A Deaf Ear

And...this today in the American Journalism Review:

Which leads to a wrenching dilemma: News organizations clearly need to build up their online offerings, big-time. But if they bleed the old-school core product in the process, that can cause problems both editorial and economic.

Robert Allbritton, who launched the much-ballyhooed Politico, made an interesting point when explaining why he was starting up a newspaper as well as a Web operation. The Internet, he told Kathy Kiely for her piece in AJR, is "the future." He added, "It's not here yet."

The key issue is not, as they say, the platform. It's the journalism. There's no reason why the Walter Reed exposé had to run on paper. True confession: I read most of it online.

What matters is that however the field evolves, however the news is delivered, there are the resources and the will to do the kind of journalism that makes a difference.

It's what some of us (both students and faculty) have been telling administrators since this new 2020 rhetoric was first rolled out. If you have no idea what I'm talking about and want to know more (or are yourself a trouble-maker and need a new crusade), there's this, this and this. Oh and this, in case you missed it yesterday.

At a March 2 meeting with students (and at least one alumna) in the D.C. newsroom, Lavine promised to have the new curriculum available sometime in April. An inquisitive reporter (guess who) asked where it would be posted, and he said, "We'll get it to you." So we shall see...but I'm not going to hold my breath. And while we're on the point, it seems shocking to me that there is finally a new curriculum when incoming students have been required to spend hundreds of dollars on computers and iPods and video cameras for the last two quarters at least!

Loka Ashwood's article (which I have linked to above) touches on some of the larger issues that alumni, students and, yes, many faculty have with the new Medill, but she doesn't address many of the scary particulars. The irony here is that no one (including myself) has written the whole story.

To sum it all up, though, I'll use the words a RECRUITER said to a classmate of mine: "It looks like you're getting out at the right time." Amen brother.