Yesterday, I posted a summer reading list for j-school students who want to get up-to-date on the whole new media thing.

So, what does a new media journalist and Web developer do during his summers? He learns more. Journalists need to embrace continuing education.

Lawyers have to take classes to keep their bar licenses, teachers need to do continuing education to remain teachers and many other professions require the same mindset. So, why are journalists so unwilling to learn anything beyond college?

Well, they shouldn’t be.

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Summer is the perfect time to learn for j-school students.

So, I’m providing you with a summer reading list to make you a bona-fide new media journalist. Luckily for all of you, this summer reading list is more than just text (there’s reading too, for you print people).

You’ll need it too, since most of you aren’t learning what you need to know from j-school, and if you do have a robust and modern program, there is probably a thing or two more you can learn.

Here is the perfect place to start. An overview of new media, what it is and what you need to know to get with the program: Poynter Online.

Now you know why you need to get with the program. Here is the program:

Get amped:

You won’t want to do something on your own, especially when it’s not for credit or money, without some incentive.

Go to these sites and check out how awesome these projects are. New media rocks.

Not Just Another Number: 49th parallel productions and the Oakland Tribune combined to make one of the most powerful pieces of new media journalism chronicling the loss of life in the Bay Area due to homicides. They used an interactive Flash presentation to make it all happen.

The Bay Area witnessed a spike in homicides the last few years, but the impact of that increase was hard to convey to readers. Instead of just writing more stories, they came up with one of the most engaging special features I have ever seen.

The site has a map of every single homicide and where they occur. You can click on the locations of the map to find out who was murdered, how old the person was, how the crime was committed, the status of the case, etc.

The feature gets really powerful when you select a homicide that has audio interviews with family members and friends (it’s not possible to get this for every person). These clips really make you feel the enormity of the loss.

The site is much more than that. It also lists risk/resilience factors, has an area for people to comment on the situation, has voices from community leaders and encourages people to take action.

It’s community journalism at its finest.

Chicagocrime.org: A must see for any Chicago resident. It breaks down every crime that has happened in Chicago by crime type, location (whether it be by street, area of city, zip code), etc.

You can find out how many assaults occurred on the city block you live or work on. What makes this site so awesome is its integration with Google maps. Pins show you were each crime occurred (each crime type has a different color pin). You can easily see which areas or streets have more crime and what type of crime.

I would never buy or rent a home in Chicago without checking this site first. Now, that’s serving the community.

onBeing: onBeing is one of those incredibly quirky, crazy ideas that turned out to be a smashing success. It’s one of the most popular sections of www.washingtonpost.com, and it’s engrossing. What makes it even crazier is that a main-stream media company like The Washington Post signed off on it.

It’s just random, interesting people in D.C. sharing their thoughts on life and various topics. It doesn’t sound that riveting, but click the link. You won’t be disappointed. The interviews are great, but the onBeing site itself rocks.

It might be the best Flash video player I have ever seen. It’s this incredible visual way to scroll between recent interviews. You can also see a preview of each clip by mousing over the videos.

It’s a special section of the site dedicated to connecting with people. That’s something journalism needs more of.

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What exactly does it take to make a special feature on the Web utilizing new media journalists, Web developers and print staffers?

A lot of hard work and rethinking of content.

I was the lead developer of my paper’s latest special feature on Heroes in the military, and the project was our first really major online special feature (in conjunction with a print version that had 1 million circulation). We had done several special features this year so far (I joined the paper in January), but this one has 40+ written stories on medal recipients, audio clips, a flash component and is having extra content added regularly.

So, how did it turn out?

Pretty well, but there are several lessons to be learned from this project. The lessons learned are more important than accolades, because our next big project will be even better if we learn from this one.
1) You get the best possible Web product when Web people are involved from the start.

Typically, this is not the case for most newspapers. Usually, Web people are brought in during the middle of the project or sometimes at the end.

My paper is fairly new to Web special features, and it shows at times. With Heroes, the end product was pretty good, but it was hectic getting there. It was largely a case of print people getting content and then handing it to us. There simply wasn’t enough synergy between the staffs. Luckily, everyone at my paper realizes this, and we have been getting better each time we try something.

It’s not easy, however, because it largely takes a rethinking of newsroom roles. Also, you’ll have the inevitable clash of print and Web editors over content and direction.

2) Print people shouldn’t promise features on the Web before the Web people agree to them, especially for quality reasons.

We did audio with this feature. Unfortunately, much of the audio isn’t high quality, but we had to use it because it was promised in the print version. There are multiple reasons for getting poor quality out of an audio recorder (it’s not that easy to get good, consistent audio), but the most important thing is that staffs need to OK features with each other.

