What Journalism Schools Should Be Teaching
The New Media revolution has left J-schools grasping for relevancy, writes Steve Boriss, who helpfully offers his blueprint for a 21st-century curriculum. Lesson one: the customer is always right.
Should those seeking careers in news go to journalism school? Can today’s j-schools — with faculties that consist almost entirely of Old Media experts and practitioners, courses about conventional media tactics, and premises built upon now-failing models of objectivity and verification — prepare students for the new world of New Media? Of course not. Here’s a list of courses that j-schools should be teaching.
Introduction to Journalism: Back to the Future — Journalists mistakenly believe that news has been continuously evolving toward better forms when, in fact, we are in the midst of a century-old trend. In the early 1900’s an attempt was made to transform journalism from the rough-and-tumble craft it had always been to a science producing verified, objective, unbiased truths. This now-laughable proposition was sustainable only while technology, economics, and government regulation limited the number of challenging voices. This course will cover the last 600 years in search of business models to which we will return. It will focus on the days before the printing press when news was spread by word of mouth and, like today, everyone was a potential creator, editor, and distributor of news.
Remedial Studies: The Role of the Press in America — With the Internet now allowing everyone to exercise their freedoms of expression, a clear understanding of the Founding Fathers’ vision for the press is essential to success in news. This course will teach the correct interpretation of the First Amendment — that just as everyone has the right to speak their views (freedom of speech), everyone also has the right to publish their views (freedom of the press). This amendment did not grant elite status and special rights to a clique known as “the press,” which did not exist as we now know it at the time the amendment was drafted. The course will also analyze Thomas Jefferson’s wishes that newspapers serve as a “fence” to prevent government from encroaching on individuals’ lives. This will correct journalists’ common practice of “jumping the fence” by presenting government as benevolent and the people’s private sector as the greatest threat to our freedom, swapping the ideas of Jefferson for those of Marx.
Business for Journalists — Many journalists have become disoriented, losing track of where they fit into our economy. Some believe they are engaged in a public service, a branch of government, or an activist movement. This course will clarify that virtually every journalist works in the private sector for organizations that must maximize profits. This knowledge will be helpful in the workplace, as journalists may from time to time wish to avoid declaring independence from the demands of their employers, stockholders, business competitors, and acquiring corporations. The course will also highlight that their audiences consist of “customers who are always right,” and not “citizens who must be spoon-fed what journalists believe.” In a work-study portion of the course that teaches the humility required for providing customer service to average Americans, students will be required to clean the public toilets in a Wal-Mart.
Technology for Journalists — As technology advances, journalists will be both enabled and required to be self-sufficient. This class will teach journalists how to use a variety of independence-granting technologies such as search engines, content management systems, social computing, and video cameras. Would-be photojournalists who believe that ordinary breaking news requires extraordinary cinematographic excellence will be encouraged to apply to the film school.
Creative, Entertaining, and Very Short Writing — As everything now known as “media” converges to the Internet, journalists will soon be competing for audiences against former newspapers/TV news, prime-time programming, movies, video games, blogs, and even porn. Many now-common styles will not remain competitive, including the use of serious and faux-authoritative tones, the pretense of objectivity, and “inverted pyramid” articles that become increasingly trivial and boring the deeper one reads. This course will explore a variety of alternative and entertaining styles, including humorous, warm, crusading, inspirational, empathetic, and titillating. Students will also learn how to write catchy headlines and compelling text in 300 words or less, recognizing the mouse-trigger-happy character of news consumers.
The Argument Clinic — Journalists must stop using their mastheads as shields, and engage their audiences in civil debate to defend the accuracy of their facts and the validity of their opinions. This course will teach journalists how to differentiate left vs. right thinking, recognize their own biases, and treat critics as customers to be persuaded, not moral or intellectual idiots. Students will be re-educated to understand that “bias” is not a four-letter word, but a new way to attract audiences as news transitions to a multitude of voices competing in a freewheeling marketplace of ideas.
Until such a curriculum exists, J-schools will be, as journalist Ted Koppel once said, “an absolute and total waste of time.” They will also be a place where old dogs teach obsolete tricks.
Steve Boriss blogs at The Future of News. He works for Washington University in St. Louis, where he is Associate Director of the Center for the Application of Information Technology (CAIT) and teaches a class called “The Future of News.”
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8 Comments
1. OmegaPaladin:This essay ignores what corporate journalists have as advantages over the average blogger, namely reputation and resources. Resources means that a news company can afford to send reporters all over and investigate multiple stories at the same time. Even Pajamas Media lacks this kind of advantage. Also, journalists can pick up a reputation for accuracy and striving for objectivity from their news company. This requires the use of professional standards, which have been lackluster recently. The right professional model is an encyclopedia. People still buy World Book and Britannica (or online access to them) because the want current information on topics that is up to date.
