The largest of the eight or so major projects I have on the schedule for the fast-departing summer break from classes is redesigning several of the core courses in our journalism program. Three of those courses used to have the word “newspaper” in them; now the word is “news.”
I’m moving the prime publication of those classes from a weekly print publication to an always-on online newspaper and throwing into the mix a healthy dose of multimedia. Most everybody is saying it has to be done, that this is the way of the future, etc., and while I fall mostly on the side of the debate, I’m also convinced that doing this will make my students better print journalists.
I believe that for a number of reasons. One is that working to a much tighter, continuous deadline, they’ll become faster at turning coverage into story. A second is that they will be exposed to the reality that the most efficient way to tell many stories, both in terms of their time and the time of their readers, is through well-written, crisply delivered text. A third is that rather than having to stretch and pad copy to fill a set number of pages each week, they can give each story the size it truly merits. A fourth is that they will develop the ability to tell a continuing story in bursts and they will discover that most stories never really end. And a fifth is that they will learn how to focus on the important elements of the story and get to them quickly.
They will also learn much more about working beats and how to identify the storytelling potential of combinations of photographs or charts and graphs. They will learn, I hope, how to interact not just with sources but with their readers.
And, when it comes to all that multimedia goodness, they will learn not that podcasts or video are things the cool kids do, but legitimate ways of storytelling when appropriately used. I expect them, of course, to experiment like crazy and occasionally fail spectacularly.
They’ll still do a printed newspaper, although only four issues instead of 10, and I expect great gains in their print reporting skills here, too. Each of the four issues will be themed (some serious theme, some lighter). Students will have to do much preliminary planning to work to identify the story potential for each of the themes. They will have to produce both long-form, in-depth articles that explore those themes, and the smaller supporting information packages and features to provide a rich, deep, comprehensive story. While the online publication forces quicknesses, the print publication will force thoughtful planning, deep reporting and the development of long-form storytelling skills.
It seems to me to be a win-win-win. The students get training and a chance to practice the multimedia storytelling skills that are becoming more important. At the same time, they develop and polish the skills needed to quickly produce effective journalism for either online or print. And they develop the thinking and writing muscles needed to go deep, which remains a key strength of print.
That, at any rate, is the concept. Dissenting opinion welcome.
TAGS: JOURNALISM, ONLINE, PRINT, TEACHING
No dissenting opinion here – that sounds like a fantastic idea. I especially like how this move will (hopefully) reinforce how important print journalism remains.