‘Old thinking’ permeates major J school
Cory Bergman September 5th, 2008
One of the students at NYU’s journalism school gives it a good ripping on MediaShift. And from the looks of it, NYU deserves it. Writes Alana Taylor:
“(Professor) Quigley tells us we have to remember to bring in the hard copy of the New York Times every week. I take a deep sigh. Every single journalism class at NYU has required me to bring the bulky newspaper. I don’t understand why they don’t let us access the online version, get our current events news from other outlets, or even use our NYTimes app on the iPhone.”
You have to wonder if the newspaper industry would be in a different place today if journalism students were empowered to pursue more of their ideas. Instead, the old ways are foisted upon them before they even start their first job. (Of course, some journalism schools are working very hard to make the adjustment, and they should be commended.)
7 Comments Add your own
1. Safran | September 5th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Wow - that’s just like the course requirement was at BU school of journalism - in 1991.
2. Scott | September 6th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
If laptops are not required purchases… a hard copy of the paper would be the easiest for class discussions. Not everyone has an iphone or a laptop. While promoting “new media” is important in today’s J Schools… forgetting the “old media” would be a mistake. Newspapers may be dying… but more people still get their news that way than online.
3. wtf | September 7th, 2008 at 11:51 am
This Quigley guy should be working at a newspaper like all the other dinosaurs.
and re: Scott: what?
4. David Johnson | September 8th, 2008 at 7:36 am
how much is the annual subscription to the NYT?
$13.40 per week is $696.80 a year.
you can buy a decent laptop for that. of course, you can make paper maiche out of the old newsprint, but i wager the laptop is actually more useful…
i do not require my students to bring newspapers to class, but they do it anyway. i bring them myself also, and we talk about them and magazines, and watch tv news and surf sites…
5. treadly | September 8th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Unfortunately, the same went for TV in my college days. When us wet-behind-the-ears students asked of the great Prof, ’sir, what do you make of Cable TV?’ He said, ‘It’s just a way to get the signal to the boonies!’ How wrong he was!
6. Anonymous | September 8th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
How are you supposed to save the dinosaur you want to work for if you don’t BUY iT?
Gee, you pay 1000s of dollars to learn something and can’t afford a newspaper. Give it some thought, kids.
7. Dave | September 10th, 2008 at 11:01 am
It’s not that they can’t afford it. They don’t want it.
And you’re probably assuming too much to even think they want to work for “The Paper”.
Leave a Comment
(Please keep URLs out of the comment body or the spam filter will block you.)Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed