What Journalism Students Should Demand from J-Schools

I've long been a fan of Robert Niles at the Online Journalism Review, part of the Knight Digital Media Center and USC. Robert runs the amusement park safety site ThemeParkInsider.com and posts some great resources on his Twitter account, @robertniles.

And I really enjoyed his latest post to the Online Journalism Review called, Eight Things Journalism Students Should Demand from Journalism Schools.

At a time when the news industry is changing radically, students should expect the eight things Niles listed in his piece. They need mentors and role models, job contacts, the opportunities to explore linear and non-linear storytelling. They need a well-rounded liberal arts education, and journalism instructors who focus on the future of news ... and not relive the good old days.

We still must teach journalism fundamentals -- AP Style, accuracy, fairness, ethics, law, reporting and editing -- but we need to reach further and give them opportunities to grow as entrepreneurs, producers, backpack journalists and in other mediums.

As I often say in discussions with my friends still working in the industry: Adapt or perish.

And it's never been more relevant.

Teaching Social Media to Journalists

For mer than 12 years, I've been a strong believer in weaving online resources into a broad journalism curriculum.

Twitter and other social media tools should be implemented to every journalism class. I recently did this with an advanced sports reporting class I co-taught at Columbia College Chicago.

We created the web site Beyond the Game to showcase narrative storytelling, and linked off to each student's blog. We also created a Facebook group page to promote updates, and students were encouraged to post their packages on their Twitter feeds.

Here are some other creative ways to teach social media to journalists, based on a recent Poynter Institute live chat with Columbia professor and online guru Sree Sreenivasan:

• MuckRack's feed is an excellent way to see journalists in action on Twitter.
  
  
• Poynter's Ellyn Angelotti provides some great examples of how media outlets are effectively using Twitter.
  
  
• How students can avoid information overload on social media sites.
  
  
• Sree offers his own tips on Twitter.
  
  
• Mashable's Twitter guide covers the basics.
  
  
• Mashable also offers 10 ways j-schools are teaching social media.