What is the future of journalism education?

Many people have taken issue with journalism education, especially in the U.S. One major concern is that journalism education appears to be behind the industry and rarely out in front, innovating. Many people even advise against majoring in journalism.

But let’s step back from the criticisms of journalism education and ask, what should journalism education be like? Forget the tenured has-beens and the slow moving deans, what would an ideal journalism program look like in 2008?

Would it even be four years? Would it be a certificate program? Would it be a major that required another major?

Would it be a minor? Would it be heavily cross discipline, relying on other majors and departments for core courses?

Before I get to far into this post, I want to caution that these are just ideas that I’m throwing around. I don’t agree with all of them, but I am hoping to get a conversation started. Honestly, I’m making this post because I don’t really know what the future of journalism education should be.

First, we must admit that a journalism major or certificate will never be required to be a journalist. In fact, a four-year degree used to not be a requirement at most news organizations. Now it is, but you’ll still find a lot of journalists without journalism degrees, even in top posts.

Then we must admit that journalism education at the undergraduate level is much more akin to technical training than higher education. I majored in political science and journalism. Poly sci was very academic and theory based. Journalism was very hands on and job oriented — like technical school.

If most journalism programs are essentially job training programs, then why are they four-year programs? Why do many employers want someone with a BA, when a journalism certificate would probably suffice? Most journalism is learned on the job. Wouldn’t it make more sense for perspective journalists to take a one to two year certificate program, while getting more professional experience, instead of spending four years studying journalism?

There are several ways to handle a certificate program. It could be something that people do instead of a four-year degree or it could be something that people do in addition to a four-year degree (nursing is similar to this, but it pays a lot better). Imagine a perspective science reporter majoring in biology and receiving a journalism certificate.

Wouldn’t that better prepare someone to be a science reporter than a four-year degree in journalism? Double majoring isn’t the easiest thing to do in the world, especially across departments and colleges. And frankly, does a science reporter really need four years of journalism education?

Some schools only offer a journalism minor, which requires a student to have a major in another subject. A minor could offer the same training as a journalism certificate program. Maybe it makes sense for colleges and universities to require that journalism minors and majors have another major (and I’m thinking more along the lines of economics, poly sci, a science than something like English).

Then there is a cross discipline approach. For instance, let’s say a school offered an entrepreneurial journalism program. Wouldn’t it make sense for students to be required to take courses such as economics, marketing and business management?

And I can’t imagine having an entrepreneurial journalism program that doesn’t require some Web development and computer science courses. These computer and business classes would be core requirements for the major.

By cross discipline, I don’t mean just taking a bunch of random Arts and Sciences classes, like many journalism majors are required to take. I mean requiring specific courses, particularly in areas that could help make someone a better journalist. Most journalists are lacking when it comes to computer and business.

Frankly, I don’t think courses on how to blog or use Twitter are appropriate for four-year colleges and universities. Those sound like something straight out of adult education. Today’s 18-21 year olds don’t need help learning to blog or how to use social networking.

Usually, its their professors who do. And the students who don’t use or understand social networking are probably not the kinds of people news organizations are looking to hire. What young, inquisitive college student needs to be shown how to use social networking and blogging?

It would be a very poor sign for journalism and journalism education if the kinds of students that j-schools attract are technologically deficient in comparison to their peers. Journalism has become a field that requires people to have a strong grasp of technology. J-schools needs to be attracting students who embrace technology, not trying to teach basic Web technology to uninquisitive students.

Nobody taught me how to blog, and, fittingly enough, the best resources about how to blog are found on blogs. Twitter is one of those things that the only way to understand how to use it and its usefulness is to dive right in. Nobody can teach you the value of Twitter; you have to experience it.

And what college student hasn’t at least played around with Facebook and MySpace? Those are not the kinds of students j-schools and certificate programs need.

What do you think journalism education? Should be a four-year program? Certificate? What would it teach?

What are the course courses of a journalism program (college and certificate)?

Here are some thoughts from people on Twitter:

kev097 Definitely. I think the journalism major is, prima facie, an antiquated concept.

