Karin Dryhurst

Put Twitter on the Syllabus

Recently, I suggested that journalism schools should teach the next generation of reporters to investigate and report news in a digital world. Then NYMag’s Daily Intel reported that Columbia Journalism School has finally woken up to the need for a new media curriculum—five years after the blogosphere reached 4 million blogs. It’s about time.

But Ari Goldman, the coordinator of Columbia’s research and writing program, still sees new media as “playing with toys,” calling the digital movement “experimentation in gadgetry.”

He said this in front of his class, which most likely consisted of reporters who have worked in the field in recent years and have seen firsthand the withering of newsprint. Goldman, a research and writing professor for 16 years, seems to have missed the stories of booming online traffic and bankrupt newspapers.

As a former reporter, I understand a certain affinity with print; but this perception of new media will only hurt journalism schools in the same way that it knocked down newspapers.

Journalism schools would be wise to adapt as quickly as possible to a changing media environment. The ethics and history of journalism are important lessons for would-be reporters and bloggers. But equally important are the technical skills and the cultural understanding required of a digital media workforce.

The LA Times profiles the social media tool Twitter as a “real-time, multi-way dialogue”—another example of how new media requires not just the technical skills of uploading but an understanding of the culture of live many-to-many communication.

The top journalism schools can no longer rest on their reputations. With more jobs shed from the media industry each day, these schools need to churn out a new cadre of reporters who can straddle the line between investigative, ethical reporting and the demands of the Internet.

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Posted at 12:52 PM, Mar 13, 2009 in Media
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