I thought I would take a short break from my Media Studies Capstone research and share a little bit about what I am doing and learning. The topic of my research looks at how television news stations utilize their websites. As you know most people visit a website for news before turning on the television or picking up a newspaper, you got to this blog from a news website.

Most of the research I have been reading on this topic is that today's news managers want their reporters and staff to be a multi-media reporter. This means that they want their reporters to not only write their story for print or broadcast but also post their story on-line with extra material. The problem is that many reporters don't know how to do this and managers don't have the time to teach these skills. If you are going to be entering the journalism field soon having multi-meida skills will open doors to great careers for you.

The education needs to start in college. All colleges that offer a journalism or media degree need to offer many convergence courses. Students need to know the theory behind it and all the skills to use in a newsroom. As great as YouTube and Flicker is no newsroom uses them. I was recently at a conference that was discussing news websites as soon as the students in the room started sharing their online habits and started asking the convergence classes be taught at their colleges the professors in the room started complaining.

This disturbed me not only as a student and future reporter but also as someone who comes from a family of educators. There is something wrong with the education system if professors complain about their work load, students, and the lack of resources. I think professors don't want to teach these classes because they don't want to admit that they might not know much about this subject and would have to learn along with their students. By not teaching these skills you are not providing your students with the important skills to get a great job.

Books on this topic do exist and there are tons of great blogs and online tools that explain what you need to know about convergent journalism take advantage of that. I encourage all colleges to offer a legitimate convergent journalism course and if your school does not offer one get the books and learn it on your own, you'll be glad you did. Back to writing but I leave you with this final thought. Online journalism is more than just posting a copy of your story and video on a website.