Under plans for the year starting September 2011 journalists on print courses will be taught broadcast skills, such as speaking to camera and editing. At the same time broadcast students will switch and be given a month-long course in how to write news and features. Some of the students from the international MA are also expected to complete the new multi-skilling course.
This model closely resembles the approach taken by American schools for post-graduate journalism such as Berkeley, where all incoming students learn to report through video, audio, and online mediums.
The move is one of several changes to the MA journalism programme at City designed to meet the media industry’s demand for multi-skilled journalists. Other changes include a new “entrepreneurial” module being considered for 2010, in which students will be taught business skills and how to make money from setting up their own media businesses, such as online magazines or smart phone apps. There will also be a new 24-hour online news and feature service – a hyperlocal news website.
George Brock, Head of Journalism, said of the developments: “We need to adapt to a world in which the balance between media may shift quite dramatically. Resilience and versatility must be our watchwords.
“It is increasingly likely that graduates emerging from City will be required to be multi-channel journalists. The job market isn’t what it was, and the chances that our graduates will work freelance or in smaller organisations are higher than they once were. We have to make sure we give students the skills to do this.”
Journalism MA programme director Barbara Rowlands said the different MA journalism pathways – such as magazines – would remain distinct for the moment because the industry still sees a distinction between the different skills each dicipline requires.
She said: “City is known for producing students with good traditional skills, but we’re moving forward – as staff we’re very excited about the changes.”
Media commentator and former Guardian editor Peter Preston said he believed students might struggle to become entirely multi-skilled, but praised Brock’s emphasis on a wide skill base.
He said: “Quite a lot of research shows that journalism students, and therefore the journalists of the future, can’t be equally at home doing print, broadcast and digital. There’s usually a weak link. But they can be exceptionally skilled at handling two areas of expertise – and how do you know which two until you’ve tried all three?”
The focus on multimedia work looks likely to culminate in the creation of a free-standing interactive journalism MA for September 2011. In the shorter term, course directors are being encouraged to embed online skills at every opportunity.
In another change, next year’s students will see their news stories about Camden or Islington posted straight onto a hyperlocal news website – a move inspired by the “teaching hospital” approach to journalism education pioneered at Columbia University.
Rowlands denied that existing modules on the larger print and broadcast courses would be scaled down in favour of entrepreneurial and online components. Instead, she suggested that teaching might have to go on further into the summer term, in which MA projects are usually written.
Brock said the plans for course reforms are not dependent on government funding. He believes that the journalism department is well placed to avoid significant financial cuts, despite concerns over possible reductions in Government funding to universities.
He said: “While the university at large will need to correct its running deficits, we are in pretty good financial shape, so we should come under relatively little pressure.”
By Becky Seales