Allan Richard's "Deconstructing 'Intro to Journalism'" - a must read!

Allan Richard's article "Deconstructing 'Intro to Journalism'" was published by OJR on Feb. 15. It is a must for all interested in journalism education and the future of journalism.

For the complete article, go to http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/allanrichards/201102/1943/.

Here is an excerpt from it:

By Allan Richards

At the end of the spring 2010 semester, the chair of our journalism department at Florida International University in Miami asked me if I would teach the Introduction to Journalism course in summer. I was reluctant as I had inaugurated and been teaching the department's online journalism capstone course - our most advanced journalism skills class - since spring 2002.
For eight years I had challenged students (20 to a class) to produce theme-based online journalism projects, i.e. Miami's soaring HIV/AIDS rates or the local impact of hurricanes Wilma and Katrina. Students had to build and develop a site, write articles and integrate digital photos, graphics and videos into seamless multimedia packages—all in a three-month semester. (See: "Zero to Launch in Three Months," OJR, May, 2006.)

The idea of teaching the intro class, I thought, wouldn't make the best use of my skills as I was the school's senior-most multimedia journalism professor. It had also been a long time since I had taught a core course. I had never taught Intro to Journalism, and there was little time to put together a condensed six-week summer version. So I initially declined.

But as associate dean I am responsible for overseeing the school's curriculum, and the more I thought about it the more I started to think that this would give me a chance to review and assess what incoming students were being taught and whether that part of our program had evolved with the changes in the media.

Our Intro to Journalism course has traditionally been taught as a lecture course, with a cap of 90 students, built around a textbook that focused on the historical analysis of journalism and its impact on American society, a course that professors generally graded through quizzes, a mid-term and final. While that might have been appropriate 10 years ago, it seemed outdated. Today's Introduction to Journalism had to go far beyond a discussion of the historical evolution of our free press and the principles and values of journalism. The course had to include the digital age.

But more, I wondered, should an introductory course to journalism simply be a lecture course? As anyone who has taught online journalism knows, each semester's class potentially could be different from the last because of new software and emerging media. I had spent nearly a decade frenetically experimenting, merging digital advances with journalistic principles like a wild alchemist so that the distillate of each class would help keep journalism education current, and would prepare students for the evolving media.

The more I mulled this over, the more I saw this as a timely opportunity. It seemed to me that if citizen journalists, who are frequently untrained writers, are now contributing content to newspaper websites such as The Miami Herald and The Seattle Times, that journalism students' training and participation in journalism should begin sooner not later--and in an intro course. When television emerged, a student couldn't have a do-it-yourself approach and produce a journalistic product within minutes. But students' familiarity with technology and social media and photo-sharing sites, on which they already message, and upload videos they've shot seemed to make this the perfect time for a new experiment. The object would now be to embed some components from my senior online reporting course into the intro course so that students could begin their digital training before they entered the skills segment of our program.

If this were successful, the students then would have two more years to develop journalism fundamentals and multimedia skills and would emerge from the program as more sophisticated digital reporters.

But this wasn't just about developing technical know-how. I also wanted students to start writing even before they got into the program. This is Miami—-our university is a minority public institution of 42,000 students. Our School of Journalism and Mass Communication has roughly 2,000, with 69 percent Hispanic and 11 percent African-American. In response to the large influx of Latinos and serious ESL issues, we had developed a rigorous grammar testing and writing program. The sooner I could read their writing, the sooner I could start addressing the quality of their work.

More, our journalism department had partnered with The Miami Herald, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel and The Palm Beach Post in a complex student-based content-sharing project called the South Florida News Service. Started in January 2009, at the height of the recession and in response to the massive cutbacks in newsrooms, our students were contributing articles and multimedia packages for all three newspapers. The news service had been working out of my online reporting class as an independent operation. By summer 2010, the students-—mostly seniors with a handful of newly graduated students--had been producing over 50 stories a semester for the newspapers. But we faced the same challenges that every news service or project-oriented class faces: classes only last three months and students move on.

