Monday, April 03, 2006

Who needs ink?

If, like me, you were out of town over spring break and couldn't attend "Who Needs Ink?" the March 30 Commonwealth Club forum on the future of newspapers, you can read JMC grad student Ryan Sholin's blog post on that event or listen to JMC Alum Steve Sloan's 13-minute edupodder podcast on it.

Sloan asked the panelists (including Joan Walsh of Salon.com, Jerry Ceppos and Dan Gillmor of the Center for Citizen Media) how journalism students should respond to a rapidly changing media environment. Here are a couple of excerpts:
"Learn how to be curious, how to think, how to ask good questions," said Gillmor, who advised students not to worry yet about what the medium will be, but to make sure they are "conversant, if not fluent, in different media formats, including audio, video and writing."

"There's always been uncertainty for journalism students," said Walsh, adding, "Go out and make yourself a great storyteller, and the rest will follow."

After the depressing uncertainty of the Knight Ridder buyout, I found their comments moderately encouraging. Maybe you will too.

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