The blogverse have been inflamed about which journalists get “it” and are willing to embrace online journalism.

Their is a disturbing paradox, however, that surrounds which journalists are willing to embrace online journalism and add new skills to their
repertoire. The journalists who grew up with computers and the Web are often the ones least willing to work on the Web, while other journalists who didn’t discover the Web until they were much older are the ones most willing to experiment. Howard Owens recognizes this phenomenon when he visits newsrooms:

The kids right out of college, they’re the ones most likely to cling to a romanticism about being the crusading print reporter. When I talk about web-first publishing, they’re the ones most likely to say, “but won’t we scoop ourselves?” Or when handed a video camera, they say, “but I got in this business to be a writer.”

As a 23-year-old recent j-school grad, I have to unfortunately agree that it is often the youngest journalists who are the least willing to try new things, but it isn’t entirely their fault. Or even primarily their own doing. No, j-schools have a lot to answer for.

It is those supposed schools of higher education and enlightened thinking that are turning out dark-age students. It is those schools that are staffed by glib professors who often fear online journalism or disparage it. They live in a fantasy world of tenure and do not have to learn the latest tools of our craft — or the realities of the industry.

Honestly, what do we expect from students? Are we saying that they should have the foresight that their own teachers do not? Are we saying that they should know better than the people they are paying thousands of dollars a year to learn from?

Absolutely not. J-schools need to start teaching students what they need to know. They need to start telling them the realities on the ground. This is not a pretty time to join the journalism world, and it certainly isn’t a writers dream. The truth is simple: j-students need to know more than just words to succeed in a digital world.

They need to know how to work for a 21st-century news organization. They need to know how to utilize their reporting skills for a variety of formats, whether it be written, video, database, audio, flash, etc.

Professors are held in high esteem by students and students take them at their word. If a professor makes clear that journalists need to expand their skill sets and learn some online journalism skills or new media, then students will believe them. That, however, is often not the case, because many professors often belittle the world of online journalism. Paul Conley heard several disturbing things at the latest National College Media Convention:

1. A senior who said his journalism teachers told him he should never tell a prospective employer he knows how to shoot photos, because it means he’ll never get a chance to write.
2. A student who said her adviser told her she should never, ever mention her college newspaper’s Web site on her resume, because no magazine will hire someone who has written for the Web.
3. A student who said she was told by teachers that newspaper design was a booming field.
4. A slew of students who seemed unaware of the financial and circulation challenges the print media industry is facing.
5. At least a dozen students who said they want to be “writers” and that have zero interest in working on any Web-based product.

That’s what our j-schools are spitting out and that’s the advice that professors are giving their students. That’s shocking and could have long-term negative effects on the industry. But many mid-career journalists have a different view of journalism.

Mid-career journalists have different motivations than new graduates, and they are far beyond their college days. Many mid-career journalists are embracing online journalism because they want to keep their jobs or believe it is the path to advancement. Many of them realize this is the way of the future and this is what must be done.

And frankly, they’re professionals, and professionals understand that they have a job to do, and it’s got to get done, regardless of what they may have done in the past. Many of them have probably already seen big changes in the industry over the years. All industries change over time, and it is the professionals that make those changes as seamless as possible.

Recent graduates, however, often have a romantic view of journalism. They want to Woodward and Bernstein. They want to discover the next Watergate and write like Truman Capote.

That’s all great, but students also need to realize that being the next Woodward and Bernstein may require more than just writing. It might require using a database to tell the story. Maybe video will help tell the story.

Who knows? But the great stories of the 21st-century will often be told from multiple angles — not just the written one.

Some students, professors and programs do get it. Megan Taylor is one of those j-school students who gets it, but only after an ah-ha moment during her HTML/CSS class. Online journalism wasn’t discussed much in most of her classes, nor were the realities of the industries hammered home to her.

My perception is that the problem with recent grads is less one of close-mindedness, but a problem that goes back to the j-schools. If I hadn’t taken that first class, if I didn’t have the proclivity towards all things computer, I may never have been bitten by the online journalism bug. After all, I can’t draw and I’ve been discouraged by visual classes all my life, so I avoided design classes like the plague until very recently.

Few teachers in the print realm ever mentioned the possibilities of online journalism. And at the University of Florida, none of the online classes are required. So students who don’t get the Web, don’t get online journalism. Students who spend hours a day on Facebook, don’t get online journalism. Students who don’t take that first step, don’t get online journalism.

So the real question is, why aren’t they taking that first step? Or why aren’t j-schools forcing it down their throats?

Taylor goes to the University of Florida, home to one of the best online journalism professors in Mindy McAdams. But McAdams is just one professor, and there are not enough professors out there like her.

Professors and j-schools need to wake up and start giving students the skills they need. Perhaps young journalists are so unwilling to work on the Web because they just got out of j-school and are being told their skills are obsolete. Imagine spending four years or so, and a lot of money, only to learn that what you learned isn’t enough to get you a job.

That’s horrible, and there are a lot of professors that should be ashamed of themselves.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 5:53 pm and is filed under State of journalism, education, new media journalism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.