NYU J-School is ANTI-Social Media?

I admit, I spent a lot of time looking at this article in disbelief, and then going back and reading bits again, but no, it’s true. One of the USA’s most prestigious journalism schools seems to be rather anti-new media.

I first learned about Alana Taylor’s PBS article on MediaShift through Mashable where she is a part-time contributor.  Alana posted a commentary on the lack of New Media savvy among her fellow students and the professor at NYU in a class called “Reporting Gen Y.”

Now, Alana is a “Gen Y” or “Quarterlifer”. A “digital native” or close to it. Call her what you will, the girl is deep in the social media scene and expected, rightly so, that her peers would be as well. It blew my mind that not only was Alana the only one to maintain a personal blog in her class, she was the only one to  have a “well, yeah” moment when her prof explained that some people get (shh, it’s a secret!) paid to blog. (A collective gasp rises from the crowd!) Alana says, “They should be fully aware at this point that blogging has become a very serious form of journalism.” And yet, it doesn’t appear that these people do get it.

One of the other stand-out points of Alana’s article was the fact that she is required to bring an actual newspaper in to class. Like, a real printed one. I can’t remember the last time I actually read anything beyond the front page of a newspaper with any intention (rather than just sitting in a waiting room).

“…we have to remember to bring in the hard copy of the New York Times every week. I take a deep sigh. Every single journalism class at NYU has required me to bring the bulky newspaper. I don’t understand why they don’t let us access the online version, get our current events news from other outlets, or even use our NYTimes app on the iPhone. Bringing the New York Times pains me because I refuse to believe that it’s the only source for credible news or Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism and it’s a big waste of trees.”

Amen, Alana, amen.