One journalism educator is rewriting her lessons for the fall semester to include more straight talk for j-students and less emphasis on old arguments about the role of journalists in a democracy. Danna Walker, a j-prof at American University in Washington, has come up with what she calls the Seven Laws of Journalism. Among them:

• Money counts
• Grow a pair
• Life is hard (so deal with it).

The change is needed, she says, because too many j-students think of journalism in “old-school” ways. Her full list of the laws of journalism, along with her explanations for each of them, are available on her blog post.