Give the 'Net credit

Universities need to push the journalism envelope when the industry cannot.

They need to test the innovations because they can afford to fail. Failure is often a good lesson for students. To make it all worthwhile, however, universities must do a better job reaching out to the industry and providing more than an ample supply of interns. Journalism researchers and professors must overcome our fear to step back into the newsroom. We must realize the industry is hungry for what we have to offer.

I’m giving Della Winters’ survey on teaching and parenthood a shoutout because I’m interested in the results. I love my family, and I love my job, but I have to admit there are times when I feel they conflict. Maybe it’s the holiday season where I’m looking at grading or creating training materials while my children are out of school, but I think it’s a valuable question that needs to be addressed.

Instead of watching someone slip up and saying, “I’m glad that wasn’t me,” maybe we should be saying, “You know, that could have been me. Maybe I’ll cut this person some slack.”

I told a group of students concerned potential employers would find Facebook pictures of them playing beer pong when they google their names that they need to manage their image. The best way to do that online is create positive content. Start a blog, I told them. Write every day. Generate traffic for it by linking to others and commenting on sites they follow. If they’re smart, they’ll ensure a Google search for their name pulls up enough positive content that the bad stuff falls by the wayside.

Too often I think my knowledge of social media, Web building, and online culture is academic … (but) I’m never going to gain online experience unless I take a chance. On the Internet, you’ve got to be willing to put yourself out there, maybe giving up a bit or privacy or risking a bit of credibility in the process.

I’m glad I got it resolved, and I’m not too worried about getting my money back from the credit card company. I’m just disappointed with Apple on this process. It’s got to be pretty obvious to them that these applications aren’t on any of the devices associated with my account. You’d think they’d just be able to credit and refund them. However, their solution is to let the credit card companies deal with it.

As one of the “online guys” here on campus, I get asked a lot about the future of journalism. Specifically students wonder if there’s a future in the major they signed up for. Over and over again, I remind them the future is what you make it. The skills you learn in J School aren’t applicable only to writing for a newspaper. They’ll help you your entire life to understand the world better. They don’t always believe me. Today, it was nice to find two other sources I can turn them to that are essentially saying the same thing. One of them, in fact, is probably where I got my ideas about the need for journalism skills to begin with.