Wednesday is for links (11/18)
So you don’t have to surf the Web …
1. Missouri School of Journalism students are being proactive about curriculum updates. They’ve created a site, Letters From Young Journalists, that looks to be a continuing conversation about what journalism students and recent grads think they are missing in the current curriculum. MU is wrestling with this like everybody else, but if you cut out the specific course numbers and just listen, you’ll be surprised to hear what they’re saying. You can follow their discussion on Twitter using the #lfyj tag.
2. In a sign of the times and a nod to Facebook’s huge popularity, the Oxford Dictionary‘s word of the year is unfriend.
3. I think if I’d seen this from my airplane window, I would’ve freaked out a bit. Fortunately it was a space nerd WIN instead.
4. The latest Chronicle Review is a bonanza of good stuff for people interested in Journalism education. Good stuff by folks like Schudson on how academia could help keep the flame of public-service journalism alive.
5. New blog of the week: Check out Comics and Beer by my former PhD school colleague Bob Britten. It’s a blog about journalism, culture, comics, and beer. Some occasional Star Wars references, natch.
6. John Nichols, a contributor for the Nation, had some interesting thoughts about journalism business models and the possibility of public subsidies in the video below. I am skeptical about public subsidies, but he pretty succinctly states a view of journalism and democracy that I share. Hat Tip to my former J1100 student Taylor Dankmyer for passing this on.
7. This has nothing to do with journalism, but KU’s football team is falling apart. I couldn’t be more pleased.
8. Politico tends to annoy me with its Washington insiderish way of covering things, but kudos to them for going beyond the Daily Outrage headline about the health care reform debate and doing some real digging to discover that after all the bluster about the Stupak Amendment, the GOP health care plan covers abortion. This is the difference between being a reporter and taking someone at their word.
In no particular order …
7. But what of Baby Mangino???? (http://tinyurl.com/663nn6)
1. I’m still working my way through that Mizzou site. Generally I’m on board with the others who’ve pointed out the comments about tech shortcomings. What surprised me, though (and what I’m surprised not to hear others being surprised about), were the complaints about principles and history. The history class had too much history? YOU’RE KIDDING! I’m a little less crabby with another comment, that history wasn’t contextualized into present-day terms, but even then … well, drawing your own connections is part of critical thinking, people. It’s an error to treat history as existing only for the needs of the present.
Hope that doesn’t sound overblown. On the whole, what I’m concerned about is the subtext – and I didn’t see this in all of the comments by any means – that Mizzou needs more tech, fewer principles. The principles are what’s going to be around after the tech changes (and it WILL change). I think the site is a great look at what we could be doing better, but it’s also a glimpse at the shortsightedness of some of the recent grads.
2. I maintain that “defriend” is way better – the un-prefix, to me, suggests to unmake, as though the friendship never existed. WE ARE NOT GODS, MAN.
5. Why thank you!
Nice work on the UN Twittering, by the way.