Earlier in the year, Nicholas Lemann, Dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, visited our campus with media scholar Michael Schudson. Schudson had mentioned our news service in "The Reconstruction of American Journalism," the article he co-authored with Len Downie, and he wanted to see how it operated. Lemann aptly described project-oriented classes as "an orchid that blossoms and soon dies." Chris Delboni, the South Florida News Service's director and former Washington correspondent for the Brazilian press, and I had been trying to fend off that dilemma by allowing newly graduated reporters to continue to report for the news service as they looked for work in the very tight job market. But by summer 2010, we decided the news service should be devoted to only students in our journalism program.

We thought we could solve our "dying orchid" problem by having Delboni recruit students from my intro class and see which ones blossomed early.

"We needed to develop a reliable and steady reporting staff, which we realized would not be possible if we worked only with seniors," Delboni said.

"We thought this could be an innovative path to grow mature journalists, who would have clear and solid traditional values combined with new media--visual skills necessary for the modern newsroom and the competitive job market.  We anticipated this might be journalism in the rawest form, because we would be working with sophomores and juniors, but I was willing to work with them and groom them."

Updating the course to include the digital components and recruiting students for our news service gave me two powerful reasons to try to reconstruct Intro to Journalism into a more action-oriented class.

Read more: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/allanrichards/201102/1943/

Spring 2011 - first thoughts!

If the first two weeks this semester can serve as an indication, it seems we have found the right balance for a successful South Florida News Service at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Florida International University.

The answer began when we started last summer accepting students with little experience but enough passion and enthusiasm.  They were taking Intro to Journalism with professor Allan Richards, associate dean at the school.

Now, two semesters later, student interest shows we are developing a solid structure and working cycle of reporters that could generate the foundation of the next generation of journalists.

For the first time, I visited several classes right in the beginning of the semester, received many inquires and have added about 20 new students to our team.  They come from different levels of experience and backgrounds, essential to our newsroom's balance and diversity, especially diversity of ideas.  These students bring many news stories untold and unseen by reporters in the field who no longer have enough time to “see” and look for them, which should never stop being part of our mission as journalists - as we are many times the eyes and ears of our readers and our communities.

Spring 2011 - Photo by Josh Shear

We all know journalism education has always given students the theoretical understanding of what it meant to be a reporter in the field.  But only newsroom experience would give them the necessary training to excel.  Now, with the shortage of reporters and editors, there is little time to train young reporters after graduation. They must come in with skills – both traditional and new media, enough training, ethics and the right attitude to even get an internship many times. 

Currently on the second year of the program, we seem to have found the equilibrium that reflects the professional standards required by our clients, such as The Miami Herald, The Sun-Sentinel and The Palm Beach Post, and developed a model to close the cycle from journalism education to the newsrooms.  

The structure we are building, thanks greatly to Richard’s vision to incorporate the young and inexperienced into the program, should fulfill this gap and as a result create a future that reflects the foundation of journalism for the 21^st century.

I would like to take the opportunity to welcome our new team of reporters and thank all FIU faculty and newspaper editors who are making this happen.  I hope we have a great semester!

Some thoughts about journalism and the SFNS - past, present and future!

The South Florida News Service at Florida International University, now in its second year and operating year-round in full force, is living proof that journalism is alive and well, simply going through a necessary transformation to revamp its quality. 

In a year, we have published about 140 stories in The Miami Herald, The Sun-Sentinel and The Palm Beach Post – and posted more than a dozen videos on the corresponding websites.

We all know there are challenges - but many more opportunities are yet ahead for the right kind of journalist that holds dear the fundamental values of accuracy, balance and fairness while maintaining an open and positive attitude. 

Zaimarie De Guzman is one of them.  She is an example of the kind of journalist we are forming through a model of journalism education that fully trains students for the real world.

It is not enough anymore to be just a good journalist.  It takes more than reporting, writing and multimedia skills to succeed in today’s newsrooms.  The success stories come from flexibility, humility and true commitment to journalism. 

De Guzman joined the SFNS in the spring 2010, the semester she was graduating.    She immediately showed a natural instinct for news and enormous dedication and persistency.  With some mentoring, she blossomed into a great reporter and writer and was soon selected to become the first student to be embedded as a reporter at The Palm Beach Post. 

“I had deadlines [at the SFNS], interviews and meetings,” De Guzman said. “I had to drive in neighborhoods I had never been in before.  I had to talk to highly influential people in the community.  I had to dig deep for the facts.  It didn't get any more real than that.”

