March 2013: Common Issues Face Journalism Programs Today

While attempting to shape curriculum, journalism programs across the country face similar, complex issues to keep pace with today's evolving field. With more skills required for entry-level journalists, one of the challenges is shaping classes to not onlywhat students need to know but also the skills they already bring.

In this issue, Dr. Jeff Wilkinson of Houston Baptist University writes about the effective steps for building a better journalism program, the decisions that need to be made in the trenches. He says it's vital for educators to assess their program in three areas. Once they've done that, the proper steps can be taken to get a program to the next level.

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February 2013: Understanding journalism's future vital for educators

In the February issue of The Convergence Newsletter, Shixin Zhang and David Edwards of the University of Nottingham in Ningbo, China, pose an interesting look at the future of journalism education. The professors examine the changing world of journalism and offer a formula on the future of its education. 

It begs the question of  how we teach students in this constantly redeveloping field? Read the article and post your comments below. Be sure to visit the newsletter on our Facebook and Google+ pages as well.

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May 2012: How to reach all of your readers

Even as convergence reaches beyond the traditional newsroom and outside the traditional audience bound by geography, reporters must consider who is being missed in the process. Amanda Sturgill of Elon University explains an exercise she conducts with journalism students to highlight the need for a well-considered, multichannel approach to include overlooked and under-served populations in reporting the news. Join the conversation below or on Facebook or Google+.

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April 2012: Yes, blogging is journalism

Blogging is journalism, writes West Virginia University's Bob Britten in the April edition of The Convergence Newsletter. And students will benefit from learning how to use the tool in their reporting, explains Britten.

"I'm not interested in teaching a class about technology, but I am interested in teaching a class about using social media's connective, network-based nature to become effective mass communicators who can interact with readers." Read the article, then join the conversation below.

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August 2010 Convergence Newsletter

The introduction of convergence into the setting of a classroom has always been an issue that is fraught with great highs and many pitfalls. Although the world of professional journalism is still grappling with the meaning and usefulness of convergence, the process has yet to achieve familiar parameters of implementation within the classroom.

To read the entire issue, click here.

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August 2010: The Successes and Challenges of Converging On Campus

Texas Christian University’s Aaron Chimbel gives an inside look at the school’s introduction of a renovated journalism school that places a direct emphasis on convergence and its application within the classroom.

To read the entire article, click here.

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October 2009 Convergence Newsletter

In the developed world, surrounded by cell phones, broadband Internet and video on demand, there is a fairly widespread set of frames by which people approach “convergence.”

In other parts of the world, however, the term can take on a far different meaning. It can be, as Paul Bowers explains, as simple as a cell phone hanging from a tree in a village. For us with our wi-fi, that would be primitive. For the villages of West Africa that Bowers visited with New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, it is high technology.

And while there is no problem finding a cell phone on today’s college campuses, where having one seems to be the birthright of every student and where the devices themselves are becoming media centers. Convergence is upon us, and colleges are adapting with new programs and majors. Elmer Ploetz, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at Fredonia, shows how a new program approaches the challenges.

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October 2009: 'More, Better' May Not Be Better, But It's Reality

SUNY Fredonia Professor Elmer Ploetz takes a look at the changes that have been made throughout journalism to accommodate more of a focus on convergence.

Ploetz speaks from first-hand experience as State University of New York, Fredonia has started from scratch with their convergence program and has made adaptability the cornerstone of their curriculum. Undeterred, he illuminates that problems that many other universities are having in emphasising convergence within the traditional journalism school dichotomy.

Click here to read the entire article.

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August 2009: Preparing for a future in the convergence journalism world

South Carolina graduate Holly Fisher tells the tale from the frontlines of an ever-evolving journalism world and what she would and would not do differently.

Fisher provides a template for other journalism students and how to react and adapt to that new journalism world.

Click here to read the article.

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August 2009: Preparing Students for an Increasingly Freelance Journalism Career

David Weintraub a writer, editor, photographer, and educator based in Aiken, S.C., outlines an experimental course he is teaching that is designed to give communications students a firm grounding in business basics and entrepreneurship.

To read the entire article, click here.

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