Columbia Journalism Professor: Fuck New Media

from the playing-with-toys-indeed dept

Well, well, well. You want to know why some journalists seem to be having so much trouble adapting to a changing marketplace? Perhaps it's because the folks who are teaching them their trade are equally as clueless. We've certainly seen it before, but this latest one is pretty stunning. Jay Rose points us to the news that Columbia journalism professor Ari Goldman, who also is the coordinator for the school's big "Reading & Writing I" class (a core component at what's considered to be the top of the top in journalism schools), told his class on the first day: "Fuck new media" and said that new media training was just "playing with toys."

While his point (as clarified later) is clearly that journalism skills, by themselves, are separate from understanding new media (i.e., you can learn important journalism skills that have nothing to do with new media), it still highlights how poorly he's preparing some of these students (most, we'd hope, know better on their own). To be a successful journalist these days, will require a closer connection to the community -- and that's going to be done via these new media tools. Pretending that the process of doing journalism is entirely the same with or without these tools is wrong. The entire nature of journalism is changing, and those who say "fuck new media" may discover it works the other way around.

Filed Under: ari goldman, journalism, new media