Subject: J-Schools and the Info Highway From: jvncnet!ccs.carleton.ca!smclaugh (Shaun McLaughlin) Date: Thu, 21 Apr 94 13:31:07 pst

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This posting questions where journalism education should be going to
prepare for the new electronic media, Internet and the High Speed
Broadband Networks (HSBN is synonymous with info superhighway).

A few weeks ago I attended the annual conference of the Canadian
Association of Journalists. One of the panels I attended was aptly named
"Two Solitudes." It had panelists from major media and from the journalism
schools of major universities. 

Several points were made:

- there are about 28 institutions in Canada (most are community colleges)
turning out journalists in two or three-year diploma programs, or BA or
MA-level degree programs

- the major media outlets are hiring very few grads and most only for
summer internships

- the minor media outlets who do hire pay poverty-line wages

- the j-schools have not addressed in their curriculum the Internet either
as a source of information or a publication medium

- the HSBN is completely disregarded as a publishing or broadcasting
medium in their curriculum

The opinion of most of the panelists was that a good journalist can be a
good journalist in any medium, and that the techies will take care of
making sure the journalists can use the new media tools. 

This sounds like an unhealthy professional environment to me.

It seems to me -- and this is where I want comments -- that if there is to
be good content in a 500-channel universe and if the bright people coming
out of universities are to get meaningful employment, shouldn't there be a
coordinated effort by the j-schools and the media to promote training in
new media skills (as well as new ethical and professional questions
arising out of the new media)?


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