An early morning session at the AEJMC conference, educators discussed one of the big issues in journalism education: what do journalism students need to learn to succeed in the industry.
Amy Eisman of American University outlined six challenges to rebooting the curriculum within an academic environment:
- Glacial pace of change at universities
- Belief that established ways of doing things are best
- Slow acceptance of game changers such as wikileaks
- Hesitation to move ahead of the industry
- Question of equipment
- Culture of constant change and evolution
Among the things that American is trying:
- Courses with vague titles so that the content can change
- Students rotate with professors who teach specific multimedia skills
- Testing smaller module units, with 1.5 credit courses
- Partnering with local media so students get experience in a newsroom
- Twice weekly publication, the American Observer, run by students who rotate through different roles
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