AllieHull , Mizzou strongly recommends picking up another major, or a minor.

johnrobinson Uh, I didn’t take a single journalism course in college. Learned all on job. Turned out OK.

gmarkham we offer a two-year diploma and a four-year degree. most of the newspaper-ready students leave after two.

cnewvine I hypothesize that requiring a 4-year degree is one of the ways newsrooms get out of touch with their communities.

eyeseast My journalism program was a minor, which I liked.

ehelm I liked the way Medill’s journalism major required so many non-journalism classes, including 2 concentrations outside J-school.

coolgates learning how to leverage technology should be a big part of the puzzle, too.

AllieG By far the most interesting and useful class I’ve taken so far was Ethics of Journalism.

mthilmony Didn’t have 2nd mjr. but I knew time in school was wasted - finished in 3 yrs. in journ. so i could get it done and get a job.

howardowens The best bloggers not only have degrees, they have experience, so maybe to cover courts, law degree and two years practice exp. Journalism degree, optional.

A reader recently e-mailed me asking advice about his sister because she wants to get a graduate degree in journalism from a prestigious university.

She has an English degree, hasn’t done journalism before but loves to write. He was concerned, however, that now is not a great time to be entering the journalism field, and he’s right. It’s a difficult time time for journalists, and I’m not sure how many would-be journalists know about the struggles facing journalism. Nor am I confident that many would-be journalists realize what kinds of skills they’ll need to succeed in journalism.

He asked for advice, and this is the e-mail I wrote him:

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: Journalism is under fire right now, much more so than just about any other industry in America. More than a thousand jobs have already been cut this year from mainstream media organizations and thousands more will be in the coming months. It’s a very dark hour for journalism.

But that’s traditional journalism. New media journalism is just beginning to flourish. Your sister will have to be willing to entertain the idea of working for non-mainstream media organizations if she wants to make it in journalism. I’m confident that journalism will eventually be stronger than ever after this transitional phase.

I personally wouldn’t get a graduate degree in journalism, but I also have an undergrad degree in it and a good job. My job, however, is highly tied to the fact that I have multimedia and online skills. There in lies the issue with your sister going back to get a journalism degree.

Journalism is increasingly moving online. Journalism is really about reporting, not about writing, which means she might also have to do video, audio, HTML/CSS, databases, etc. Journalists just entering the field need to be digital natives.

My advice to her would be simple:

Only get into journalism if you are willing to work for non-mainstream media outlets. Only get into journalism if you are willing to learn new skills and techniques. Only get into journalism if you are willing to report in other forms besides writing. Only get into journalism if you are a digital native who loves the Web.

Only get into journalism is you are willing to turn this industry around. Don’t get into journalism because you loved All the President’s Men. Don’t get into journalism because you think you were born to write.

Get into journalism because you love to inform people. Get into journalism because you want to make a difference in communities. Get into journalism for the people, not yourself.

People have asked me this question, and it has become a hot topic in the journalism blogging world.

I would personally not get a graduate degree in journalism. Journalism is not one of those fields where practicing journalists will see a big benefit from additional schooling. In fact, work experience and skills are what ultimately matters, which is why so many journalists do not have journalism degrees — let alone more than one.

A master’s degree will not help you get a job over someone else, especially if that person has better work experience. A master’s degree will not get you a higher salary, but it will give you more debt.

If I were to go back to school for another degree or just to learn new subjects and skills, it wouldn’t be in journalism. It would be in an area I would want to cover or in a field like computer science. I understand journalism as well as I ever will. What I — and any journalist really — could always use is more skills.

Journalism professor Mindy McAdams also advises students to steer clear of graduate school:

This post is for your mom and dad, who are pressuring you to go to grad school immediately after undergrad.

I don’t know why your parents think that’s a good idea. Maybe in whatever field they’re in, it’s what people do. Like law. Like medicine. But not in journalism. Not usually.

Now that’s not to say that no one should attend graduate school for journalism. It all depends on each individual situation, which McAdams also points out.

For instance, I have an undergraduate degree in journalism (and political science), and I was working at a 100,000 circulation paper when I was 22. I also have plenty of contacts around the country.

Plus, I regularly attend seminars, fellowships and conferences and try to learn new skills year around. There is not a strong benefit for me to go to graduate school (and incur even more debt). But that doesn’t mean graduate school is a bad idea for everyone.

