This summer, my Temple had a social gathering for college students at a Dallas Starbucks. The entire night, I was so proud to tell people I studied journalism at the University of Kansas. Then, I talked to a freshman who said he would study journalism at Missouri this year (I know, boo for Missouri, but I've heard great things about its journalism school).
He said that starting this year, it would be mandatory at Missouri for journalism undergraduates to have a laptop.
This boggled my mind. But just because technology is advancing, does that mean journalism schools should alter their curriculum to conform to technology? I'm here to say it shouldn't.
We should be getting exactly what we're getting now for a $30,000 journalism school education at Kansas. Technology is advancing, but it's also constantly changing. Kansas would have to change its identity on a yearly basis if it changes with technology advances. What if the technologies fail? That's why new classes are offered for the changing, but proven technology of our time. That's why we're in this class. This doesn't happen every year though. It's one thing to upgrade programs and get new computers. It's another thing to change the teaching on what makes news, for example.
The elements of news are concepts that were taught since Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1450's. I took Research and Writing last year and learned the TIPCUP (timeliness, impact, proximity, conflict, unusual, prominence) acronym. If a fraternity gets kicked off campus, it's news now and will still be news 20 years from now.
I can tell everyone from experience that a journalism school education will gain students more than just training and documentation for a resume. I worked for an executive search firm this summer as an intern, in large part because of my involvement with the J-School at Kansas. The job was off the path of journalism, but involved many skills I learned in Lawrence, such as interviewing on the phone, computer skills and working in a professional atmosphere. Even though it was an internship, I'd like to think that a journalism school education can take individuals to jobs in journalism or other areas of expertise.
I look forward to 20 years from now when I revisit the University. Although it will likely have updated computers and programming equipment, Research and Writing classes will still be learning about TIPCUP.
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