Students suffer media withdrawal: clue to future of journalism? May 21, 2010
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentRegina McCombs reports: “Students use the language of addiction and withdrawal in talking about their experiences going without technology for 24 hours during a study at the University of Maryland’s Phillip Merrill College of Journalism.
‘I clearly am addicted and the dependency is sickening,’ said one student. ‘Although I started the day feeling good, I noticed my mood started to change around noon. I started to feel isolated and lonely,’ said another. [...]??Students equated technology with media — the phones, iPods, computers, laptops and televisions were just a means to get to information, whether that information was about the world around them, or about their friends. And much of that technology is mobile. Phones in particular [...] ‘A truer mapping of those pathways could provide direction to journalists in their search for relevance in the century ahead’. ”
Aspiring journalists must specialise, says Malcolm Gladwell. Try stats or accounting… October 20, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , 1 comment so farFrom his interview in Time: "The issue is not writing. It's what you write about. One of my favorite columnists is Jonathan Weil, who writes for Bloomberg. He broke the Enron story, and he broke it because he's one of the very few mainstream journalists in America who really knows how to read a balance sheet. That means Jonathan Weil will always have a job, and will always be read, and will always have something interesting to say. He's unique. Most accountants don't write articles, and most journalists don't know anything about accounting. Aspiring journalists should stop going to journalism programs and go to some other kind of grad school. If I was studying today, I would go get a master's in statistics, and maybe do a bunch of accounting courses and then write from that perspective. I think that's the way to survive. The role of the generalist is diminishing. Journalism has to get smarter."
NY Times To Launch Local Blogging Initiative (Brownstoner) February 27, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentNY Times gets into local blogs, it seems, with help from journalism students:
"Look out, local bloggers, the Gray Lady is moving in on your turf. Starting mid-day on Monday, The New York Times will be rolling out a neighborhood blog initiative.[…]
Each site will be helmed by a writer/editor from the paper, a Times official told us, but will draw upon contributors from the neighborhood as well as some free labor from the CUNY journalism program. Readers will be able to post everything from short films to wedding announcements…"
Swimming Lessons for Journalists | PBS November 5, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentWiden your view of jobs in journalism, urges Amy Gahran:
"In my opinion, journalists need to start leaping en masse from the sinking ship of the newsroom and start working for search engines, nonprofits, think tanks, collaboratives, and other kinds of businesses and organizations. In fact, it might even be a good idea to trade in the label "journalist" for the more inclusive "person with journalism skills" […] That kind of humility offers considerable flexibility and room to grow.
Also, today's journalists can — and probably should — consciously shift away from jobs that revolve around content creation (producing packaged "stories") and toward providing layers of journalistic insight and context on top of content created by others (including public information). Finding ways to help people sort through info overload is far more valuable than providing more information."
Blog your way through college in the US October 18, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentA great opportunity — if you're a US citizen or resident. As Alfred Hermida notes, how about an international contest or other national version? How about it WordPress. Blogger, Typepad, Live Journal etc?
"The scheme offers students who blog the chance to win a $10,000 scholarship. The contest has just started accepting submissions, but you only have until the end of the month to apply."
Focus on 'what,' not 'where,' in planning your journalism career October 17, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentGeneva Overholser's summary of a point made at an Annenberg event:
"So you want to do journalism but are worried about all the change hitting the craft?
Do what digital pioneer and entrepreneur Elizabeth Osder has done: "I always tried to be about what I get to do rather than where I get to do it."
But the economic models just aren't working for newspapers online, lamented one student attending USC Annenberg School of Journalism Director's Forum.
Not true, said Osder, fresh off consulting work with Tina Brown's just-launched "The Daily Beast." Plenty of people are making plenty of money online. (As if in confirmation, David Westphal, Annenberg's executive in residence, noted that McClatchy right now makes more money online than it costs to pay all the editors and publishers in the company.)
Debate Watch: Student View – The Caucus Blog – NYTimes.com September 28, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentStudent journalists live-blogged the Obama–McCain debate: “The New York Times enlisted student newspaper editors from around the country to weigh in on the first presidential debate in real time. Some are watching in student centers; others at debate parties near campus.”
More follow-up on the MediaShift blog by NYU journalism student September 27, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a comment“Embedded” Blogger-Journalism Student Confuses the Hell Out of PBS – More follow-up on the MediaShift blog by NYU journalism student: “Remember the NYU professor who banned blogging about class, after one of her students wrote a piece for PBS’s MediaShift blog criticizing the class and the journalism program? Now PBS’s ombudsman (they have one?!) has chimed in negatively about the piece: “I have serious problems with the episode that unfolded recently in which a journalism student at New York University, Alana Taylor, authored a Sept. 5 posting as an ‘embedded’ blogger on MediaShift, writing critically about her class content and professor at NYU without informing either the teacher or her classmates about what she was doing.” Um, he wrote over 2,000 more hand-wringing words on the subject.”