Study: news industry training seriously lacking
Steve Safran March 28th, 2007
A new study from the Knight Foundation, Investing in the Future of News (PDF), finds that fewer outlets are, well, investing in the future of news. Nine in 10 news execs say they need more training. Nine in 10 journalists say they need more training, too. Only 30 percent of news outlets have increased their training budgets since 2002, and 97 percent of news execs say their new hires don’t have the training they need. And there’s this: “Lack of training is the top source of dissatisfaction among journalists, ahead of pay and chances for promotion.” Writes Tim Porter at First Draft:
Keep in mind that news industry training is already pathetic compared to the averages of all U.S. industries — 0.4 percent of payroll for the news biz to 2.3 percent industry average, so when I see only three in 10 newsrooms spending more on their staffs I can only conclude, to borrow a pointed phrase from Eric Newton of Knight, only 30 percent of newspapers intend to survive.
The one bright spot - multimedia and new media training are increasing.
2 Comments Add your own
1. Charles | March 28th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
So… Maybe I DO need a journalism degree after all…. It’s not like I’d get any other training on the job!
2. John | March 29th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
“News Industry Training Seriously Lacking.”
In other moving headlines this week . . .
“Water Is Wet”
“Grass Is Green”
Where do I start? I wish I could fully reply to this, but my taxes are due in two and a half weeks, so I don’t have that kind of time.
Watch ANY — no, EVERY — local newscast and you will see the most basic “rules” of journalism violated every third sentence. Fat with cliches, awful grammar and the police talk it claims it avoids, TV writing is downright awful. And why with the present tense? “It sounds more immediate,” they say. That’s right; all my neighbors say stuff like, “I watch Channel 1 because their writing is more immediate, as if the story is happening right now, and that’s very important to me.”
And sure, this present tense sounds very conversational: “Four people are killed in a rush-hour accident involving three vehicles.” I always catch myself saying to friends, “Yeah, four people are killed.” I guess it’s better than “four people LOST THEIR LIVES . . . ”
“Excuse me, I seem to have lost my life. Has anyone seen my life around here?”
OK, sorry. I almost went off on a rant there.
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