have included a new digital-based curriculum and a new home for journalism, the Belo Center for New Media.

            The new curriculum looks to eliminate ‘the old walls between print, magazine, photojournalism, multimedia and broadcast…and emphasizing good writing and critical thinking from Day One,’ according to the school of journalism’s website.

            A panel of four professional journalists spoke in front of University of Texas journalism students Sept. 4 in the Belo Center to give students a better understanding of the ever-changing profession.

            “Journalism is now plastic.  Corrections and updates can happen immediately instead of waiting 24 hours for a correction,” said Ross Ramsey, managing editor of Texas Tribune, to students.

            Websites such as Twitter and Facebook have now made journalism an ever-evolving business with news occurring every second.  Journalists are now being forced to be early adopters of new social medias, journalist Joshunda Victoria Sanders said during the panel.

            “Young journalists must be early adopters,” said online KVUE correspondent Rebekah Hood.  Students were encouraged to tweet their thoughts about the panel in real-time to further emphasize the importance of new media in reporting.

            While schools and journalists are encouraging students to adapt themselves to the new medias available to them, there is a growing concern that journalism and communication schools are not adapting quick enough to the emergence of new medias.

            In an article published by Insidehighered.com by David Moltz titled ‘Keeping J-School Relevant’, Moltz discusses how schools are often playing catch-up with the digital age. 

Moltz writes that programs such as Columbia University’s graduate journalism school have been forced to radically change its program two times within the past seven years.  The most recent change in 2009 saw the program ‘integrate new media and business skills within its traditional reporting curriculum’ writes Moltz.

            But in an article published by PBS’s MediaShift in April 2011, many journalism schools do not regularly update their Facebook pages.  As of this writing only 777 people ‘liked’ the UT Journalism Facebook page.

            However as new blogs are created faster than rising gas prices, there is still a demand for professionally-delivered news.

            If you produce quality work you’ll make it in the business, Sanders said.  However Sanders cautioned that students must not be afraid to try new things out and fail in the business first.

            The lack of stability in the profession and the closing of media outlets across the country does not paint a good picture of the profession, but UT professor Wanda Cash insists that their will always be a need for journalists.

            “Society will always have a need for storytellers.  It’s your job as journalists to find the story,” Cash said.