If you don’t have an undergraduate degree in journalism and you want to switch careers, it’s probably your best way to break into the field, unless you already have strong multimedia and online skills. If you have strong online or multimedia skills, you just need a good way to showcase those skills to perspective employers (hint: personal Web site).

If you went to a small journalism program/not well known school and you work at a very small paper, you would probably benefit from going to a strong graduate program that could not only teach you additional skills but also give you contacts. It can be hard to break out of a small paper, and often it’s the contacts — not skills — that well-known schools give you that will have the biggest impact on your career.

Skills are easy to learn. I didn’t learn any of my multimedia or online skills in my journalism classes. I’ve been building Web pages for years, and I’ve experimented on my own with multimedia. Since graduating, I’ve also attended seminars and fellowships to add to my skill set.

Any journalist can sign up for seminars, conferences and fellowships. They are also much cheaper than grad school, but attending a really well-known graduate school for two years will probably give you much better contacts.

There are way more people with journalism degrees, and people who want to be journalists, than actual journalism jobs. That’s why it pays to know people.

Going to a well-known program can be a great way to break into the industry. By breaking in, I don’t mean toiling around at some small daily or weekly newspaper, but actually having a chance to work for a big or well-known company. And hopefully an innovative company that will be around for years to come (this is what you really want to break into).

Many internship opportunities are only available to students, and it’s almost impossible to get a journalism job (besides a programming one) without an internship or three. The best journalism schools usually have access to the best internship opportunities.

Obviously, there are people who would benefit from grad school. Most journalists, however, will not.

If you’ve made the decision to attend graduate school, make sure you are attending a program that is heavily into online journalism, multimedia and entrepreneurship. But long before you decide to even apply to j-school, make sure you realize the realities facing journalism. It’s going to be a tough few years or so for this industry.

And eventually most journalism jobs won’t be at traditional outlets. You have to be ready for when that storm hits.

There is a school of thought that says journalism students should only worry about clips they receive from internships and not about grades.

Sure that makes sense if a student is going to work for a newspaper but most students won’t. Most journalism students won’t even work in mainstream media. And, honestly, all students will need more than just written clips to succeed in 21st-century journalism.

That’s a given.

Armed with the knowledge that most journalism students won’t be working for the typical journalism organization (the kind that doesn’t care about grades and used to not care about degrees), it’s probably sound advice to prepare for the reality of other fields and endeavors. Plus, the average U.S. worker changes careers 3-5 times. It’s smart to be prepared to work in a variety of careers, which means having a well-rounded education (and it means caring about learning too, not just clips, because those clips won’t help a student out if he changes careers).

First, many fields and companies do look at GPAs, and when they do they usually want at least a 3.0, if not higher (the world of business and finance comes to mind). No, I don’t know of any newspaper that really cares about grades, but the vast majority of journalism students will never work for a newspaper.

Second, many students will graduate and later realize that the traditional journalism world is not doing so well. Many won’t be prepared for new media opportunities, they’ll panic and want to try to go to graduate school. Except, graduate schools care deeply about GPAs.

Graduate schools aren’t looking for students with 2.7s. A GPA is a pretty good indicator of work ethic, and a student shouldn’t close off the opportunity for additional education. And let’s not forget that grants and scholarships are often given to students based on grades.

Newspapers and most journalism companies don’t pay well, and education costs are far outpacing inflation. Scholarships and grants can make a huge difference in the amount of loans a student may have to take out. Trust me, you do not want to have a lot of student loans while making $25,000.

And I, nor anyone else, really knows what future new media companies will look for in candidates. I know, however, those companies will eventually be the bulk of journalism opportunities. A lot of new media is about learning new skills, and new media companies may look at GPAs as an indicator of the ability to, or the desire to, readily learn new skills.

Now, I’m not saying to forsake internships or the ability to get good (multimedia and online) clips, but journalism students need a balance. Journalism student Sean Blanda wrote:

My GPA doesn’t matter. I have been told this by nearly every journalist I have asked. All they want are clips, clips, clips. So what is my incentive to do that absurdly mundane assignment I was just given in class?

Now Sean isn’t your typical journalism student. He has online and new media skills. Written clips probably won’t mean much to his future as a journalist, and I believe he’ll have a brighter future than most of his peers.

