Tomorrow's journalists today - In partnership with NCTJNew media and new journalism requires new approaches to journalism training. Chaired by: Martin Stanford, Sky News
Report by Hannah Waldram and Melanie Hall Journalists now will be better prepared for the future say three web enthusiasts whose training focused on online media tools. Ruth Barnett and Jane Omara are young journalists whose training represents a taste of the future. Both went down the route of traditional training, Miss Barnett to City University and Miss Omara at Sheffield Univeristy, but this included learning how to use new online tools such as video and audio editing.
She said: "What the audience wants is changing. There are many of us who just see ourselves as journalists and are happy to tell the story the way we can." Miss Barnett, who now works for Sky News, said she had to learn almost entirely on the job. "The industry changed from starting the course and finishing it." She said that traditional skills she learnt at City Univeristy such as Media Law and shorthand are still essential to the trainee journalist. "This old school training helped me be taken more seriously." Miss Omara talked about her indepth web training which has proved invaluable. She was taught how to use software such as Dreamweaver, photoshop and regularly produces video footage for the web. Paul Egglestone, Senior lecturer at the School of Media and Communication at University of Central Lancashire, talked about the 'New Media Factory' at the school. They have set up a pioneering new project, MELD, which aims to teach budding journalists essential online skills to promote innovative use of web media platforms. The school is working with the BBC to allow experts in online tools to tutor students. They have developed a project called pathfinder which aims to train broadcaster journalists in multi-platforms. The project includes 25 people from across the industry to talk about the key issues facing journalists of the future. Mr Egglestone said part of the MELD project was to discuss what journalism will look like for the future generation. He included in this hypothtical profile the fact that news organisations will be considerably smaller.
By Sam Malone and Dan Fisher NEW-ENTRANT journalists are not sufficiently trained to meet the demands of the modern news industry - a national survey of employers has shown. Donald Martin, editor of the Evening Times in Glasgow and chairman of the NCTJ qualifications committee revealed more than 70 per cent of employers reported a gap in skills of new journalists and those they need to run the buisness. Speaking at the Society of Editors conference Mr Martin said it was very important both training providers and employers work together and match the expectations and requirements of a fast changing multimedia industry. He said: "The research findings are bound to spark an imprtant debate on how new entrants should be trained to cope with the demands of convergence. Our mission is quality training to high relevant standards but we must be realistic and prioritise what can be achieved and get the right balance of traditional and new skills." While the survey showed a significant skills gap both employers and providers largely agreed which skills are the most important. Aspects to training courses such as media law and shorthand were generally still seen to be central to a journalists repetoire. Mr Martin added: "The core traditional skills of gathering the facts and wording them in a tight way remain paramount and are more important than the new skills," . Yet the survey also revealed employers now seek new entrants who are multi-skilled and comfortable working across different platforms. When asked why there was such a proliferation of courses with ‘journalism’ in the title by John Mair from Coventry University Mr Donald said there was a difference between courses which are media studies courses and not particularly journalistic. When asked why there was such a proliferation of courses with ‘journalism’ in the title said: “There’s a difference between courses which are media studies courses and not particularly journalistic” Donald said “There are hundreds of courses which are called journalism but it is important to remember that they are not all NCTJ accredited. I think it is important that the NCTJ remains a kite mark for good courses that will train journalists to the sufficient standards that employers want. The full report will be published in December and will be discussed further at the Journalism Skills Conference on December 4-5, 2008 in Salford. [<< back] |
Miss Barnett said she had reservations about the fashion for becoming a "jack of all trades".
The MELD students outlined some of the key attributes of the journalist of 2015, which included wider networking, knowledge of programmingbeing fully conversant with techonology and software such as viedo, blogging and twitter, use of media data and having to understand their audience.