A new media journalism professor in the U.S. has decided to ban laptops in some of his media classes. Jeremy Littau says he loves technology, but the evidence is building that student test scores improve in classes where laptops are banned. He is also concerned about what he calls "the halo effect." "When a student has a laptop open, invariably the…
Start building your audience now. Understand that your journalism career started when you first posted anything to the Web and that j-school is about helping you improve it. So, conduct yourself as a journalist at all times. Those are just some of the useful tips for journalism students heading back to school posted at the…
The Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkley is considering a new, professional fee for its program. The School is considering charging its new students an additional $5,000 over and above their tuition, similar to those charged by other professional programs in law, business and medicine. In a letter to incoming students, the dean,…
by Peter Johansen and Mary McGuire Applications to Ontario's degree programs in Journalism are down compared to this time last year, according to data released last month by the Ontario Universities’ Application Centre in Guelph. The number of confirmed admissions is also slightly down across the four schools that are part of the OUAC program grouping…
When preparing to teach a journalism course, especially for the first time, it’s always helpful to find out what other j-educators do who teach the same kind of course. Now Poynter’s News University has established a Syllabus Exchange, a database of course syllabi, assignments, exercises and other teaching materials that can be shared. You earn points for…
It’s a video journalist’s dream to be nominated for an Emmy. Now, it’s a dream come true for a group of students studying to be journalists at the University of British Columbia. Ten students studying international reporting have been nominated for two Emmy Awards for a documentary which tracked electronic waste around the globe called Ghana:…
Yahoo has decided it’s time for an alternative to traditional style guides when it comes to text written for the Web. In July, 2010, it will launch The Yahoo! Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World. Like the CP Style Guide, it will be a guide to grammar, punctuation…
Show don’t tell is a writing 101 rule, but Ryerson j-prof Anne McNeilly uses it in her teaching. Hiring an actor to stage a dramatic scene in class pushed the students into reporting mode and created “the most memorable classes” McNeilly has ever taught.
Are J-schools bad for the news business? A visiting professor at Ryerson University, Jeffrey Dvorkin asks the question this week on his blog. Dvorkin, a former chief journalist at CBC Radio, quotes a Facebook post which accuses j-school faculty of being out of date and guilty of teaching obsolete skills and ultimately contributing to the collapse of the…
I wonder, writes Ryerson University online journalism instructor Leigh Felesky, what students are being told “journalism” is these days. Felesky lays out six skill areas that j-schools should focus on in these changing times.