A high school journalism program can be a success even if it doesn't turn out students who wind up becoming professional journalists, two representatives of the American Society of News Editors say.That's because journalism courses teach skills that help students succeed in any field and become informed, media-savvy citizens, said Marty Kaiser (right), ASNE's president and editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
"I don't care if one student you teach goes into journalism," Kaiser told teachers attending the ASNE Reynolds High School Journalism Institute at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
"The advantage that they're going to have is to learn something about journalism and learn about news literacy and understand how to question what they read whether it's in the newspaper, whether it's online," he said.
Diana Mitsu Klos, ASNE's senior project director, said many studies have shown that high school students who study journalism do much better at achievement and standardized tests. That's because no other class or club does a better job of teaching the basic life skills of reading, writing, communicating effectively and thinking critically, she said.
"So whether or not your students become journalists they will possess the tools to excel at any job or any career," Klos said.
For me, this point brought to mind people such as Derrick Hall, a Cronkite School graduate who serves as president and CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and many journalism students and journalists I've seen go into other fields, including law and business. I enjoyed my 19 years with The Associated Press before moving into academia, but I've also enjoyed seeing classmates at my high school paper and in the University of Arizona journalism program succeed in journalism and many other fields.
Steve Elliott
Arizona State University
Phoenix
Posts
Both Diana Mitsu Klos and Marty Kaiser set the right tone to open the Institute. The future of Journalism is based in the classrooms, and our hallways, in the students and how they will shape their world. As the world changed with television and the internet, innovators have come forward to use these mediums to tell stories that can influence more people and affect them more deeply. Who knows what the stories of the future will look like, but it is important that we uphold freedom of speech and independent thinking.
ReplyDeleteTo all the members of the 2009 ASNE Reynolds program, I hope that you all enjoy it and learn as much from it as we did last summer. What a great experience you are about to have.
ReplyDeleteAs I listened to the speakers last night talk about how all of the new multi-media options on-line will allow print journalists to tell stories in new and exciting ways, I keep wondering the same thing: What will make a newspaper company different from a TV station then? Will the line blur between broadcast journalism and print journalism as TV stations go on-line with print stories and newspapers go on-line with slide shows and videos? What will the distinctions between the organizations be or will there be distinctions? Will there end up being a broader definition for journalism and not the distinctions between print and broadcast? Will future journalists have to be able to do it all for one multi-media organization rather than specialize in print or broadcast? These are the main question I have so far.
ReplyDeleteBecky, I think what we will find is that eventually news organizations will hire one person whose assignment will be to write a print story, shoot and (do whatever one does) to create a broadcast video, complete a radio story and shoot some digital still photos.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we'll be seeing students specialize in print only or broadcast only in the next few years.