Digital technology, failing economy mean studentsneed to learn new mindset, skill sets to get jobsBarely a week goes by without a newspaper or television station announcing it's slashing staff or cutting a newscast or publication days. Without a public relations or advertising agency losing accounts and staff. Even by the most conservative estimate, more than 5,000 media job cuts took place in 2008. The Pew Research Center estimates there have been a couple thousand more jobs lost each month this year.
their students' careers are going to look like. Revisions in the curriculum now take into account whether students can develop an understanding of where the niche areas are so that they can prepare to serve that particular group rather than writing for a mass audience. The focus is shifting to multimedia and multiplatform communication in an entrepreneurial environment, says Jeff Fruit, interim dean of Kent's College of Communication and Information. "You don't have to be great at everything, but you have to be pretty good at something in addition to your base skill set, and literate in the rest," says Fruit. JMC'S FOUNDATION WILL NOT CHANGE Journalism at Kent State has been about solid reporting and writing for decades, and it always will be. But there's also an emphasis now on doing that reporting across media and on producing stories with words and multimedia. There are new mindsets and skill sets for this generation of students. In addition, Fruit says students and workers now in news media need to develop entrepreneurial skills to be prepared for "multiple career shifts and doing a range of work for a range of different people, or for yourself over the course of your career." For at least the near term future, those skills will focus on the Web and other digital media. Annenberg's Center for Digital Future reported that newspaper reading on the Internet increased 22 percent since 2007. Americans now spend 53 minutes weekly consuming news online, and nearly a quarter of them have dropped their print subscriptions. FOCUS NOW ON THE WEB Though there still are people who turn on their televisions or read the morning paper for "breaking news," the trend clearly is shifting toward online. Web sites now compete with television when the audience wants updates on the crash landing of an airplane in the Hudson River or of riot during a spring college fest in Kent. What has changed today is not what needs to be reported, but how we gather and distribute the information. M.L. Schultze, assistant director of programming and operations for WKSU-FM, has spent 25 years in the news business. She says it's no longer viable to use just one medium to tell a story. But, she says it's also not that hard to tell a story across platforms. "Some of the mechanics have changed, but not the purpose," she declares. Beyond that, there are those who believe the way we plan our careers has to change, that the day of spending 25 years with one company is pretty much over. That means today's students will need a much more entrepreneurial mindset. They may work for multiple employers, selling their skills on a monthly or project-by-project basis. It's not just the news profession that is being battered by the changes. Schools of journalism and mass communication also are alert to what's going on and are trying to keep their philosophies and course offerings up to date.
Sijan Baral contributed to reporting and writing this report |
Other parts of the story Technology, economy drive JMC changes News students need to report across platforms PR, advertising students need more online skills Media production students learn about Web JMC curriculum is changing, sometimes slowly |