March 19, 2006
children of the silo
Perhaps the strangest thing I’ve run into is what I’ve come to think of as the silo student. Kids keep handing me resumes that look like they were written 20 years ago. They mention the student newspaper, the yearbook and the college literary magazine. But they don’t mention Web sites, blogs, email newsletters, podcasts, html skills, citizen journalism projects, video, etc. And when I ask the students about their online experience, I get these weird responses. Lots of them tell me “I only want to work for a newspaper.” Lots of them say things like “I’m going to be a writer, not anything else.” Some seem genuinely perplexed and ask me if I think “most newspapers have Web sites?” or if “reporters need to do things on the Web?”
When I asked teachers what they thought about this, I found that they were as upset as I was by their students’ disconnect from the realities of media today.
I have been arguing that people in newsrooms must tear up their business cards, getting rid of their job descriptions as print or broadcast or new media. All media are new today. Conley makes it apparent that the same thing must happen in schools; we have to tear up the tracks.
Mmmm — strange — I’m finding the complete opposite with the young people I encounter. I know Paul is focussed on journalism but maybe the reason why these young people are still stuck in the old school CV ways is because that is what they are being told to do by their ‘careers’ teachers.
As I said, I’m experiencing the opposite — young people with a high level understanding of different mediums/media which they embrace as a matter of course. Only yesterday I was talking to a 17 year old about his online film projects…
Just my 10p’s worth.
*Named link was wrong in my last post!
I’m not sure if Paul Conley’s experience or that of DK’s is the most typical though let’s not forget that for the moment more people read the newspapers than their websites, but my take on this is that we shouldn’t get over-obsessed with the technology. It’s much harder for someone to become a good writer (how ever you might choose to define that) than to learn to how to utilise the various new media.
John
To expand on your thought, we need to recognize that we are Crossing the Chasm.
Most people will still read newspapers. In New Orleans, reading the newspaper is a social activity. A group of people sit at a table and pass the sections of the Times-Picayne around and comment on the articles they read. These folks are going to be die hard laggards.
The experience of reading the newspaper online is going to be completely devoid of the social aspect for them. Even though their may be an treaded discussion attached to each article, that experience pales in comparison to reading aloud to one another.
Someone who might read a newspaper alone in their cube might find online discussion to be a great outlet for their take on the news, and provides a social outlet that has gone missing in their life.
That’s my take on why we need to focus on the message rather than the technology. There is a new opportunity to find ways to bridge online social networks and traditional social settings.
Ah, I made reference to Crossing the Chasm in my last post, but forgot to insert the link I found…
http://www.assetnow.com/anx/index.cfm/1,69,71,html
“Kids keep handing me resumes that look like they were written 20 years ago.”
That’s because they created them with the help of teachers that haven’t looked for a job in 20 years. We can’t fault the kids for not knowing the terminology when mentioning firefox, RSS, podcasting, YouTube, and even weblogs, merits a blank stare of confusion from most of today’s college instructors. I still remember less than 5 years ago, telling the head of my college’s marketing department that I wanted to be a copywriter(at the time). His advice? A great resume was all I needed.
They seem to know a LOT about Facebook, but not really from a business perspective. At least they’re familiar with interacting with people online, which puts them ahead of less tech savvy journalists who aren’t familiar with 2-way conversations online.
Nice blog http://dog-sactuary-wolf.blogspot.com/