She soon started publishing on a regular basis and built a solid portfolio, which led her to an internship in Stuart, Fla.

“What I learned from the service allowed me to succeed in an internship at Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers, which was recommended to me by Allan Richards,” De Guzman said.

As the summer internship was ending, De Guzman – a print journalism student - was offered a full time job as a multimedia journalist at the Stuart News and has recently published a powerful op-ed piece at the paper.

“Had I not participated in SFNS, I would have never learned to be a professional and perfectionist at what I do,” De Guzman said.  “Though a bachelor’s degree is very important to employers, what counts is experience, personality and professionalism, and those are three of the many things I learned with the service.”

That’s precisely what students and faculty at The School of Journalism and Mass Communication at FIU heard this semester at Scripps Day 2010.

It came out clearly in conversations throughout that day that Scripps is hiring – but only the right kind of journalists, the ones we hope to create at FIU.

Christin Erazo, who graduated in the fall 2009 and like De Guzman worked closely with the SFNS and The Palm Beach Post, is another one.

“As recognition for the news service grew, so did employer's interest in my resume,” said Erazo who is also currently working under a year fellowship for Scripps Treasure Coast Papers in Stuart.  “Employers nowadays are looking for applicants with experience and ambition, and being part of an organization as dynamic as the South Florida News Service, reflects those qualities,” she said.   “I have to thank the SFNS for creating the building blocks to my success.”

Both De Guzman and Erazo are a product of the first phase of the SFNS, when we were still building credibility with newspaper editors and creating the buzz at school, so we could generate interest in the right kind of student. 

We initially thought graduating seniors would be the best candidates, as they had the necessary skills to produce the articles.   But we soon learned that it wasn’t only the skills that made De Guzman and Erazo succeed.  It was their passion for journalism, their positive attitude, their willingness to learn and their commitment to be a better journalist every time they report and write a story that have got them hired.

The SFNS is still open to graduating seniors, but the program is no longer embedded in any course directly.  We work in partnership with all professors and classes, but each student must apply as if for a job.  Everyone in the SJMC is invited to participate in the weekly news meetings and pitch story ideas.  But only those who show up regularly, contribute and actually publish can fully join the service and get a press credential.

We currently have about 30 students enrolled on an experimental basis but “hired” only four this semester.  They are all young and will stay in school for another year or two, enough time to prepare them well for a successful career in journalism.

Silvana Ordonez is one of them.  She had her first official encounter with journalism this fall, when she took Introduction to Journalism with Allan Richards, SJMC associate dean and the vision behind the SFNS.  Ordonez has since published a couple of stories at The Miami Herald, has one ready to be published and is finishing another one.

“South Florida News Service is an incredible opportunity for students in the field of journalism to gain real experience, exposure and the right training to be ready for a job right after graduation,” Ordonez said.  “The SFNS is giving me the right tools to develop my career as a journalist, and I think that it will be the path to many job opportunities.”

Amelia Gonzalez, who started working with the SFNS in the summer, agrees.

“I can honestly say that the SFNS is the best thing that has happened to me in my three years of college,” she said, adding that it has given her confidence as a reporter.  “The SFNS has turned me into a watchdog, just waiting to smell the news.”

Gonzalez is the next in line to become the SFNS correspondent at The Palm Beach Post in the beginning of the year  - and another student, Isadora Rangel, who just graduated, was selected for the prestigious New York Times Student Journalism Institute, which will take place Jan. 2-16 at FIU.  After that, she will be moving to Stuart, following the footsteps of De Guzman and Erazo.

Thanks so much to all the editors, FIU faculty and students who have made the SFNS such great success!

We built, they came and they conquered!

Happy Holidays and a New Year full of hope for the future of journalism!!!

Good news!!

And there is hope!

Check out:

It's not your imagination, there are more journalism jobs

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/webjournalist/201012/1923/

By Robert Hernandez is a Web Journalism professor at USC Annenberg and co-creator of #wjchat, a weekly chat for Web Journalists held on Twitter. You can contact him by e-mail (r.hernandez@usc.edu) or through Twitter (@webjournalist). Yes, he's a tech/journo geek.

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