|  Blurring
the lines
The SJMC embraces convergence.
By Michelle Rubin
The Drake School of Journalism
and Mass Communication has come a long way since Robert Woodward, the Ellis
and Nelle Levitt distinguished professor of
journalism, taught the school's first Internet-related class, "World of
the Internet" in 1995. Back then, the Internet was relatively new and
there weren't even computers in the classroom.
But since that first Internet class, the SJMC has embraced the challenges presented
by convergence, the growing trend of combining broadcast, print and Internet-based
reporting to produce multi-media content.
Balancing practice and theory
These days, the news/editorial sequence has morphed into a news/Internet sequence,
the students are producing an online newspaper called The Digital Daily Newsand projects throughout the school blur the lines between print and broadcast
while enforcing the traditional tenets of good journalism.
As the Internet has become a place where print and broadcast journalism meet,
educators have been grappling with the challenges presented by the industry's
move toward convergence. In addition to the
need to keep pace with rapid changes in technology, convergence also intensifies
the classic struggle to balance teaching the practical aspects of newsgathering
with teacher the theoretical.
"It's a hefty challenge because it's sometimes difficult to predict what
next year's freshmen will have to face five years down the road when they're
looking for jobs," says SJMC Associate Dean for Students Affairs David Wright,
an associate professor of journalism who teaches in the electronic media sequence. "One
of the trends we certainly see is our areas - magazines, newspapers, broadcasting,
etc. - are becoming more and more alike in some respects."
The SJMC's role is to prepare students for whatever might face them.
In 1999, that meant changing the news/editorial sequence to news/Internet, which
prepares students to work in both traditional newspaper settings and online journalism
environments.
The sequence keeps a traditional newspaper focus but includes courses on Web
page design, writing for the Internet and public affairs journalism online.
"We're incorporating technology without losing the traditional concept of
teaching people to be reporters and editors," Woodward says.
The new pub on campus
The Digital Daily News - perhaps the ultimate example of the SJMC's approach
to convergence - grew out of the recognition that students from different sequences
could work to together on a news publication that employed all of their skills.
Run by student volunteers, the Web site was launched last fall and features news
stories combine text with audio and video clips. As Digital Daily News Executive
Board Chair Peggy Nitchals wrote in an introductory column, "We're converging
different formats to portray the news. Broadcast majors are contributing audio
and video files, magazine majors are writing in-depth features stories and news/Internet
majors are supplying the news. In some instances, the majors are crossing over
and doing all of the above."
Woodward, who co-advises the publication with Assistant Professor of Journalism
Kathleen Richardson, says students are not required to be involved and the site
is still experimental. The publication was originally intended to be updated
daily, but unlike the staff of the campus newspaper The Times-Delphic, most Digital
Daily News staffers are not paid. The classes, jobs and other activities competing
for their time make it difficult to produce daily content.
However, Josephine Stalnaker Hosman, JO'38, and her husband, Richard, recently
made a generous gift to endow an annual award that will be paid to the editor
of The Digital Daily News. This financial aid will allow the editor to devote
more time to the development of the site.
Woodward says in some ways the site's experimental nature is not unlike other
online publications.
"The challenge within the industry is that there is still an uncertainty
about where the money is to be made in online news and the extent to which publishers
and editors are willing to have online organizations," Woodward says. "But
we're still ahead of the curve in that respect because we are teaching people
to go out and be able to adapt to whatever situation they might find."
Woodward notes technology has not only affected the ways in which content is
presented, but also raised new theoretical issues. The "Internet World" class,
for instance, is a course that explores such topics as the digital divide and
the credibility of online information.
"Of course, all of those subjects are covered in other classes, too, but
the Internet opened up a whole new spectrum of questions that existed in other
media at other times," Woodward says. "It's opened up new questions
just in terms of volume of information and the changed nature
of communications."
Beyond technology
Convergence in the SJMC also has meant changes in the electronic media sequence,
where this fall the visual communications introduction course will involve a
weekly lab component in which students will learn to work with multi-media formats
by using computer programs such as DreamWeaver and iMovie. The change is part
of an effort to infuse more technology into students' early college coursework.
The SJMC houses the newest computer lab on campus, which was made possible by
a grant from Meredith Corp., allowing all electronic media students to learn
DVD production as well as streaming audio and video techniques.
But in addition to teaching students the practical aspects of convergence, the
faculty is concerned with helping them understand how to best use the technology.
"We're showing them that part of what they've got to figure out is the best
way to communicate their message," Wright says. "Video might not be
right for everything, so students really need to think about how they're going
to use technology."
He adds that with each SJMC sequence teaching students how to integrate technology,
students are able to work with one another more. "So you have electronic
media students working with news/Internet students to create content for a Web
site like The Digital Daily News."
Wright says this will make students more competitive in the job market, where
industry professionals often are still thinking in terms of individual domains
held by different media. "People who can adapt and use more than one form
of technology and can tackle media problems that way are the ones who are going
to get the jobs," he says.
The SJMC will also need to continue adapting to technology's impact on the industry.
"This is such an evolving area that it's really challenging to keep an eye
on where it's going," he says. "There are so many exciting new challenges
and communication problems, and the right place to discuss this is in the School
of Journalism."
Digital Drake
To read/listen to/watch The Digital Daily News, go to www.drake.edu/journalism/digitaldailynews.html/digital/index.html
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