Ultimately, I didn’t mind the less-than-stellar audio quality, because it was some really powerful audio. Hearing Silver Star recipients tell tales of heroism under fire is riveting.

Also, the Web staff did some additional interviews with our high-end equipment, and it turned out well.

Still, everyone needs to be on the same page on what can and cannot be delivered on the Web. What if something was promised that we physically couldn’t do?

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One of the things I’ve noticed a lot is that few journalists really get what is happening to the industry and where the future is headed.

I don’t know everything that will happen in the future of journalism — or much at all — but I do know it won’t look anything like what most journalists are accustomed to. It’s expected that industry veterans will resist change — despite how foolish that is, but what really is alarming is how few young journalists get it.

My school’s journalism program didn’t do much at all with online journalism, which isn’t atypical. In fact, Lehigh has a pioneer in online journalism in Kathy Olson as one of its professors. It stands to reason Lehigh is above average.

And yet so far behind.

Almost everything we did with online journalism on our college newspaper was student driven and usually by a few students. It’s hard to blame professors for not being forward thinking. They became professors with the knowledge they had at the time.

Still, professors need to start learning and teaching skills that matter for journalism in the 21st century. Many students mistakening leave the program thinking that new media skills aren’t important because their professors never taught them or told students that’s what employers are looking for.

None of that is nearly as alarming as how many journalism students just don’t get it and think that knowing how to write or edit for a newspaper will suffice for the future. Part of the blame rests on professors for not teaching students what they need to know, but how can kids who grew up in the Internet Age but so glib to online journalism?

And so resistant. I frequently suggest to my journalism friends to learn CSS or read a few good books on new media. That usually falls on deaf ears. For whatever reasons, journalists want to stay in the area they were trained in — especially print journalists (of course why is any journalist being trained in just one area of journalism these days?).

As if being a print person is more important than being a journalist. I didn’t want to work for a newspaper so I could make paper. I care about news.

All those young j-school students who think just knowing how to write will suffice couldn’t be more wrong. I dare those students to find a newspaper job without any new media skills.

I dare them to.

Unless they had a monster internship, they’ll have a long, hard road to finding a job. And the kind of places hiring people without new media skills, probably won’t be great places to work in a few years.

Those with new media skills will be gobbled up quicker and get paid more. And frankly will have more fun creating news ways to tell stories.

I am a trained print journalist, but I realize that the future is online. I’m not saying that every journalist needs to have my skill set of Web development and audio/video production skills, but they should at least have a willingness and appreciation for the Web.

Basic html skills are a must and every journalism graduate should have some familiarity with audio, video, flash and CSS. That doesn’t mean they have to know Final Cut Pro inside and out, but they should know the basics of shooting video and working an audio recorder.

I graduated in 2006 from a top school, and most of my fellow journalism students were either clueless about online journalism and had no interest in it. Worse, many thought it was beneath them.

I’m just shocked by some of the things I hear about current journalism students. It is the year 2007, and nothing seems to be changing. I’m hoping more programs and more students get it before it’s too late.

Honestly, the No. 1 thing journalists need to have is enthusiasm. Everything else is learnable.

Update:

After making my initial post, I looked around and found several other people with a similar message.

Rob Curley of washingtonpost.com:

And my biggest advice would be to have at least one portfolio piece that shows you understand the importance of the things I’ve listed above. If you want to impress an editor who is hiring, show him/her that you aren’t just willing to do these sorts of things, but that you can’t wait to do these sorts of things.All things being equal, who do you think gets the job: the person who hands over a bunch of photocopied newspaper clips, or someone who also sends a link to a well-done multimedia project?

Journalism professor Mindy McAdams:

How many j-schools are permitting students to graduate with a journalism degree and inadequate skills to pursue a career in journalism?I’m not asking for a count, but the question needs to be raised — and perhaps even shoved into the face of some deans and department heads. I don’t mean “shove” as in “break their nose” — but something like glue it to their nose until they finally get it.

Journalist Martin Stabe:

Journalism isn’t about printing newspapers or broadcasting television programmes. It’s about stories — and finding the best way to tell them. So I have no idea where this romantic attachment to the printed word comes from.It could have something to do with the fact that many journalism courses still force their students to choose between a “print” and an “broadcast” pathway, leading them to identify with one medium rather than thinking about identifying the best one for any particular message.

Welcome to The Journalism Iconoclast, a blog dedicated to discussing the latest news, ideas and trends in new media journalism. I’ll also discuss some of the data I have collected in my research, as well as provide advice and tips. You will also hear my views on the quality of journalism sites.