In discussing the problems of the transition to converged newsrooms, Stovall takes up the issue of "backpack journalism" versus old-fashioned specialization. He cites Martha Stone as the representative of the traditionalist view; she argues that journalists must still specialize because if they try to do too much it will result in a "mediocre" product. Stovall dismisses this argument, saying the medium demands that editors and producers diversify, so they will.
But I think Stone has a good point. It seems to me the main reason editors have had to diversify their skills is that most organizations do not have the budget to hire as many "specialists" as they would need to maintain a strong web presence. This is a matter of economics -- most web sites are not yet profitable at this point, so most companies must rely on skeleton crews to handle them. It seems to me that once web divisions do start turning a profit then we will see a return to specialization as more revenue becomes available and more employees are hired.
Nonetheless, the W.A. White School has the laudable mission of graduating students with a diversity of skills for the marketplace, and the Multimedia Newsroom provides the perfect vehicle for such training. The challenge we face is similar to the one faced by "real" news organizations. How do we establish a web presence with limited resources? Students in the J-School are indeed "cheap labor," as someone in class said Wednesday, but we are pulled in various directions, by classes, by the Kansan, by KUJH or KJHK, and while we all theorize about convergence in classes we do not yet practice it habitually.
For our class project we have tried to think of ways to ensure ease of maintenance for future administrators. I hope we can achieve this, but ultimately no content management system can take the place of dedicated individuals. After all, we clearly want more than shovelware on the site. The MMN provides us with the infrastructure to facilitate a distinct web operation; we now have to establish the site, define the staff positions to be filled, and find the staff. Maybe future 694 classes will be our future web producers.
It will be hard work, and there will undoubtedly be some more false starts and blind alleys in the near future. But if we emerge this semester with a detailed and flexible plan for staffing and maintenance, then we'll have the foundation we need. And I think "if we build it, they will come" -- once we've established a concrete set of expectations for MMN process and content, students will be clamoring to participate.The average J-School student in the coming years will be increasingly attuned to the notion of converged media and will be more than eager to participate in this grand experiment. Our job is to provide the vehicle that will allow them to do so.
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