Practicum
We see students who are graduating and have no idea where to turn for jobs. We see mass emails sent out containing an incomplete listing of internship opportunities and no listing of job opportunities. We see students without the contacts and alliances in the professional world to help wedge their feet into a closing door. It's the age-old adage, "It's not what you know, but who you know."
In order to adapt to today's field, the journalism school must place a greater emphasis on creating student connections in the news world before graduation. "They should be working to put more of their students in newsrooms before they graduate, making those connections now," an alumnus said, "not when students are desperate."
We propose a new requirement emphasis on a journalism practicum. All journalism majors would be strongly encouraged to complete some sort of practical experience, such as a summer internship, outside of our traditional university newsrooms. In today's field, it is vital that Missouri students get to know alumni in other newsrooms and get to know other cities in order to make connections for future employment. A journalism practicum, an internship, would be a way to fulfill this.
The Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism requires students to participate in at least two internships. Although the Missouri Method and newsroom experiences of the Missourian, KBIA and KOMU are a keystone of the journalism school, Missouri students could benefit from an additional internship outside of these spaces. Recently at the ASNE Ethics and Values Forum hosted by former Reynolds Journalism Institute fellow Mike Fancher and professor and speaker Lee Wilkins spoke about the potential to create similar opportunities in journalism education as those in medical school. You learn in class but you also go out and practice treating the patients, she said. Wilkins noted that journalism education can benefit from a practicum requirement similar to the med school required internships and residencies because a journalist is pushed beyond their comfort zone into communities they are not familiar with.
The practicum requirement also demands a greater emphasis on career services offered by the school. "Listservs are nice, and emails are helpful, but kids coming out of the j-school right now are entering an industry that is collapsing," an alumnus writes. "It's scary and challenging, and they shouldn't have to go it alone. At Northwestern, incoming students are told of how helpful the school is to jobseekers after they graduate. Missouri should be able to say the same thing - and mean it." A strong career services program could give our students a leg up.
In order to adapt to today's field, the journalism school must place a greater emphasis on creating student connections in the news world before graduation. "They should be working to put more of their students in newsrooms before they graduate, making those connections now," an alumnus said, "not when students are desperate."
We propose a new requirement emphasis on a journalism practicum. All journalism majors would be strongly encouraged to complete some sort of practical experience, such as a summer internship, outside of our traditional university newsrooms. In today's field, it is vital that Missouri students get to know alumni in other newsrooms and get to know other cities in order to make connections for future employment. A journalism practicum, an internship, would be a way to fulfill this.
The Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism requires students to participate in at least two internships. Although the Missouri Method and newsroom experiences of the Missourian, KBIA and KOMU are a keystone of the journalism school, Missouri students could benefit from an additional internship outside of these spaces. Recently at the ASNE Ethics and Values Forum hosted by former Reynolds Journalism Institute fellow Mike Fancher and professor and speaker Lee Wilkins spoke about the potential to create similar opportunities in journalism education as those in medical school. You learn in class but you also go out and practice treating the patients, she said. Wilkins noted that journalism education can benefit from a practicum requirement similar to the med school required internships and residencies because a journalist is pushed beyond their comfort zone into communities they are not familiar with.
The practicum requirement also demands a greater emphasis on career services offered by the school. "Listservs are nice, and emails are helpful, but kids coming out of the j-school right now are entering an industry that is collapsing," an alumnus writes. "It's scary and challenging, and they shouldn't have to go it alone. At Northwestern, incoming students are told of how helpful the school is to jobseekers after they graduate. Missouri should be able to say the same thing - and mean it." A strong career services program could give our students a leg up.
