I like this approach. It’s not an all-or-nothing concept that can intimidate students. It’s important to focus on one medium or another. Newspapers need people that focus on print, but that are familiar with broadcast and online journalism, as these elements become more prominent across media. Sidebars are increasingly pointing people to an outlet’s Web site for video or audio or for niche coverage. The major outlets seem to do this better than local outlets, however. I’m sure it’s a function of budgetary constraints and available talent.

Convergence is exciting, and it will be interesting to see where we end up. I find that I check news Web sites hourly during my day, but I still pick up a newspaper in the morning, and watch the evening news broadcasts. I use various media for specific reasons. I get breaking news from the internet, as I spend a lot of time in front of a computer. Then I turn to the TV broadcasts for real time coverage of something that may be developing, and that is of sufficient interest to me. I read the papers in the morning because of the depth of coverage available to print media. Eventually, I think, online content will overtake (not completely) both traditional print and broadcast outlets. Before we get to that point, though, there will be a lot of trial and error.

One thing

The practice of things is that this does not mesh very well with existing power structures and turf wars within schools and departments (and thus is not so different from the realities in the multimedia news organization I dare to say), nor does it work within the larger university bureaucracy (assigning credit hours, evaluation and grading templates, and generally speaking an all-powerful sitting print faculty that basically still thinks broadcast journalism is just ‘sensationalism’ and the internet is only good for repurposing what they have done all along…). Of course I know this observation is a caricature, but after 3 years of research in the US and elsewhere, it was the conclusion I came away with in 2004; perhaps things have changed.

To that I’d like to add something: how about the consequences for journalists to have to work together and establish trust-based relationships on a project basis with colleagues that not only just arrived, but are also likely (just as you are) to be leaving soon? I’m talking about the majority of part-time, flexible, temporary and especially contingent contracts in the news industry today.

That MUST have some effect on the way new(s) media work gets done, no?

I always thought students would learn more if they collaborated across class boundaries. Wouldn’t it be useful for reporting, design and photography students to collaborate on projects, instead of doing separate projects in a weird vacuum? I think it’s possible to teach students about all aspects of journalism without diluting the focus on specialties.

In the case of many of those who choose to work for others, they jump from place to place because employers crave these people and keep bidding up the price for them. Add in a desire to keep working things fresh, and it is not surprise that many leave. (The nature of big media corporations seems to be to assume that once they’ve got you, you won’t leave voluntarily so they don’t need to entice you to stick around.)

So, getting to your point…. I don’t know that the people driving change in journalism care about job security. When the music stops, they’ll always have a chair, whether they own it or not. For everyone else, well, not to sound too harsh, but it seems to me that the smart thing to do is to become one of those innovators, rather than sitting around worrying about how those innovators’ work will affect you.

In my opinion, much of what innovators are working on is misguided and will fail. (As is always the case with innovation.) The trick is, of course, to know which innovations will succeed. No one’s got the market on that cornered, so there’s room for more journalists to try.

I’d appreciate a take on this from you and OJR readers. But perhaps I am overstating the importance of things like job security, technostress, portfolio worklives, professional identity?

I’ll admit to still being at the surface in understanding this medium. But give us a hint: What path do we take to find intuition? Is it about the gut feeling we have when we connect with an audience? The instinct that tells us what’s phony or not on a blog? The look and feel of a good site? It’s an intriguing point you make. More signposts would be welcome. Larry Pryor

This medium is about intuition. I didn’t see you address that yet.

Cheers,
Rod
http://smoke.cf.huffingtonpost.com/