So, I think advice aimed at being a writer for a newspaper makes little sense for him. In fact, advice on how to be a writer at a newspaper makes little sense for any journalism student. Ultimately, Sean will probably find himself eventually working for a company other than a newspaper (and maybe even going back to school), and who knows if they’ll care about GPA or not.

I know they probably won’t care about his written clips. It’s hard to predict the future. That’s why it’s best to be prepared for a variety of outcomes and possibilities.

I want your help deciding what the perfect j-school curriculum would look like.

The basics would be a basic intro to journalism course, a reporting course, a copy editing course, a law course and a media ethics course. Also, an internship is required for graduation. After that, we’ll decide what students really need to learn.

What courses should round out the required courses? What skills are needed? What electives should be offered? What kind of non-journalism courses should be required (Statistics for instance)?

We need to develop modern journalists who can report in a variety of mediums. We need people who are Web natives. We need entrepreneurs who will work in the new media that will increasingly replace the mainstream media.

In short, we need radically different journalists than we are getting from today’s journalism schools.

Most journalism educations aren’t really worth paying for anymore, but there are some programs that get it.

Mindy McAdams has compiled a list of things she believes every j-school should be teaching their students right now. It’s important to note that myself, McAdams and basically everyone else arguing for change in journalism higher education believes that any good journalism education starts with the fundamentals of reporting. If a student can’t interview someone, properly fact check, know the appropriate law, have news judgment and understand journalism ethics (not the same as everyday ethics), then it doesn’t matter what other skills they have — print or online.

And yes, every journalism student should know how to write. But every college student should know how to write well too. Journalism education was never about writing — it was always about learning journalism. Journalism has changed and so too must journalism curricula.

Let’s assume that every journalism student knows how to interview and report. What skills does a student need beyond that? I’m a firm believer that every journalism student should be exposed to a vast array of different reporting techniques from writing to database to audio slideshows to video to audio to Flash and more.

It’s impossible to know which skills individual students will become good at or understand well (no one should realistically expect students to master all the skills I list below). So, rather than mandating that students know a skill or two, I believe students should be shown a wide array of what is available, and then students should be encouraged to hone in on a few skills.

McAdams lists several skills that she believes every j-school should be teaching right now. I’ve taken her list and expanded upon it a bit.

The journalism skills that every student should be learning today:

1. (X)HTML and CSS - No one is arguing that journalism students need to become expert Web designers. Some might become very good at Web design, but every student should know the basic building blocks of the medium they are working on. I was taught page layout, even though my primary skill was writing and reporting. Schools should begin transitioning from page layout and other archaic classes to Web classes. The Web is here to stay, and having knowledge of how Web sites work is crucial for people working on the Web. This includes knowing what (X)HTML and CSS look like and how to code some of it by hand.
2. Audio - Many print journalists already tape record their interviews. If you can interview someone for a print story, you can do it for an audio report. Audio reporting can be reasonably taught in on semester. This includes not only how to work recorders and external mics, but also how to edit audio to make it sound natural and of course how to make a standalone audio report. Adding audio to written content (with photos) can really make for a strong Web presentation.
3. Photography - What college student doesn’t own a digital camera these days? None that I’d ever want to hire, I can assure you. Most students have experience with photography, but j-schools need to teach students how to take that to the next level with photojournalism. What makes a story? What are the ethics of photojournalism (especially the ethics of Photoshop)? How do you properly edit a photo?
4. Multimedia skills - Once a student knows how to record and edit audio and take photos, it’s time to learn how to combine them together. McAdams suggests that every student should know Soundslides, and I agree. It’s an extremely easy way of combing (good) photos and (good) audio to make a compelling multimedia package. Just knowing how to use Soundslides, however, isn’t good enough. A good audio slideshow must tell a story. That’s what journalism schools need to teach.
5. Video - Video has become the hot topic at many newspapers. While I disagree that video is that important, every student should be exposed to it. There is some very good video being produced on the Web (and a lot of very bad video). McAdams points out that teaching video is harder, and that she may struggle to teach it properly in one semester. Here is my recommendation to her: make multimedia classes (with photography and audio skills) prerequisites to learning video. If a student already understands photographic composition, it won’t be that hard of an adjustment to video. If a student already knows how to tell stories with audio and edit audio, the adjustment will be easier. The hardest thing to teach with video is taste. A lot of people new to video make some grade-A junk. J-schools really need to be able to teach students how to properly tell stories with video.
6. Databases - McAdams does not discuss databases, but I believe it’s a very important part of the future of journalism. Obviously, you can’t teach MySQL to someone who has no Web or programming experience. But that doesn’t mean students couldn’t learn how to make some Google mashups, how to enter data into an existing database, work with data in a spreadsheet or learn how data can be used to tell a story. Perhaps databases should only be one facet of an online journalism class. Databases are an important facet, however.

