With school, internships and other work, many aspiring journalists find it difficult to make time to study abroad. For many journalism students the main problem is finding a study abroad program that allows them to get academic credit and experience in the industry. Luckily, there are study abroad programs that give students the chance to study multimedia journalism and reporting while living in a foreign country. The Institute of Education for International Media (ieiMedia) is giving a small group of students the opportunity to study in Italy, France and Turkey for summer 2011. Any English-speaking journalism student or graduate from any school is welcome to attend and recieve academic credit.

These days, you can’t expect to simply walk in for an interview after graduation and land a job. As we’ve seen through the “Aspiring Journalists” interviews, you must begin preparing far before graduation. Through a series of articles, Holly Paul, PwC National Recruiting Leader, gives students tips on how to create an effective online persona.

Paul explains that understanding the importance of your name on the web is crucial.

“Today a name is not just a name. It is the gateway to a person’s online image, a key component of one’s personal brand,” says Paul. 

Image created by Beaudenoir

Named twice as one of the top 100 student journalists in the U.S. by UWIRE, Greg Linch is a good example for other aspiring journalists to follow. His passion for journalism started in high school leading him to double major in journalism and political science at the University of Miami. By the time Linch graduated from college in May 2009 his list of accomplishments was already longer than most people his age. Now, he is a News Innovation Manager at Publish2, where he combines journalism and technology on a regular basis. In this interview, he talks about the things he did to increase his chances for success and gives advice to students who are trying to work in a changing industry.   

The ways in which journalists investigate, report and interact with media are changing. In an effort to remain current and relevant, journalism schools across the country are busy developing new courses, programs and workshops that incorporate traditional journalism skills and ethics with digital and new media proficiencies.

American University's School of Communication recognized the need for specialized programs and classes and developed three initiatives to help the school achieve their goal of preparing future journalists for a rapidly changing new media landscape. The initiatives are as follows:

Investigative Reporting Workshop
Interactive Journalism Program (Master's degree)
Backpack Journalism Project

Valerie Zell is currently a journalism professor at the University of South Florida. Zell experienced changes in the industry first hand. The notion of "web first" bothered Zell when she wrote for Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers. But, overtime, she began to see the benefits of using the web to tell stories. Now, she prepares her students with multimedia tools. However, she firmly believes that writing will always be the most effective skill a journalist can have.

Amanda Ash is a multimedia journalist who has created an effective online persona with tools like Twitter and her blog, The Indie Files. Ash graduated from the University of British Columbia. When it comes to journalism, this freelancer has dabbled in a little bit of everything. Among her many journalism projects, Ash created the Canadian Music Wiki for CBC Radio 3 and worked as the online content editor for NIGHTLIFE News Edmonton. Ash is content as long as she's telling stories, no matter what medium.

Tom Tobin is a staff writer for the St. Petersburg Times.

1. Why did you decide to study journalism? What was the most appealing aspect to you?

I think the beginning of my wanting to be a journalist came when I won an essay writing award in eighth grade. Later, as I joined my high school newspaper and worked on a couple of community newspapers, I started to learn the craft of interviewing people and writing articles. The whole process thrilled me and newspapers held a certain romance. I’d have to say much of the attraction was being the first person to inform someone of something or explain it to them. I was giving people information they didn’t know before and wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else. I quickly grasped I was providing a valuable service.

By: Rachele Kanigel

Twitter is a social networking site that many journalists consider a "must-have" in order to connect with their peers and the general public. However, many journalism students find Twitter to be intimidating at first. "How do I use this?" is a common question that students ask. This article called "Twitter Tips for College Media Organizations" written by journalism professor Rachele Kanigel, explains how to use Twitter effectively for personal and professional use.

OurBlook.com posted a video interview with Kenton Bird, director of the School of Journalism and Mass Media at the University of Idaho, about journalism departments and education. He talks about the many different ways his school is staying abreast with the changes in the journalism industry and also talks about the challenges they are facing as they try to adapt to the new media landscape.

In his interview, Dr. Bird offered a couple suggestions for journalism schools that I thought were particularly innovative. The University of Idaho has created a course they call "Special Topics." Apparently, in order to add new courses or change curricula in most universities, you have to go through a university curriculum committee. In an ever-changing industry like journalism, time is of the essence and although these committees are not trying to hinder the process, there is a notable delay. By creating a general course, Bird's school is able to bypass the committee and offer instruction in the most current of topics. Of course, the concept seems like a common sense approach to solving the "keeping up with new media and technology" problem, but it still isn't common practice and students are suffering as a result.

Dr. Bird also pointed out the lack of professors who are qualified to teach new media skills. In my experience, most journalism professors possess a related degree as well as professional experience in the field. Because new media skills are so, well, new, journalism schools are forced to look past the doctorates and years of professional experience. Bird suggests temporary lecturers, visiting professionals, editors-in-residence or even people who have professional experience but are between jobs. Personally, I think this is a great idea and if used in conjunction with a "Special Topics" course, journalism schools will be able to stay ahead of the curve and the future of journalism education will be much like the industry it services- innovative and cutting-edge.

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Dominique Fong is a journalist who recently graduated from the University of Southern California (2010) with majors in print journalism and political science, and a minor in entrepreneurship. Currently, she is an intern at the Manhattan Beach Dispatch. In May, she participated in a USC Annenberg-Marshal-Viterbi News Entrepreneur Fellowship, where she worked with a team to propose various mobile news strategies for the Los Angeles Times. Fong is passionate about exploring the convergence of news, media and communication leadership.