alexlockwood.net

Should we still be teaching journalism…?

Paul Bradshaw at City has ‘produced’ (and that word is carefully chosen) another inspired blog post, pulling together the views of a number of journalists and academics to answer this question:

Should journalism degrees still prepare students for a news industry that doesn’t want them?

Go read it, it’s excellent. I’ve only a little to add, which I’ve posted there, but will reproduce here. Then I’m having a three day break from the blog. I’ve just read about a quarter of a million words, in journal articles, book chapters and blogs, for a book chapter I’m working on (on media and climate change), and my mind is frying!. So will be back next week. And here’s my comment on Paul’s blog:

Hello Paul, another timely, great post.

I agree with yourself and Andy Dickinson about the snobbery against the degrees, and urge industry to take on board the benefits of theory that helps journalism graduates develop awareness of their practice. I would also add that, having just been through a validation process with our degrees at Sunderland, you really can get things done reasonably quickly. We had some student feedback on our degrees, and some market feedback, and we changed from one to four degrees over the year period. And I think we’ve found a lot of room to develop the programmes so they’re delivering the skills required.

I’ve got a skills-world background, so wanted to add another element to the mix. As I’m sure you know, the publishing industry has just moved to come under the remit of Skillset, the Sector Skills Council (SSC) for creative media industries. http://www.skillset.org/publishing/

Previously, publishing, including journalism, had sat outside of the SSC network, administering itself and working with its trade bodies, the PPA, NCTJ etc.

Skillset does some good work, incuding engagement with academia e.g. the Skillset Media Academy. It’s emphasis is very much on AV and multimedia.

The role of the SSC is to improve skills relevant to what is happening in industry. They are also brokers. But more importantly, they drive forward creative media mindsets and skillsets (or should do, and have done when operating at their best - by the way I didn’t work for them but a ‘rival’ SSC!).

So, at the macro-level, there may be a really big opportunity right now to bring journalism much closer to the other creative media industries, and this could have some important outcomes for our industry and our academic work: at both a practical level, but also at the political level, and in industry mindsets.

I know Skillset are ‘taking it cautiously’ with publishing due to the traditions and history, but we could take the opportunity to reframe journalism away from the idea as a ‘craft of writing’ into the frame of a ’skillset for creative media journalism’ at the policy level.

Finally, I really liked Kevin Anderson’s point that this is the biggest opportunity for journalists to build a business. Absolutely. the NCTJ have, in response to industry, just introduced a new exam as part of their accreditation called the Business of Magazines. I’m looking forward to teaching it next year — I want all 14 students on that module being inspired, when they leave, to think they could create their own journalism practice as they want it, and have the acumen to do it.

Related posts:

1. Your views: teaching journalism at degree level Q. What do you think are the benefits for new...
2. Journalism: craft or profession? Its essay time. And the proactive students are asking questions...
3. Networked journalism to cover climate change How can citizen media help improve the mainstream and commercial...
4. Nick Davies’ Flat Earth News and education Last Friday I heard Nick Davies present at the Association...
5. Long live ‘networked journalism’ Citizen journalism is the process by which the group (formerly...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

View blog reactions