In the second part of my research working out what lecturers should teach journalists I set out some of the key skills journalists need to learn.
The original research questions are set out here
What to teach? Technically
As the Online Journalism Blog advocates, ‘technology is not a strategy: it’s a tool’. In an attempt to decide what technical tools to focus on within curriculum design, a qualitative assessment of social media being used by professionals can help. The University of Central Lancashire Meld Pathfinder project (Egglestone 2008) is an innovative collaboration between Uclan’s Department of Journalism, Sandbox and journalists from the BBC, Sky News, the Times, the Independent, Haymarket Media, Johnston Press and Trinity Mirror. Editors, designers, reporters and filmmakers are turning their attention to what the media landscape might look like in a decade - and to the skills journalists will need to work in this new world. I have also used blogs and feedback from professional journalists as an invaluable source of commentary about what is being used in newsrooms, and can be used as a fundamental acknowledgement of relevance in a pedagogic setting.
The skills set for a modern day journalist is certainly extensive – and this leaves many journalism lecturers who consider themselves to be ‘print’ or ‘broadcast’ feeling overwhelmed. The Bivings Report (2008) has carried out numerous quantitative assessments of the tools being used in newsrooms. Paul Bradshaw, lecturer at Birmingham City University, and creator of the Online Journalism Blog, advocates the need for students to be competent with file sharing and networking. Mashable: the social media guide presents several posts on what journalism curricula needs to include along with a relevant check list from Vadim Lavrusik (2009). Social media strategist Woody Lewis goes as far as stating: ‘Social journalism is more than a buzzword, it’s the way social media will save the industry.’
Due to space and resource limitations this paper attempts to set out a qualitative summary of the key technical social media tools journalism students need to master. Ultimately the emphasis when teaching social media needs to be concepts rather than brands – and their power as a journalistic tool:
• Publishing for the web – writing Understanding self publishing – ‘the essence of blogs is dialogue – that blogs invite people to engage in a conversation about a myriad of topics’ (Smuddle 2005). Writing for the web as a new writing skill, linking and collaboration
Classroom example: Blogger, wordpress, typepad
• Publishing for the web – Videoing and multimedia content creation
Classroom example: Qik.com, Bambuser,Mogulus.com, uStream.tv, Spinvox, YouTube.com, Vimeo.com, Viddler.com, Jumpcut.com
• Publishing for the web - Live interaction and compilation software
Classroom example: CoveritLive, Yahoo Pipes, Google Maps
• Publishing with social tools such as bookmarking and file sharing sites to meet the audience where they are. Here the emphasis is on the creation of folksonomies (Godwin-Jones 2006) and the consensual classification of data as a democratic application of the semantic web.
Classroom example, Flickr, Delicious, Digg it, Stumbleupon
• Promoting content and driving traffic to news websites by engaging with relevant social networks (more online events or making the most of user generated content)
Classroom examples: Tweetburner, Feedburner, Ping.fm, Second life
Hi5, Frendster, Beebo, Facebook, MySpace, Blackplanet, Xanga
• Interviewing in relevant formats to embed directly onto online posts and sites
Classroom examples: Skype or Adobe Breeze, Vuvox.com
Spinvox, SproutBuilder.com, Utterz.com
• Crowdsourcing using social media
Classroom example: British start-up Yoosk is an effective way of gathering questions while Twitter can build community. Ask500people.com can poll
• Relevant online searches and trend tracking
Classroom examples: search.twitter.com, Hashtags.org, Technorati, Twellow.com, Twellow and TweetScan Technorati Icerocket, Blogpulse)
• Computer assisted reporting and finding stories
Classroom examples: http://www.alertnet.org/mediabridge/ http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk/weekahead.shtml
https://profnet.prnewswire.com/
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