My big question is how do we convince reluctant colleagues, both within j-ed and in other areas of communication studies (whom we deal with daily) that we should be allowed to totally overhaul the curriculum.

And how do we convince print-centric industry bodies that they have to get with the programme, not get in the way.
Advice appreciated.
Marty
PS, I’ll be in the US, in early september, if you’re in LA, San Fran or any where near the Missouri School of Journalism around 10 Sept, I’d love to catch up. There’s a great $2 martini bar in Columbia Missouri, and I’ll be there for at least one drink.

nb: James Ball at some London school or other sez they’re all on the ball there - wouldya believe it. brits on the ball …

>“Require at least two internships” Until they pay, this policy is the equivalent of gentrification<

Honestly, Sean, that’s a very shortsighted view. I went to Temple U for j-school, and I all students there were required to take at least two internships. I did at least 4, maybe 5 (Hey, it’s been a long time) — but I know only two of these were paid.

That said, my internships were by far the most valuable part of my journalism education. Which is why I voluntarily did more than was required. I learned far more through experience than in the classroom. I felt that a big part of what my tuition went for was for access to those internships. Not getting paid for them was not a concern for me.

YMMV, of course.

- Amy Gahran

That said, with newsroom staffs shrinking constantly and quickly, this is now an extremely competitive job market. It’s an especially bad time to try to get a journalism job without any training. That’s an expensive proposition from the employer’s perspective.

So if you don’t have a journo degree or very relevant experience, you’d better have some other great skills to demonstrably offer unique value to the news org or other employer. Community management, ability to create interactive maps, and database mashups are good examples.

- Amy Gahran

Yes, I agree Wordpress is not the kind of CMS journos would probably be using if employed by a major mainstream news org. Honestly, in many ways it’s probably superior

But the point of using even a basic but functional and customizable CMS like Wordpress is to get journos use to thinking of content in modular terms, understandinghow tags and categories make their work more findable, understanding the importance of feeds, and generally getting a bit of a feel for information architecture.

Any CMS is just a tool that can be learned, and these tools are constantly changing, fast. Any tool you learn in school will be outdated soon afterward. But the first hurdle is to understand why using a real CMS is important, what options it offers, and how much journalists can do on their own without having to go begging to an IT staff.

- Amy Gahran

Until they pay, this policy is the equivalent of gentrification