There are other skills that j-schools woefully neglect to discuss. Perhaps it’s because few journalism professors know much about them.

The other skills that every journalism student must have:

1. Business sense - Yes that’s business with a b. Ladies and gentlemen this is the Age of the Internet. You have to be able to read site analytics reports. You have to know which content is popular and why. You have to understand that journalism is in fact a business, and that the only way to succeed in business is to give your customers what they want, which means you have to know what they like in the first place. And for the love of God, you have to understand SEO. If you don’t know what SEO stands for, how could you have accepted your journalism diploma in good conscious?
2. Entrepreneurial skills - This is the Web and this is the 21st century. I have news for you: the old-guard MSM is dying. Those jobs are rapidly disappearing. It doesn’t matter how many journalism skills you have if you don’t know how put them to use. This might mean starting new Web ventures. It might mean launching a blog with Google AdSense on it. It might mean a lot of things, but students need solid Web entrepreneurial skills to succeed today. Frankly, journalism needs more talented journalists to have entrepreneurial skills. Jeff Jarvis over at CUNY began teaching an Entrepreneurial Journalism class last fall. Students presented ideas for — get this — up to $50,000 in seed money for a start up. Business and money matter in 21st century journalism.

“The traditional path of a journalism career has clearly shifted. In the past, a journalism student would learn about being a newspaper reporter, then take a job at a small-town paper, eventually moving up to a medium and then larger paper. Now, the reporter might launch a blog, an audio podcast or video reports as a one-person operation, handling editorial and business duties simultaneously.” — Mark Glaser, MediaShift.

Media is shifting. J-school and journalists need to shift with it, or else journalism school will just become a bunch of history classes.

Does the tenure system make sense for journalism professors?

Tenure serves a vital purpose for many disciplines and professors, especially since a lot of ideas and research are controversial — at least at the time (Remember when the Earth was flat?). Tenure serves to protect the academic honesty of educational institutions and their faculty. With tenure a person is free to question everything, which often is how our most groundbreaking ideas are conceived.

I’m not sure if that purpose is served with journalism schools. Journalism education is much closer to trade school than to a typical liberal arts education. J-school is very much a skill — not idea — based curriculum.

I majored in both political science and journalism. They were completely different majors in terms of how they were taught. Political science was all about ideas and analyzing those ideas. Political science teaches one to think critically about the world, but a political science degree is not direct preparation for any one job or field.

J-school is all about learning skills to be a journalist — that’s all it really is. In fact, many programs are not only conceived to help someone become a journalist, but even a particular kind of journalist — like broadcast or newspaper. But a journalism degree isn’t even a requirement for being a journalist (many papers still employ people without bachelors degrees, because journalism doesn’t really require a liberal arts education to be successful).

I took a class in publication design as an undergrad. That’s not a real liberal arts skill. Yet, I never had a political science class in something like “how to work for a think tank.” Everything in political science was on a much more academic level.

Yes, journalism made me a much better writer and researcher, which would benefit anyone. But many of my classes were very much terminal classes — all about learning a particular skill that a newspaper would need.

All this brings me back to the question: Does the tenure system make sense for journalism professors? I can’t really think of any sort of controversial research that journalism schools do. Nor is journalism even about research (maybe if journalism schools were more progressive and aggressive we wouldn’t have this huge mess we do right now).

In fact, one might argue that tenured professors hold back many journalism programs from being more modern and aggressive in trying new things. This is just an idea though. Maybe tenure has a firm place in journalism education for certain professors.

But maybe it doesn’t.

Education doesn’t just stop when a person is handed a diploma.

In fact, colleges and universities are not trade schools. They are not in the business of just giving people skills to do a job (like say work for a newspaper) — they are in the business of giving students skills for life. A good college education expands ones mind and teaches critical thinking.

