Journalism Student Survey

1. How important do you think the following skills are for journalism students to learn?

Not as
important Rating Response
Vital Important Unimportant
as other Average Count
subjects

Web-based skills (creating content

59.0% (85) 32.6% (47) 7.6% (11) 0.7% (1) 1.50 144
online, blogs, etc)

Social media (twitter, social

21.0% (30) 46.2% (66) 28.0% (40) 4.9% (7) 2.17 143
networks, etc)

Business and entrepreneurial skills 11.2% (16) 40.6% (58) 40.6% (58) 7.7% (11) 2.45 143

93.8%
News gathering and writing 6.3% (9) 0.0% (0) 0.0% (0) 1.06 144
(135)

Sub-editing and design 38.5% (55) 55.2% (79) 6.3% (9) 0.0% (0) 1.68 143

Audio and video (podcasts, video

40.6% (58) 48.3% (69) 11.2% (16) 0.0% (0) 1.71 143
reports, etc)

Any further comments? 33

answered question 144

skipped question 0

Any further comments?

1 Shorthand May 11, 2009 1:06 PM
2 At the moment I'm spending so much time mastering ways of presenting May 11, 2009 2:18 PM
information that I'm not spending anywhere near enough time understanding
what story should be told. I'm learning to do slick presentations of slim
stories. This can't be right.
3 Facebook and twitter can only offer news in an advertising context they do not May 11, 2009 3:12 PM
give people new information.
4 Two skills that were not on there but should be is "willingness to change" and May 11, 2009 5:02 PM
"creative thinking." Journalists need to learn how to think like us Fine Arts
types and push the boundaries to find out where journalism can and should
go.
5 Part of the problem with the uncertainty around the industry is that journalism May 11, 2009 5:28 PM
students need to be adept at both the old tricks of the trade (newswriting, sub-
editing, law) and the new ones (web, social media, twitter). We need to be
qualified to create and publish content across all platforms until it is clearer
what path our own careers will take.
6 In this day and age journalists should have a wide variety of skills in order to May 11, 2009 6:15 PM
cater for the huge multimedia demands placed on them.
7 I feel as though copy editing is the most important subject students often look May 11, 2009 6:17 PM
over.

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 Any further comments?
8 We have been drilled constantly on the importance of being flexible and May 11, 2009 6:18 PM
forward thinking. When Emily Bell came to talk to us last week she said that
Digital Media will feature heavily in the future of Journalism and so it is only
sensible we learn the skills now.
9 Doing the basics well still must be the most important thing, but the May 11, 2009 6:32 PM
opportunities to do them are dwindling, especially for young reporters.
10 broadcast skills are more important than print skills May 11, 2009 6:39 PM
11 Design and sub-editing is more important for magazine courses but it should May 11, 2009 8:39 PM
be taught WELL on print courses too. Having almost completed a course that
is very focused on teaching multi-platform within the specific discipline I can
definitely see the benefits of both learning web-based skills and news
gathering/writing. I don't intend to work on a paper but news writing has
improved my writing overall and increased my news sense.

We have done a "convergence" project and also had to create a magazine in

a week (alongside our colleagues creating a newspaper and daily broadcasts
and a news website, all of which was supposed to feed into each other).They
have been two of the biggest learning experiences, learning to make copy
suitable for cross platform publication and also how to add audio and video for
the web which gives the magazine copy another edge online.

Shorthand (although horribly painful and depressing sometimes!) is a great

skill that should be taught on more courses.
12 Blogging, tweeting, etc are useful networking, marketing and research tools. May 11, 2009 8:59 PM
But they do not replace hard reporting skills.
13 I don't think news gathering and writing should be in the same category. May 11, 2009 9:35 PM
Journalism doesn't revolve around the print product, it revolves around
reporting.
14 i believe shorthand is the most important May 11, 2009 10:07 PM
15 shorthand- still vital May 11, 2009 11:14 PM
16 I think journalists in the future will need a good understanding of new May 12, 2009 8:18 AM
technologies i.e. twitter, pod casts, blogs as they are becoming ever more
important in the way the media operates.
17 I think web based skille and social media are important but it depends on what May 12, 2009 8:21 AM
kind of journalism you want to do.
18 Nope May 12, 2009 10:52 AM
19 Online skills should be taken into consideration more than it is an the moment, May 12, 2009 10:52 AM
i.e. on print journalism courses.
20 I feel it would be very well served for students to learn about trying to promote May 12, 2009 11:24 AM
themselves and their portfolio to get an edge on the competition.
21 Grammar, spelling, punctuation are extremely important May 13, 2009 8:17 AM
22 shorthand! Learning can be extremely tedious but it is really useful (and you May 14, 2009 5:20 PM
feel really smug when you get your 100pwm)
23 communication skills are also vital May 14, 2009 5:27 PM
24 I think social media is interesting to media people and no one else. Media May 14, 2009 5:55 PM
people use Twitter as a way of breaking news. Everyone else uses it to say
they're having a cup of tea and want to go on holiday.
However skills like how to edit a video and audio well are vital.
25 CONVERGENCE, apparently, is the most vital skill. The employers I have May 14, 2009 6:03 PM
asked look mostly for research and writing skills, and IDEAS.
26 I think some knowledge of web-design is important so that a journalist is able May 14, 2009 7:50 PM
to envisage how the information they collect will be portrayed, but that web-
design should be left to professionals trained especially for that. News
gathering, design and a/v ability are the most important aspects.
27 Employers want top quality skills in everything. You have to be multi skilled. May 14, 2009 8:09 PM
28 Twitter infuriates me as do blogs. May 14, 2009 9:19 PM

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 Any further comments?
29 The skills you need depend on what type of journalism you want to do but a May 14, 2009 10:02 PM
knowledge and know-how of all are important because of convergence.
Shorthand is not on that list but it is also vital.
30 Web skills are increasingly important in order to be fully up to date with May 14, 2009 10:05 PM
newsrooms and make your CV stand out from the crowd.
31 It continues to amaze me how some journalism students have virtually no May 16, 2009 3:57 PM
online presence. We will all be working on the web for most of our careers in
one form or another.
However, some journalism departments some of the time are still in a
mentality of preparing people for reporting jobs in local newspapers. The
NCTJ, which has a tiny emphasis on the web let alone new media,
encourages this.
News gathering and writing is important, but so is online distribution, working
with not for your users and looking at new ways of gathering and presenting
news.
32 Even if a student is only interested in reporting for a paper based newspaper a May 16, 2009 4:34 PM
knowledge of other skills are vital to be able to compete in the market.
33 interview skill Jun 16, 2009 2:10 AM

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