Best Young Journalists Aren’t Wired
May 19th, 2008 | by Brad King |The Society of Professional Journalists honored the top college journalists with its Mark of Excellence Awards on May 19.
“I encourage media executives who are looking for the next wave of high-quality journalists to pay attention to the winners of SPJ’s Mark of Excellence Awards.” said Neil Ralston, SPJ’s Vice President for Campus Chapter Affairs. “These young men and women represent some of the best that journalism programs have to offer, and we’re proud to be able to honor them at the national level.”
I know this because I pulled the announcement from this blog. What caught my attention this: Howard Owens decided to Google each of the award winners to find out what type of online presence each had.
The results were…disappointing. With few exceptions, these students had almost no online identity save for the occasional Facebook or Myspace profile or a college blog.
For those keeping score, this is not a point of pride. Journalists should be concerned about this.
I’m locked in a constant struggle with the journalism department at Northern Kentucky University on this issue. My students are slowly getting trained on technological tools, but we’ve met with resistance from the journalists who want much of what we do run through their department.
It’s frustrating for me, but I’m used to it; however, the battles have also gotten to some of my students who have — in the one survey I’ve done — said they have no desire to work in journalism because it doesn’t offer much to interest them.
Their digital life — one that involved interactivity, animation, design, story — has great meaning to them. More importantly, though, they aren’t looking for approval or respect from media types. They are looking for the approval of others like them: netizens.
Increasingly, journalism is trying to squeeze sand, pushing away those people who have the technical skills to create truly innovative products without realizing that quite soon — if not already — these people will compete with the journalists…and in a digital world, the technological folks will win.
Instead of working collaboratively, the Media appears headed towards a messy confrontation with the media. It certainly doesn’t have to be this way.
But when the award winners for the SPJ have little online presence, I have to wonder where the best and brightest think they’ll be working — or worse, who will be listening to them.