An education like that can be used to foster a lifetime of learning. People who are at the top of their professions are often lifelong students, constantly learning, asking questions, seeking answers and never accepting the status quo from themselves. Certain professions like doctors and lawyers require continual learning.

Learning can be in the traditional sense like signing up for a class or two or even embarking on a new degree. But learning can also be as simple as being a voracious reader of books, magazines, newspapers and Web sites. Tools like Google Reader help me more efficiently consume information and manage disparate information.

Unlike college, learning doesn’t have to cost money. The Web is filled with many free resources that are phenomenal (people’s del.icio.us links are often an excellent resource). And even some prestigious universities like UC Berkeley are offering free Webcasts of many of their lectures. I’m following along with Computer Science 61A.

Why not? It’s free, and I want to learn more about the nuts and bolts of computer science.

If you’re a journalist who wasn’t taught anything online while in school, don’t fret. Your education gave you the tools to keep learning, and there are plenty of free and low cost resources available to learn whatever online skills you need.

The only thing you ever need for learning is time.

A lot of colleges are using College Publisher as a content management system, but is it the best choice?

Well, College Publisher is free, so it can’t be that bad of a choice (that automatically makes it a pretty good choice actually). I’ve heard a lot of complaints about College Publisher as a CMS, but honestly Ellington is the only CMS I have heard journalists praise.

Let’s take a look at a few papers who have either switched to College Publisher or are switching from it:

Lehigh University - My college newspaper switched to College Publisher this past fall from a proprietary CMS (disclosure: I was editor in chief of the paper three years ago). It has been a rocky transition. Apparently, College Publisher does not provide a lot of help or guidance beyond just the initial install.

The new Web site for The Brown and White could use a lot of work. There are numerous CSS issues, it’s not very attractive (a lot of white space) and it lacks some modern features. Ironically, one would think that College Publisher is a good system to go with if you don’t have a lot of technical talent because you are working with a company that specializes in setting up Web sites for college newspapers.

Apparently, however, that is not the case. You need developers who know CSS and other programming to really make College Publisher sing. If you don’t, you end up with a Web site similar to my school’s paper, which is arguable worse than the one it replaces.

If you have a lot of development talent (most college newspapers do not but should try to get some) you can customize College Publisher and make it more robust. However, if you have that much talent, why not just go with a much more powerful and customizable CMS like Drupal?

University of Miami - The Miami Hurricane is switching from College Publisher to a Drupal system this year. The editors at the Hurricane have not been happy with College Publisher, especially because of its technological limitations and the fact that College Publisher has control over the majority of the ads on their site. The ability to control and maximize monetization should be a paramount concern for collegiate newspapers.

Here is a video of editors at the Hurricane discussing why they are making the switch. Is College Publisher a good choice for your collegiate newspaper? I think the answer comes down to what kind of technical talent a paper has.

For the pure learning experience — and that’s what college is for — I’d go with Drupal. This is provided a newspaper has the talent to customize Drupal. Drupal is not easy to customize, but it provides a power framework for future and continual R&D.

Continual R&D is how the Web is supposed to work. The idea of doing a major redesign ever five years is very print centric. Drupal gives papers the ability to roll out continual improvements and new features.

If, however, a paper does not have the talent to use Drupal, College Publisher seems to be the best choice. There are some pretty decent College Publisher sites out there, and setting up a College Publisher site doesn’t require a lot of technical knowledge.

If you’re going to go with College Publisher, I’d strongly recommend you hire a consultant to help design and set up your site. It won’t help you with continual R&D, but it will make sure you at least have a pretty good site.

If your college newspaper does not have Web developers, get some ASAP. Any college newspaper without Web developers is very 20th century. Colleges are supposed to be on the cutting edge, not the tail end.

Collegiate editors, how has your experience been with College Publisher? How about Drupal? Are you using another CMS?

I just told you how journalism is not a good career choice for most of you, but I know many of you are going to attempt to change journalism and I salute you.

Therefor, I would be remiss if I didn’t offer you advice on how to get a good journalism job and how to be prepared for the changing landscape of journalism. What do you need? Lots of skills and a willingness to learn even more skills.

This is advice, however, is only for those j-school students willing to take risks and who aren’t afraid of trying something new — the j-school students who are willing to try to make a difference in the industry during these difficult times.

