When I became a journalist, the galleys had to be waxed before pasting them onto a page mock-up. When I transitioned to broadcast news, we wrote scripts on triplicate, carbon copy sheets.
The UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism has been seeking a new dean for two years. One newspaper says the final two candidates most recently under consideration pulled out because the J-school is seeking a multimedia dean, a seasoned journalist who is also current on the latest communications technologies: web news, online editing, social networking, the works.
The new standards also apply to everyday street reporters like me. It’s not enough to deliver an informative, accurate story. These days, journalists need to know how to produce content for the web, from blogs to shooting and editing video to using ‘facebook’ and ‘twitter’ to spread the news. How do you keep up and keep your job? There’s a long waiting line for multimedia training workshops. Recently laid-off journalists have to do more than send out resumes and clips. You must learn and invest in new skills to even be considered for a new job.
Lucky for me I now have an empty nest and technically, more time to make myself marketable, but becoming a super-journalist is a super challenge. I question how the time I’ve spent becoming “plugged in” takes away from my true calling: to find and tell the story, the old-fashioned way.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment