Since this is my first stint in journalism school, I don’t have any basis for figuring out whether things have changed in the last decade. I know that the practice of journalism has changed (at least in my little corner of the journalistic world) as we’ve moved from ink on paper as our only story-telling medium to ink/bits/pixels/handshakes/soundwaves on whatever will deliver them to the audience. I don’t think it’s a bad thing, though as I remember back to BYTE and Circuit Cellar INK our lives were somewhat calmer. Oh, well.

I started thinking about this when I was pointed at this article on the changes at Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. (Thanks to Mitch Wagner for the pointer.) As I read the article, a big part of me was asking, “What’s the big deal?” In my world, telling stories in a bunch of different ways is just part of the job, and there’s no shame in knowing who your audience is and what they need from your publication. I’ve been on the staff of publications that required editors to make regular reader calls–going down the list of subscribers and calling, say, 20 readers a month to find out how their lives were going, what they needed to know, and what their big concerns and issues were. I have trouble seeing this kind of knowledge as a bad thing.

Of course, some folks see the move to know the audience and think about different ways of telling stories as a short, slippery slope that leads directly to this kind of foolishness. What’s wrong with the Naples class? It’s hard to know where to start. How about here: I’m not that far removed from being the parent of a high-school student. In programs like band, each student was responsible for part of the cost of the program, but there were lots of opportunities to raise the money. I’m not thrilled about telling students they must do one particular fund-raising activity–I’m even less thrilled about tying it to a grade. Next comes the confusion of roles between journalists and sales folks in publishing. Now, if the class was simply called “The Newspaper”, and everyone did a bit of everything, then a strong case could be made for sales being a part of the mix–but that is, apparently, not the case. If you’re not part of the industry, here’s the deal: Salesmen don’t write stories, and journalists don’t sell ads. It’s a good system that keeps everyone honest and most people fairly happy. Finally, though, is the sheer cluelessness of the teacher who thought this would get no notice and no criticism.  That may be the most disturbing piece of the puzzle.

My goals don’t include teaching high school anything, but the discussions about how journalism should be taught are interesting, because they speak to what different people think journalism should be–and that’s a worthy (and changing) topic for discussion pretty much any time.

Categories: Media, Grad School