Signature May/June 2015 - (Page 40)

"The skillsets were similar - everybody needs to be web-literate, able to create and send photos, understand social media and measure its reach, shoot video," she says. "We [decided] we would have one degree, and it's journalism." Similarly, the University of Colorado, Boulder, closed its journalism school in 2011 and launched the College of Media, Communication & Information in 2014. The new college combines seven different departments, including journalism, that are centered around media and technology. It is the first new college at CU in 50 years, so it represents a big commitment by the university and an opportunity for students to learn about all the new-media world has to offer. According to Chris Braider, CU's director of journalism and mass communication, "The big driver, of course, is the transformation in the ways that digital technology has changed or ruined business plans, such as advertising, which has been undermined until it's difficult to make the kinds of profits that larger publications need to survive." The effect may have been less dramatic for smaller publications that have closer relationships to their communities, he notes. Braider cites the "atomization, or even balkanization, of reading and viewing publics" as another important changedriver, creating "less of a consensus on what equals a reliable news source and less of a bond between the media and the public, making it harder to find one large public that you can minister to and profit from." However, he adds, "as newspapers dwindle in importance, other sources of information arise, such as online, websites, new organizations, and new funding streams" - including associations. Braider notes that "the big national trend is very much in the direction of diversifying the technical side of journalism." "Writing is still the key, but now students can shoot and edit their own stories, stream and flow information from the field, understand big data, code, and put 40 MAY/JUNE 15 signature "The global environment and technology of new media are evolving so rapidly that people can't keep up. We're looking at how to address this and incorporate it into our programs. " -Bonnie J. Brownlee, Ph.D., The Media School, Indiana University apps together," he says. "We are creating generalists who also can function in a niche." The program aims to help its students understand "how average people use social media to get and use information" and is "flexible enough to pursue a variety of different careers," he adds. The economics of media are driving changes in journalism education and journalism jobs, according to Bonnie J. Brownlee, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Journalism at The Media School at Indiana University-Bloomington. "The global environment and technology of new media are evolving so rapidly that people can't keep up. We're looking at how to address this and incorporate it into our programs." The Indiana program emphasizes accreditation since 1948, and retaining that symbol of professionalism requires the school to "adhere to certain values and competencies," she says. "Accuracy, writing, visual, numbers, law, history, ethics, the fundamentals of responsible journalism - those don't change over time - but we're changing how we do it through computers, camera phones, and other aspects of the digital and social media environment. We're adhering to the traditional values, but with new tools." Jon Marshall, assistant professor and director of graduate education at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, says, "Obviously, we're seeing the world becoming more digital and interactive in terms of where people are getting information. Information is also more global. People can interact with journalists and create their own information." Medill is "constantly updating" the digital interactive piece of its approach because that's what happens in the real world, Marshall says. Medill is responding in part, Marshall says, by adding student trips to other countries - Israel, South Africa, Chile, Uganda, and the European Union. "Journalists now and in the future will need to understand the world at large," he says. A long-standing fifth semester lets students "live in" at media organizations. About 25 percent of its students are international. The main trend at the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University is "convergence among specific tracks - radio/TV on one side, print on the other - into new platforms," according to Michelle Ferrier, associate dean for innovation, research/creative activity, and graduate studies, who is also responsible for international programs and has an association background, having previously worked for the then-Greater Washington Society of Association Executives. She encourages a pathway that lets students combine "a passion for journalism with a mission-driven focus." Separate tracks come together based on the skills students need to function as journalists online and in social media, she says. "We're crossing from what journal-

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Signature May/June 2015

Under the Covers
Members Only
Readers Write
AM&P Annual Meeting and Excel Awards Preview
Short Runs
Welcome to Planet Mobile-First
An Alternative World
Journals Secure a Future
Meet the Modern-Day Journalist
Profiles in Publishing
Legal Ease
New Editions
Signing Off

Signature May/June 2015