What College Journalism Students Must Know

Poynter hosted a CoverItLive chat a couple days ago focusing on college journalism students and what they must know/do to make it in the industry. Professionals participated in the chat and answered questions from j-students, as well as discussing classes that should be included in journalism curriculum and what should be taken out.

Paying for content…?

I read this article by Michael Learmonth titled “Wanted: Online Payment Plan for Print” – it’s long, but a great read.

“It was as if the media woke up, saw its shadow and realized that the print world, including American capital-J journalism, is in mid-collapse. It’s finally dawning that this isn’t just about the economy, and it’s not going to suddenly get better when the Dow finally starts chugging upward again.”

There are several differing opinions in this piece: MSNBC.com President Charlie Tillinghast says, “Consumers won’t pay; it’s just that simple.” But the owner of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Walter E. Hussman, has been charging individuals $4.95 a month to access his publication’s website. He says their circulation has remained “steady” while others newspapers are floundering.

More news…about News

You know the phrase “No news is good news”? Well, in the context of the current state of news, that might be true.

Alas, here is some more news from salon.com:

Journalism as we know it is in crisis. Daily newspapers are going out of business at an unprecedented rate, and the survivors are slashing their budgets. Thousands of reporters and editors have lost their jobs. No print publication is immune, including the mighty New York Times. As analyst Allan Mutter noted, 2008 was the worst year in history for newspaper publishers, with shares dropping a stunning 83 percent on average. Newspapers lost $64.5 billion in market value in 12 months.

“Twentoring”

Apparently, we’re not the only ones frustrating professors when it comes to understanding Twitter.

Paul Bradshaw

Paul Bradshaw, a “senior lecturer” in online journalism and web design at Birmingham City University in England, posted a blog called “Teaching  journalism students to Twitter – the Twentoring project.” He was frustrated because his students weren’t catching on to Twitter as quickly as he would have liked, so he posted a question on his own Twitter account: “Anyone willing to ‘adopt’ a journalism student on Twitter and answer their questions about it?”

Bradshaw said the response was “heartwarming” and soon he had recruited more than enough “Twentors” for his students.

I think Bradshaw may be on to something.

10 Things Online Editors Should Know

According to Danny Sanchez on journalistopia.com (another resource for us budding reporters) online editors should know the following:

1- Become versed in social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and others. Build a profile, and become a power user on some social bookmarking sites. Here’s a great how-to for Digg.

2- Learn more about search engine optimization and how you can use it to promote news content. Get yourself a copy of Peter Kent’s Search Engine Optimization for Dummies. It’s not only my favorite SEO book, but it’s also one of my favorite tech books, period.

3- Experiment with some of the 25+ tools on this list and try using a few for an upcoming project.

“All media is social, All social is media”

While “Twittering,” my eye caught a post by mashable – it said, “All media is social, All social is media” and included a link. The blog, by Steve Rubel, discusses how important bloggers are and how interactive media is rapidly growing in popularity. He says, “…we’ve seen time and again that social networks like Facebook, Friendfeed and Twitter are now essential sources of news and information for millions. This is particularly true around big events and breaking news.”

It’s definitely an article worth checking out.

http://www.micropersuasion.com/2009/02/all-media-is-social-all-social-is-media.html

- Jessica Walker

Mindy McAdams knows her stuff…

One of Mindy McAdams’ recent blogs, “Advice for journalism students now,” was helpful and interesting – and echoed the thoughts of several Belmont journalism professors. Nothing was too shocking, but I was surprised to read this:

“Would you recommend that college students/recent grads become a freelancer — either as a way to get experience before becoming an employee, or to make a career of it?

1. Yes: 71 (provides experience/clips; gets your foot in door; proves yourself valuable to decision-makers for hiring)
2. Hedged response: 11 (difficult to make a living; not as a career; only as last resort)
3. No: 4 (difficult to make a living; cannot hire experienced writers in entry-level positions)

This set of answers is quite significant, and I hope that journalism professors (and others who advise young journalists) will pay attention. Out of 86 respondents, 71 said YES, they would recommend freelancing. That’s 82.5 percent.”

So maybe I’ll consider freelancing… For the rest of this particular blog, follow this link! http://mindymcadams.com/tojou/2009/advice-for-journalism-students-now/

- Jessica Walker