I’d also think that journalists should become more specialized. J-school should have specializations in various areas. A sci-tech / sports / government / military / regional reporter should have training in the field. Classes for military reporters, for example, should include the basic military science classes from ROTC training with special emphasis on opsec and classified materials. Readings here should focus on Ernie Pyle and Michael Yon.
Jan 2, 2008 - 5:19 am 2. Larry J:I’d also think that journalists should become more specialized. J-school should have specializations in various areas. A sci-tech / sports / government / military / regional reporter should have training in the field. Classes for military reporters, for example, should include the basic military science classes from ROTC training with special emphasis on opsec and classified materials. Readings here should focus on Ernie Pyle and Michael Yon.
I heartily concur. Frankly, most journalists come across as morons when they attempt to explain a technical subject and even worse when they write about the military. It’d be quite useful if they had a solid grounding in real world economics, too.
Jan 2, 2008 - 6:39 am 3. Steve Boriss:OmegaPaladin, Thanks for your comments. Regarding reputation, the Internet’s exposure of inaccuracies and bias has taken its toll on journalism. According to Pew Research, only 18% now believe newspapers are “highly believeable,” down from 27% a decade ago. Regarding resources, the NY Times now has 6 full-time reporters covering Iraq, fewer full-time reporters in a country at war than a typical local TV station has in a metro area. A new model is emerging where news will come from multitudes of sources, without the requirement that they are employees (e.g. look at how DrudgeReport has become a top 10 news outlet without any reporters). I agree with you on the importance of specialization, but don’t see the reason that students should go to journalism school to get it. Education and experience in those specific fields, that can turn them into experts, makes more sense to me.
Jan 2, 2008 - 6:44 am 4. Webutante:J-schools must also teach that as the over-caffeination of civilization increases and our attention spans decrease, writing shorter is not an option. That will make writers/reporters more skilled in sifting out the flotsam and getting to the point faster.
Jan 2, 2008 - 9:53 am 5. Curly Smith:It’s interesting that the rise of “objective journalism” coincides with the rise of the “expert” system of government where city managers replaced mayors, since those who run the city shouldn’t have to answer to voters who can’t be counted on to vote “the right way”. Of course, it’s just a different manifestation of the elitism that is firmly rooted in the big government, nanny-state Left so the leftward tilt of journalism is no surprise.
I disagree, somewhat, with the notion that articles have to be shorter. It’s much more important that they be interesting and informative. Unfortunately, much of what passes for journalism is mind-numbing dreck that clearly didn’t even interest the writer. However, something could be said for publishing 3 different versions of the articles: an executive summary with only the most salient facts, a management summary with more details, and the full article. The reader could then find the version that be suited their needs. It’s more work but one size doesn’t always fit all and it has the added benefit of forcing the writer to understand what’s important.
It would also be useful if the aspiring journalist understood that writing the same article that everybody else writes isn’t a selling point to the public. Sure, they’ll fit in with the “in crowd” but they won’t sell any papers. If I can read your article in 46 other papers by 46 different writers then why should I buy your paper? Journalists have to be the most conforming self-proclaimed non-conformists on the planet.
Jan 2, 2008 - 1:17 pm 6. Per Andreas:These are some good ideas, but a major part of the current curriculum for journalist schools will be valid in the future as well. The basic principles of news journalism does not change, and they need to be learned.
I disagree with the statement that internet journalism should be shorter. Titles must obviously be catchy, due to the competition for clicks. But, contrary to popular belief, I think the internet have lots of potential when it comes to long articles. The absent of physical barriers should imply longer – not shorter – stories (linkage considered too). And I have seen that the long stories gets far more hits than expected….
Jan 2, 2008 - 2:58 pm 7. Steve Boriss:Curly Smith, Per Andreas,
I agree with both of you that there will be a market for longer-form news. But given the short attention span of those with mice in their hands and the distraction of multitudes of sites, I think the bulk of news readers will be getting in and out of stories as quickly as possible. Moreover, look at the habits of young people — IM’ing and now text messaging seem sufficient for them.
Jan 2, 2008 - 3:41 pm 8. Per Andreas:Yeah, that sounds likely to me as well. But are there any research on the subject?
Again, I know from one of Norways main news sources that long “feature” stories get lots of reads (and people tend to read the entire stories as well). So I¬¥m not so sure that the overall focus in internet journalism, on short stories, is all for the good. That being said, surely the skill of writing short, accurate, news dispatches is vital
Jan 3, 2008 - 10:11 am