Reflections on Journalism and Journalism Education

When j-profs are out of date

Journalism professors who insist on teaching traditional journalism practices and fail to teach about the changing new media practices in today's newsrooms, took some heavy criticism at a recent conference. A convention of college media advisers in the U.S. heard a long list of complaints from students about very dated advice they had received from their j-profs. Paul Conley, a journalist and blogger provides details in his blog posting at the link below. More comments and reaction can be found at the Innovation in College Media blog.

What to do with students who cheat

They are a challenge every journalism educator faces at some point -- students who cut and paste material from stories on the Internet; fabricate quotes; or pad bibliographies and source lists. In this thoughtful piece, Alex Gillis, a journalism instructor at Ryerson, describes his first experience with cheating students and what he learned from it. He outlines some of the surprising things he found out about why students cheat (it's often the best students who cheat in an effort to get an A) and what can be done to try to stop them. The article includes links to resources from Canadian universities that may be helpful to any educator determined to stop their students from cheating.

Journalism educators need to rethink their role

Many award-winning journalists never studied journalism in university, raising the question whether people who don't study journalism make better journalists. In an attempt to explore that idea, Betty Medsger, a leading U.S. journalism educator and former Washington Post reporter, argues that journalism educators would be more effective in improving journalism and journalism education if they became gate openers to all that universities offer rather than guardians of journalism as a separate discipline.

Why wasn't Facebook invented at J-school

An interesting post by Steve Yelvington, a journalist turned media strategist, who blogs about online journalism. He wonders why some of the creative new ways of information sharing online are not being developed by journalism students/faculty/schools. He asks whether they are all too focused on past practices rather than on invention and discovery. It's good food for thought for anyone at J-school.

Declaration of principles of journalism education

The World Journalism Education Conference in Singapore adopted this set of principles in June, 2007.

Reflections about the declaration of principles

Some discussion about the World Journalism Education Conferences's declaration by journalism educators at the RConversation Blog.

Medill's Dean defends his revolutionary new journalism curriculum

In this Chicago Magazine article, the Dean of the Medill School of Journalism, responds to critics who say his new curriculum sacrifices the principles of journalism for the principles of marketing. John Lavine has kept his promise to "blow up" the old curriculum and replace it, this fall, with one that emphasizes new media and "an understanding of audience" because, he said, there was little point in training students for disappearing jobs in print journalism. He drew much criticism from students, faculty and journalists who feared the new curriculum would blur the lines between journalism and public relations. But he responds that many working journalists and some students are simply too resistant to change.

More reflections

More reflections on the declaration at the blog Teaching Journalism Online.

J-schools need to re-invent themselves to teach students relevant skills

Dan Gillmor, a leading online journalist and advocate of citizen journalism, offers his ideas about how journalism schools are not keeping pace with the new demands of the re-invented world of journalism. He outlines his ideas about what should be taught instead of the age old courses on Beginning Newsriting.

Journalism schools out of date

An article from Insidehighered.com about how journalism schools are falling behind and failing to adapt to the new media world. As a result, students are not learning the skills they need in the new multi-media world of online journalism. The article is based, in part, on a presentation to the AEJMC's convention in Washington in August 2007, and is followed by lots of feedback from students and educators about their experiences in today's J-schools.

Notes towards a definition of journalism

In the opening to his essay on the education of journalists, Canadian journalism educator, G. Stuart Adam writes: "Journalism is made; it doesn't just happen. So the language we use to see it and teach it must be akin to the language of art. The language of art encourages students to enter the imagination of the artist and meditate on how the artist does what he or she does...I have tried in this piece to create a language that expresses what I and other journalists are doing as we work off our palettes."

Teaching the future of journalism

"When it comes to teaching convergence, it's no longer 'if' but 'how,'" says this Online Journalism Review piece based in part on discussions at a Poynter Institute seminar. For one thing, it's time to realize that "online video is not TV news." For another, "multimedia storytelling" requires a new level of respect for the audience.

Journalism education in Canada vs. the U.S.

A paper published in Journalism Studies in 2001 that argues there are striking similarities between the U.S. and Canadian systems of journalism education, as well as significant differences. Among the differences are the relatively stronger role of government in Canada; Canada's greater emphasis on non-university education; greater curricular differentiation in U.S. programs; the type of academic unit within which journalism study is located; and the absence of a national accreditation system in Canada. The paper is written by Peter Johansen, David H. Weaver, Christopher Dornan.