J-student to MacPhail: J-schools aren’t failing us

Earlier this week Wayne MacPhail suggested that journalism teachers are failing their students by ignoring the technological and cultural shift in their field. His article prompted a lively discussion in the comments section. It also inspired Western University j-student Ian Jacobs to take out his typewriter and write us this letter:

Dear J-Source,

Earlier this week Wayne MacPhail suggested that journalism teachers are failing their students by ignoring the technological and cultural shift in their field. His article prompted a lively discussion in the comments section. It also inspired Western University j-student Ian Jacobs to take out his typewriter and write us this letter:

Dear J-Source,

I am writing this article on my 1926 Remington noiseless portable typewriter. It’s vintage, so if there are some ink blots scattered throughout this piece, then my apologies. The device has absolutely no idea what it’s doing, and I’m actually quite annoyed with it. I politely asked it to get me a cup of coffee yesterday and it just sat on the table in utter defiance, but I digress.
The crux of my issue lies in an article I recently read on your website. Written by a Professor Wayne MacPhail, the piece attacks journalism programs across Canada for the lack of online media training that students are being offered. As a student of the Masters of Journalism program at Western, I would first like to thank Mr. MacPhail for coming to my aid. But with all due respect, he may have disregarded how I, and I’m sure some of my peers, feel about many of the new gadgets that have flooded the market in recent years. Without knowing Professor MacPhail personally, I can only assume that he is an avid user of many gadgets such as, well, all of Apple’s products. And I’ll have you know that I certainly do not consider myself an expert on the topic of online media.  Nor am I equipped to talk about how news is drastically changing so much that journalism schools need to act with more urgency and implement more online training into the curriculum. However, I do consider myself an expert in one particular field, and luckily for the sake of my argument, it’s my field of expertise that I find myself defending after reading MacPhail’s article.

I am a student. I’ve been engrossed in the world of:  teachers, professors, studying, assignments, quizzes, exams, quests (quiz/test, one of life’s great compromises), late notes, sick notes and food poisoning notes, for nineteen straight years. I have yet to enter the workforce, but I accept that when I get there, it’ll be a whole new ball game, filled with colleagues I won’t like, bosses I detest, and interoffice politics that I won’t ever be able to get away from. But I’m not there yet, and I’m enjoying being thrust into a hands-on program at UWO, which gives me a great set of skills to become the journalist that I want to be. I see all the online tools such as Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, Foursquare and the thousands more that I don’t even know about, and I say, “Okay, I see you, so what?”

MacPhail claims that students nowadays are ‘ignorant’ to the fundamental concepts that are shaping the way citizens ingest and participate in journalism. He says that the majority of his MAJ students don’t even know what an RSS feed is, nor do many of his students even use Twitter. He claims that his students’ own personal experience doesn’t go beyond Facebook and texting. Well this is completely inaccurate, and if MacPhail took a nice deep breath and just listened to what his students are saying, then perhaps he wouldn’t find so much opposition. So I’ll simplify it. We know what’s out there, and we are fully aware of the impact and overall convenience of many of these online tools. But saying that we are ignorant because they are not central to our daily lives is an ambitious claim. The problem (and yes, surprise to some, there is a problem) is the overabundant amount of tools that are out there. The internet is flooded with online tools. They may enhance the timeliness and quantity of the work we produce; they may connect us faster to our colleagues and improve our ‘online relationships’ and ‘social capital’, but at the end of the day, students such as myself are in programs such as Western’s MAJ program to learn the fundamental skills needed to go into an entry level position, and from what I’ve managed to gauge from my peers, the gross majority is very pleased with the training we’ve received thus far.

What MacPhail fails to recognize is that we are fully aware of these tools. Not only that, but we’ve tried them, and we frankly don’t have the time to keep up.  I for one can say that I tried using RSS feeds; I now have over 1,000 articles waiting to be read because I can’t keep up with the amount of information that’s being sent to me. Twitter is better for me, and I think it’s better for most students because it gives us headlines that we can glance at, and the option of clicking the link if we want to read more. But really, the reasons why MacPhail was spurred to write his article can’t be pinpointed. Perhaps just a man who’s more passionate about the future of journalism, MacPhail certainly got his point across, and did so without letting his students, or colleagues, stand in his way.

But those of us who’ve sat through a MacPhail lecture know that his teaching style is to do exactly what his products do: saturate with information. He talks about having a ‘relationship’ with social networking and that if one only takes and doesn’t contribute then they’re using and abusing. An ironic twist, as MacPhail conducts his lectures in the same way he tells his students not to use social networking. But he doesn’t take, he gives, and gives, and gives. He gives information about gadgets and markets and the amazing new things we can do; but he doesn’t listen to us, he doesn’t take anything from his students, the future journalists. But nevertheless, we’re to trust him. We’re not really sure why, but that’s what he’s told us to do. Ironically, the subject matter promotes openness and discussion. But anytime a point is raised, it’s shot right down because we’re merely students who don’t have the capacity to understand what it’s all about.

Professor MacPhail is clearly an expert on the topic of online media. There’s no need to go further than a quick Google search to find that out. And overall his message is noted. We understand that the online world is growing exponentially, and that these new tools need to be explored for the growth of journalism. But unfortunately the message is being lost by how it’s being delivered. Unfortunately, my opinion of online media is becoming tainted. Like a little boy at an amusement park with my older brother and his friends, I won’t go on the roller coaster because they’re trying to force me on it. He needs to coax me into it, trick me even, into thinking that it’s not a scary ride.

-Ian

Ian Jacobs is a Master of Journalism student at Western University.