The J-school Revealed

Is a journalism school necessary? There is a big change going on around the world of journalism. Regrettably, the students who aspire to be journalists are not receiving the training from their journalism schools to deal with such change. Journalism no longer only revolves around writing; it also includes delving into electronic blogging and becoming an expert in the social media. Patrick Thornton writes an article titled, "Let's be honest about J-school" and explores the realism and point of attending a journalism school.

It has been said that the journalism schools (also known as the J-schools) that have been very prestigious in the past are of no longer relevance to the way journalism is explored today. So the times are changing but the J-school curriculum basically stays the same; this resulting in outdated information. What is needed is the type of program that can educate the students on how to become entrepreneurs and to launch their own ventures. In this program, the fact that the social web is a reality and predominantly active in the here, the now and the future of journalism needs to be apparent. A high-quality J-school possibly has the tools to assist in cultivating the students’ intuition and build a foundation for good journalism but it definitely cannot instill in someone the passion to assist in the developing and progression of journalism. The educators are another concern when it comes to the success of teaching journalism appropriately. If the teachers do not have experience in journalism as it is in the world of today (blogging and web activity etc.) then how are they supposed to convey their knowledge to their students?

One way of getting ahead in the journalism world is to have connections. One would think that getting together with people who went to a J-school would be an ideal connection, however, many more relationships are built and form via the internet and blogging; it has a wider network of people to reach out to. There are many other ways of attaining and nurturing your talent than that of going to a J-school; BeatBlogging.Org is one of the sites that Patrick mentions that could help.

Finally, journalists don't just write long articles of nothing, they add passion to the great reporting they produce.