Tired of Being Self-Taught
(Katharine Lackey blogs at Beyond Print and is excited to own her domain name: www.katharinelackey.com.)
When I was somewhere around the age of 13, I created my first Web site and quickly learned the ways of basic HTML. In the past 10 years, the web has changed dramatically and I have been unable to keep up with all the changes. It’s moved toward not just being text-based, but video and audio-based. I’ve had to learn, little by little, how to use programs such as Frontpage and Audacity. However, there’s a ridiculous amount I have not learned and my time at Penn State has not helped much.
The journalism program at Penn State has only recently added a ‘Convergence Journalism’ class, where students can learn to shoot and edit video as well as audio. It’s a class i will be taking in the spring, along with the only web design class I could find, oddly enough under ‘Arts.’ In that class, I will learn XHTML.
I received an email last week about a new six-week course called ‘Webcast Production,’ where I could learn how to set up and produce a live Webcast. So why didn’t I rush to sign up for the course? It is meant for broadcast communications majors and has two requirements, one of which is the base level course called ‘Cinema Art.’ The description for that course — “The development of cinema to its present state; principles of evaluation and appreciation.” That totally sounds like something I need in order to understand how to make a Webcast!
Journalism and newspapers have been moving online for years and we can no longer make the distinction between skills needed for print versus skills needed for broadcast or radio journalism. We need and deserve to be better prepared for the industry we will enter. By providing more integrated courses, allowing students to become proficient in programs from Quark to InDesign to Final Cut, universities could raise the bar and provide their students with better skills, and ultimately, job opportunities.
August 19th, 2008 at 10:48 am
[...] Katharine Lackey, Tired of Being Self-Taught [...]
August 19th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
I agree, being completely self-taught at this Web stuff is the pits. I used to wonder why at my old school print journalists were made to take audio and visual production classes. Then I moved to a school that focused on print and now look at me. I have a bachelor’s degree from a great school but it didn’t take me long to realize that my print only experience won’t do me much good if I don’t supplement my education. I’m going back to my community college this fall to take classes in a 10-class associate’s degree program meant for people just like me.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Katharine, I’ve had a similar experience in college. I was one of the last group of Texas State-San Marcos students to have an old media training with little chance for new media. They’ve stepped it up since I’ve been gone, but I’ve had to train myself (and still am) on a number of programs and disciplines.
The problem I’ve run into has been a lack of hands-on use for these programs at my shop. I haven’t touched Final Cut since college, and others, I’ve had to use my limited time to try things out that would actually use those programs.
I can’t even say I’m a jack-of-all-trades of sort since I can’t say I’m even close to a lot of them, but I sometimes wonder if we try to learn too much to make ourselves better when we should learn a lot about a few that we really enjoy and simply familiarize ourselves with the others.
I’m just glad there are some outlets online that help with the trainings (both free and pay).
I will admit that’s a funky pre-req for a Webcast class. Pre-reqs should be a thing of the past in our college classes (unless they’re specific to the course — I or II, etc.). We’re trying to learn, and J-schools need to understand they’ve got to prepare AND give their students real-world chances to use those skills before leaving college.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
[...] of Being Self-Taught 19 08 2008 Note: This post also appeared at Tomorrow’s News, Tomorrow’s Journalists, a new blog ring for young [...]
August 21st, 2008 at 3:39 am
Katharine — Like you, I taught myself everything I know about Web design, HTML, graphics, etc. I knew all of that before I entered college and my journalism degree didn’t expand much on it. I think it was a matter of timing in my case: I was a new breed of j-student, an exception, and one that required the j-school to make a few exceptions (like letting me skip online-j and go straight to an upper-level/grad online producing class as a sophomore). My university does require its print journalism students to have a basic grounding in everything — including taking courses in photography, online, design and videography — but by the time I got through prereqs and to those classes (with the possible exception of videography) I had already taught myself most of what my peers were learning fresh. Still, I am thankful that, although I may not be the best at any of those things, I know I could do competently any job in my newsroom. (I do my own best, of course.)
All that said, I actually just returned from two days of CAR training sponsored by corporate. It was amazing! It was the second professional development/training session I’ve attended this year, and I’m taking time off (on my own though the other two I’ve been paid for) next month to go to another. So I think while there is some responsibility for your school or company to offer the chance for these things, ultimately, you are the one in charge of your own career. That’s why you’ve taught yourself what you already know, right? I bet if you press hard enough and make a good enough case, you can get them to waive that cinema prereq — especially if this is a brand new class and there isn’t a ridiculous demand from students who have already taken that cinema class. Talk to your journalism adviser about how you can do this. (If you don’t have one, talk to your mentor, if you don’t have one talk to the student paper adviser, if you don’t have one make an appointment with your j-school head — and then get busy finding all those other people who can be your support and help guide your future!)
August 21st, 2008 at 9:53 am
[...] what? I thought young journalists are all self-taught and nobody respects you enough to care about whether you improve. And isn’t corporate killing [...]
August 21st, 2008 at 4:45 pm
[...] Tired of Being Self-Taught [...]
September 3rd, 2008 at 3:54 pm
[...] skills to succeed in new media. This is a thought shared by Katharine Lackey, who believes that until young journalists become properly taught, we’ll not progress: Journalism and newspapers have been moving online for years and we can no longer make the [...]
March 29th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
[...] This post also appeared at Tomorrow’s News, Tomorrow’s Journalists, a new blog ring for young [...]