I'll See Your "New Media" and Raise You "Old Media 2.0"

I think we can all agree that the problem with j-schools is most of them are late adopters of new media strategies, but this isn't an "old media vs. new media" issue. It's a "plus" issue. These days, everyone who wants to work (or continuing working) in this business should have traditional journalism skills plus a working knowledge of new media. That's why I appreciate this MediaShift post from Alfred Hermida, an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism and founding news editor of the BBC News Web site. (It's somewhat of a rebuttal to this post by a NYU journalism student.) Hermida talked to leading multimedia journos and profs during the Online News Association conference and came to this conclusion:

The advice for graduates was that they need journalism plus a new set of skills. The basics of journalism — curiosity, passion, accuracy, serving the public interest — were still important. But journalist students also need to learn about how the digital revolution has changed, and continues to change, the media.

I think that's something that everyone can take to heart.