This is for the few j-school students willing to do whatever it takes to make a difference. This is for the students who don’t believe that only writing is “real journalism.” This is for the students who want to make journalism that matters in the formats and mediums that matters to the people. We serve the people — not ourselves.

This is what you need to do to prepare yourself for modern-day journalism and to be able to land a job in today’s ultra-competitive market place (nothing breeds competition like scarcity):

You must have an online presence – It’s the 21st-century, are you honestly still sending packets of clips out to employers? And if employers want you to snail male them clips, do you honestly want to work for them? The answer to both is, of course, no.

When I built my personal site a few years ago, I set out to develop a place to showcase my work and talents. I knew I needed a digital résumé. A paper résumé might be fine for a print reporter, but for an online journalist it’s laughable.

Want my contact info? Go to my Web site. Want to view my work? Go to my Web site. Want to find out about me? Go to my Web site.

Business cards, printed résumés and biographies are so last century. I wanted to land a job in the 21st century, so I had to figure out a21st century way of marketing myself.

Professor Mindy McAdams tells students to make sure they have a respectable online presence. The key there is respectable. Don’t waste your time with an ugly, mistake-filled Web site that isn’t compatible on a lots of browsers and has very little content on it. Remember, your personal Web site is a reflection of you.

Even if you want to be “just a reporter” you need an online presence. Why? Because many jobs will ask you if you have a blog or personal Web site.

They won’t be impressed with “no.” Some employers might not care if you have online skills or an online presence (there are still many employers out there like this), but many do care deeply and won’t hire a technophobe. They certainly won’t hire a technophobe not in this job market and with the demands modern journalism.

Luckily for all of you, I already wrote a post on how to make a personal Web site: Build a digital résumé and make yourself stand out. If all j-students left school with the ability to launch a personal Web site and blog, journalism would be infused each year with new talent and skills. Journalism needs people with technical skills and a firm understanding of the Web.

But don’t wait on starting that personal Web site. Meranda Watling says to just do it.

You must have at least some online and multimedia skills — If you have a lot of online and multimedia skills and the flexibility and willingness to learn new things, not only am I confident that you can make a difference, but I’m also confident you would be extremely employable should you choose to leave journalism (and you might have to one day whether you want to or not).

Last year I made a summer reading list for j-school students who wanted to learn new media skills. It covers HTML, CSS, audio, video, Flash, blogs, etc. The list is for learning technical skills, but you’ll also want some more general online skills. Do you belong to social networks? You should at least try a few out.

Try them all and see which ones you like. I guarantee you won’t like them all, but I’m confident you’ll like a few. Understanding social networking is very important for journalists moving forward. The No. 1 thing that most news sites lack is the kind of conversation and community participation that blogs and social networks foment.

If you look at the way most new sites integrate with social networks, it’s a very me-first strategy. News companies are only interested in finding ways of getting users to push news content onto social networks, but it doesn’t really serve the readers. Instead of asking our audience to seek us, we should go out and seek our audience.

The problem, however, is that the majority of people working at and running news sites don’t get social networking and its power. Make it your mission to get social networking. The Web is going to be increasingly social in the years to come.

And I would never, ever consider hiring a new grad who didn’t use social networks. Almost all college kids do, and if you don’t, it would be a huge red flag. Huge.

It’s not too late to learn — It’s never too late to learn skills, whether you are a last semester senior staring at graduation in four months or a 65-year-old reporter. If you’re younger than a college senior, you have no excuse for not learning lots of online and multimedia skills.

If your j-school doesn’t teach the skills you need to succeed — and they probably don’t — make it your mission to learn on your own. Most j-schools will teach you how to be a good interviewer and reporter. Now you just need to learn how to translate those skills into new mediums.

And frankly, it’s not that hard. Sign up for a Lynda.com account to learn lots of online skills. A years worth of great training videos, tutorials and work sheets is less than a lot of you pay for a semesters worth of books you’ll barely touch.

Finally, forget all that talk about how journalists only produce content while we leave the business and marketing to others. You need to understand business and marketing, because you are in the business of marketing yourself.

Go out and grab yourself the computer, online and multimedia skills you need to compete in the 21st century. Then market the hell out of yourself with a great personal Web site and a strong presence on social networks in the blogosphere.

What are you waiting for? Do it.