The Columbia Journalism School is one of the best at what it does. Or at least it was. Erica Orden’s piece in New York Magazine uncovers how the school is struggling mightily to remain relevant in today’s media environment.
First the New York Times announces that journalism students would help run its hyperlocal weblog project, “The Local.” Students not from the august Columbia Journalism School but rather from City University of New York (CUNY). Andy Newman, one of the Times reporters running the project disputes this in the article’s comments, writing that “The Local has four, count ‘em, interns from Columbia J-school: Haley Sweetland Edwards, Jeremy Herb, Sung Moss, and Alexandra Cheney.” Erica Orden is a graduate of the Columbia J-school; I guess she slept through the course on getting facts correct in basic reporting.
Then Columbia announces that starting this summer it will restructure its curriculum to encompass digital storytelling. Dean of Academic Affairs Bill Grueskin‘s plan is to update the school’s curriculum to reflect the new realities. Grueskin, the former managing editor of WSJ.com acknowledges that Columbia, while good at teaching the basics, hasn’t kept pace with the changing times in the mediasphere. Columbia is renowned for RW1, Reporting and Writing 1, the core curriculum of the journalism school and something of a legend. Grueskin tells Orden that he wants to see the course “‘transition… from a skill set to a mindset’ citing a live blog of a news event, followed by a slideshow, followed by a longer story a week later as an example of new media practices.”
Except not everyone is on board with Grueskin’s plans to overhaul Columbia’s program.
“Fuck new media,” Ari Goldman, former New York Times reporter and longtime coordinator of Columbia’s RW1 program, told his students on the first day of class, going on to say Gruesin’s emerging media plans amounted to “playing with toys.”
Goldman’s got a solid point as he expanded his views for Orden: “They need to know the ethics and history and practice of journalism before they become consumed with the mold they put it in, because the mold will change—the basics won’t.”
Columbia’s basic problem, Orden points out, is that most of the tenured faculty haven’t worked in emerging media so adjunct instructors have to be hired, busting the school’s budget. The school has attempted to circumvent the expense issue by re-training the faculty, but re-training is something of a luxury while the industry around it crumbles into dust.
If Columbia can’t figure this out, how can less luminous institutions? And as Columbia goes, so goes a large part of journalism itself.
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