Sunday, February 11, 2007

Poynter Online: Which J-Schools Are Really Keeping Pace with Online Media?

From Amy Gahran:

"I'm glad that many J-schools are starting to offer resources for interactive design and Web site development. However, the truth is that those topics represent what was coolest and most powerful about online media several years ago. Online media has expanded in far more compelling and engaging directions since then."

Comment: This is certainly true for Rowan -- this is our third year for basic web production and writing for the web, but we haven't even begun to address some of the newest trends. The most interesting thing to me is how skeptical some of my students have been about things like citizen journalism, and how unfamiliar they are with things like podcasting. I'm still trying to figure out whether they came into the program with this bias or if they have learned to accept the conventional wisdom on which most of the department's other classes are based. In any case, it's very hard to keep up, especially in an academic setting where adding a new course to the curriculum takes at least a year.