College campuses are some of the greatest places in the academic world. Each one is different, but they all have a feeling of limitless possibilities, newly discovered passions, and a dedication to accomplishing higher goals. When you step onto a college campus, you can’t help but smile (unless it’s finals week, but we won’t talk about that).

Most news stories we see on the television or read in the paper are the complete opposite. They bring us news of suffering people in foreign countries, rising economic stresses, and violence among neighbors. I personally avoid the news whenever I can, because it leaves me feeling depressed and discouraged, like there’s nothing I can do to improve the world around me.

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Journalism seems like a tough way to make a living. Everyone knows that the average beat reporter doesn’t earn very much income, but he or she does get to see and experience a lot of interesting things. In fact, journalism is one of the fastest growing degree programs.

Journalism schools today also teach broadcast journalism, print journalism, and mass communications; some even teach advertising and public relations classes. Most journalism students not only learn the how and why of professional writing, but also the legal and ethical aspects of the industry.

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Social media and networking sites are becoming a huge part of our popular culture. Case in point, just have a read at the lyrics to “Now Generation” by the Black Eyed Peas:

“Myspace in your space. Facebook is a new place. Dip divin’ socializin’. I’ll be out in cyber space. Google is my professor. Wikipedia checker. Checkin’ my account. Loggin’ in and loggin’ out.”

And now, social networking sites are entering mainstream education. An Australian college, Griffith University, is now requiring that all journalism students take a course on Twitter education. The course will focus on proper Twitter writing practices and delivering as much information as possible in only 180 characters.

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The University of Missouri’s Journalism school has made an unprecedented policy change. They have made it a requirement for incoming freshmen to purchase a portable electronic device with Internet capability. The school chose to adopt this policy because they will offer podcasts of lectures and other supplemental materials to their students.

This is the first time a university has made it a requirement of students to purchase such devices. Both Duke and Abilene Christian University have made these devices a part of their curriculum, yet they provide their students with the device upon registration.

This is not the case at the University of Missouri. The university is requiring the students purchase these products with their own money. With the rising cost of textbooks, adding another monetary requirements may not be the best way to go. The university justifies their decision by focusing on the high number of students that already own the required devices. Read the rest of this entry »

Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald said it took him less than 15 minutes to “fabricate and place a poetic but phony quote” on Wikipedia, testing how our increasingly Internet-dependent media was “upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news.”

Fitzgerald added an “obituary-friendly quote” to the Wikipedia page of Maurice Jarre only hours after the French composer’s death on March 28. It was then used by dozens of U.S. blogs and newspaper websites in Britain, Australia and India. “They used the fabricated material,” Fitzgerald said, “even though administrators at the free online encyclopedia twice caught the quote’s lack of attribution and removed it.” Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t know about you, but I was actually kind of surprised to read this. Forbes announced this week that enrollment in journalism schools is up, a surprising statistic when most everything in this economy is down, including newspapers. I was especially caught by this news when just a week ago CBS Sunday Morning ran a story called “Stop the Presses,” in which they talked about how crippled the newspaper business has become. The story lamented the end of an era for print journalism, citing bankruptcies, layoffs and even closed doors for many large and small newspapers. Print circulations are down, as is ad spending in newspapers.

So it makes sense that the degree program to land you one of these jobs is filling classroom seats… right? Newspaper journalism might be mourning its twilight, but journalism is most certainly not dead. While the Internet can be primarily blamed for the downward turn for print, it can also be heralded for creating an almost romantic resurgence in journalism. Computers and Web publishing don’t come with that hardened, musty newsroom feel, but it does open more doors, allow for more creative approaches to reporting, and reach more of the people we want to have hear our stories anyway.

According to the Forbes report, enrollment in journalism programs at Columbia are up 38%, 20% at Stanford and 6% at NYU. Even state schools are enjoying the surge, with an increased enrollment of 25% at the University of Maryland. They aren’t doing it for the love of the money, just the game, according to Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia School of Journalism. “I’ve never met a single person in 35 years who went into journalism out of pure economic reason,” Lemann says. Read the rest of this entry »