What journalism schools can and can't teach students

Versión en español aquí.

A master's degree in English literature might not seem an ideal preparation for a career as a business journalist. Actually it served me well, for all the reasons given by advocates of a liberal arts education. 

But my own experience seems to have little to do with what the journalism job market is seeking today.  Should we be improving students' minds and souls or helping them get a job? 

These days I advise students to be practical. Employers and recent graduates are telling me that the current job market demands that job applicants know:

• Multimedia storytelling skills. Producing slideshows with sound, shooting and editing video and photos, writing for the web.
• Data and statistical skills for storytelling. Collecting, editing, analyzing and interpreting data to produce compelling interactive maps and graphics.
• Audience development skills (formerly known as marketing and circulation) such as managing online communities, interpreting data on audience behavior, crowdsourcing for information, interacting with the audience.
• Basics of programming. How to create compelling pages that attract web audiences.
• The business of media. Journalists can help a news organization generate revenues without compromising their ethics, and today that skill is more important than ever. 

My MOOC experience and what it means

Versión en español aquí.

If you want to study journalism, you have more choices today, at lower cost, and of higher quality than ever. Sometimes you will get that at a university and sometimes not. That represents a challenge for universities.

In a lecture at a journalism conference in Puebla, Mexico, I described a personal experience taking a course in data visualization from one of the world leaders in the field, Alberto Cairo, author of  "The Functional Art."

The six-week course had readings and video tutorials of the highest quality. The homework assignments required at least 10 to 15 hours of work a week.  

Engaged professor

Cairo was intimately involved with the course participants, offering criticism of their work and suggestions for improvement. What was remarkable about this course was that there were 2,000 students enrolled from more than 100 countries, it took place completely online and it was free. 

At American U., media entrepreneurship includes NGOs

Jan Schaffer

First in a series on entrepreneurial journalism programs at universities and media organizations.

In the new world of media, traditional journalism organizations are just one more voice, and the MA in Media Entrepreneurship program at American University reflects that.

Jan Schaffer, who teaches the program's seminar on media entrepreneurship, believes that journalism schools should teach "information-gathering and truth-seeking skills to a broad array of future civic players.” That means new media could be non-governmental organizations and other nonprofits.