Everyone Is A 'New Media' Journalist These Days

from the it's-not-a-separate-function dept

Thu, Oct 16th 2008 9:47pm — Mike Masnick

A few years ago, we pointed out how silly it was for various companies to rush out and hire a "chief digital officer," noting that thinking digitally isn't a separate job function, but something that often needs to be considered across the board in many companies these days. That's certainly true in the journalism world, so it's good to see the new dean of Syracuse's School of Public Communications point out that they won't offer a special "new media" major for undergrads:

"All of our undergraduates need to be conversant with new media. And none of our students, no matter what their major, should be leaving Newhouse without having a basic understanding of the fundamentals of new media and how to tell stories on multiple platforms."

Hopefully, this lack of a specific major doesn't make people think that the school is ignoring new media, but that the school recognizes that new media isn't a silo, but influences things across the board.

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Filed Under: journalism, new media

4 Comments

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Brian, 16 Oct 2008 @ 10:15pm

Ten years ago, maybe it made sense. Or, for adult education as a "catch up with technology" training course, it makes sense. But for most college students, "new media" is the only media they know.
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Michael, 17 Oct 2008 @ 3:33am

I agree with you Brian. It is the college students that are usually the first to embrace the "New Media". It makes more sense to make it a part of all the areas of studies instead of individualizing it.
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Lucretious, 17 Oct 2008 @ 11:26am

Re:
while I agree with you in principle, its usually the parents that this kind of stuff appeals to (specifically labeling studies). The school should probably mention it in quotation marks at least to give parents the peace of mind they are looking for.
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another mike, 17 Oct 2008 @ 12:16pm

splitting off the bleeding edge as its own function is silly. as soon as something changes, all this stuff that's new media now becomes old media. yes, you need to keep up with progress, but "keeping up" hardly deserves its own major or cxo.
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