Glenn Frankel on Journalism Departments and Education

How are journalism schools adapting to the new media landscape? What are some of the major changes? (Tech investment, shift of focus etc)

GF: Like the industry they seek to serve, journalism schools have slowly but steadily awoken to the digital revolution and the vast changes it has wreaked. I don't want to overgeneralize---just like news organizations themselves, journalism schools come in many shapes and sizes and with different metabolisms and attitudes toward change. But there's a broad recognition that the old paradigms are shattered and that part of our role is to help shape the new ones.

Are there more students than before, fewer or about the same, and why?

GF: I think almost every school will tell you that enrollments are on the rise. This is partly because the old apprenticeship system---start at a small news organization like a weekly newspaper, pick up skills and experience from the veteran professionals there and work your way up the food chain---has been shattered. Even news editors who used to scoff at journalism school grads are now rethinking. Some students are parking themselves in school until the recession eases and seeking a credential that gives them an advantage in the highly competitive job market. But enrollments are also increasing because journalism, which is undergoing massive changes, remains an exciting, intellectually challenging and socially useful activity that teachers love to teach and students love to study.

What are the most important skills that journalism grads need?

GF: Journalism grads need a much wider range of skills than in the past when the ability to take good notes, process information and write coherent prose on deadline were the fundamental required tools. Now anyone who wants a meaningful job and role in the digital media news revolution will need to be comfortable working in a variety of platforms and will need to be able to podcast, take photos, shoot video and broadcast as well as write. They also need to understand the business side of journalism, the principles and practices of digital media entrepreneurship and of building a distinctive personal brand. They don't necessarily need to know how to write computer code, compose a business plan or launch a startup but they do need to know how to talk to the people who do. But technology is rampaging at breakneck speed and the specific tools we teach this year will almost certainly be obsolete in the very near future. Most important, therefore, is that we help students develop a command of the principles of good journalism and a commitment to public service.

What are some challenges that journalism schools are currently facing?

GF: See all of the above.

How many new journalism graduates are getting jobs, and what kind of
jobs are they getting?

GF: In my narrow, anecdotal observation, the jobs are beginning to return. They tend to be lower-paying than in the past, require more new media skills and can be extremely demanding, but they're out there. There are dozens of new news websites and content providers. Some may thrive while many may fail, but all of them are hungry for content and many are hiring. One Washington editor recently described it as the golden age of the entry level job.

Do internships still exist? If so, how have they changed?

GF: See the answer above. Internships are alive and well. Many pay little or nothing but offer a variety of experiences. Talented interns these days aren't just fetching coffee, but often find themselves plugging holes in coverage and taking on a broad range of assignments in organizations that have been thinned out by the recession, buyouts, layoffs and cutbacks.

Anything else you want to add?

GF: There's never been a more challenging, exciting and scary time to get into journalism, nor a more important moment. Our schools are in the front-line of the struggle over the future of American journalism because it's our students who will shape the new media world and our mission to help them develop the values, sensibility and tools to do so.

(Glenn Frankel is a Pulitzer Prize winner and former Washington Post editor and foreign correspondent. Frankel is the author of "Beyond the Promised Land: Jews and Arabs on the Hard Road to a New Israel," which won the National Jewish Book Award, and "Rivonia's Children: Three Families and the Cost of Conscience in White South Africa." He is working on a book about the true origins of the Texas legend that became the basis for John Ford's classic western "The Searchers."

He earned a bachelor's degree in American History from Columbia University. He has been a Professional Journalism Fellow at Stanford and an Alicia Patterson Fellow. http://www.utexas.edu/news/2010/06/07/journalism_frankel/)