ASSIGNMENT 4 - DEADLINE 27 August 2009 16h00

Question 1

The writer of the blog is Patrick Thornton but the owner of the blog is King Kaufman

Question 2

Summary of "Let's Be Honest About J-School"

Patrick Thornton is of the idea that journalism schools (J-schools) are not that important in producing modern day journalists if they do not offer latest Web technology instruction. He believes that all J-schools do is to equip their learners with academic skills rather than trade skills. In particular, he favours hands-on learning especially learning using latest Web tools. He argues that journalism lecturers must make use of latest modern technology in their teaching, hence the need that they must have own websites or be part of social media.

His greatest concern is for graduate students whom he believes do not need programs that promote academic skills over trade ones. He posits academic skills are good for any undergraduate program because that is where scholars are grounded. To him, trade skills are entrepreneurial and therefore very important for graduates. Trade skills can be acquired through the Web by using free sites such as BeatBlogging.Org. Besides free sites one can also make use of places like Poynter.Org's News U, or Lynda.com and MediaBistro. He believes trade is more important than academic skills because trade gives one the necessary experience.

Thornton further asserts that latest Web tools like blogging and social networks produce better journalists than J-schools. He posits traditional J-schools produce writers while the (social) Web produces reporters. The later succeeds where the former fails because it offers its users with repeated practice and besides that it is a far much cheaper form of learning than the former. When studying over the Web one gets an opportunity to write over and over again and on the process gain the necessary know-how of the job. This repetition gives invaluable practice and experience whereas traditional J-school learning gives theory. That is why he believes the Web is important in graduate programs. Over and above, he argues that J-schools only offer more education which only leads to improved writing but poor reporting.

In short, Thornton believes that the future of journalism lies in the Web and any modern day journalist must go this route if he or she wants to be a successful reporter. He urges journalism lecturers to have own sites so that this may afford learners hands-on experience. This will do a lot of justice to journalism now because he sees journalism making more and more use of the Web especially these days and ones to come.