Question:
How can J-schools teach students the entrepreneurial skills necessary to succeed in the marketplace?
The strict separation between the practice and business of journalism is no longer sustainable. Although not every news and information provider may be running his or her own media enterprise, are students who learn business and marketing alongside reporting and writing better equipped to succeed in the field?
Answers: Remember to refresh often to see latest comments!
15 answers so far.
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Mike Fancher says:
September 14, 2011 at 12:03 pm
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The Journalism Accelerator serving up capacity in uncertain times says:
July 13, 2011 at 3:41 pm
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Virtual variety served daily: the Journalism Accelerator cafeteria says:
July 6, 2011 at 4:42 pm
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Pamela Gilbert says:
June 30, 2011 at 1:18 pm
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Kathleen says:
June 25, 2011 at 7:44 am
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@wemedia says:
June 24, 2011 at 11:54 am
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Adam says:
June 20, 2011 at 9:33 pm
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Lisa Skube says:
June 23, 2011 at 2:49 pm
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Adam says:
July 6, 2011 at 9:49 pm
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Charles Davis says:
June 16, 2011 at 2:58 pm
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Rich Gordon says:
June 15, 2011 at 5:40 pm
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Jeff Lennan says:
June 16, 2011 at 8:35 am
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Denise Cheng says:
June 17, 2011 at 4:06 pm
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Charles Davis says:
June 17, 2011 at 8:08 pm
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Catherine Cole Ferandelli says:
September 18, 2011 at 5:12 pm
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Jeff Lennan says:
March 7, 2011 at 10:30 pm
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Winning Mark says:
March 8, 2011 at 8:23 am
| ParticipantsI’m teaching a graduate-level class in Entrepreneurship for Journalism in the Reynolds Journalism School at the University of Nevada. I wrote the following to explain why the course is being offered:
“What is entrepreneurship? I like this answer from the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley:
‘the pursuit of opportunity beyond the resources you currently control’
“The Internet and digital technology are transforming how people communicate, with profound implications for journalism and journalists. The business models that have traditionally supported journalism are being disrupted, but the same technologies that cause the disruption are also creating opportunities. It is widely accepted that today’s journalists need a new skill set to effectively communicate. It is less well understood that journalists also need an entrepreneurial mindset to succeed in an interactive world. This is true whether they work in traditional or emerging media.”
[…] weeks the JA team may be focused on direct outreach to thought leaders to hear their take on a forum underway, others it may be a social network campaign where we listen […]
[…] 573: a conversation with recent journalism graduates from the University of Missouri who delivered a “first of its kind” cross sequence collaborative project that explores the […]
Apart from J-Schools that shed light on entrepreunership skills inside sheltered classrooms, there’s always been so much out there to learn on the street. As a reporter and editor, back when, I did everything I could to gain access to industry meetings — to find out about what was happening and to see where things were headed. If it meant meeting with public affairs spokespeople, I listened and asked questions — I even dressed up for fancy hotel banquets to hear what the attendees were sharing with each other. And I chatted with other reporters as often as possible. Then, when I started seeing what I thought the industry needed, I knew enough people to help launch a fresh way of getting the news out.
Rubbing Elbows 101?
I just earned my masters in journalism from the University of Missouri, and I can also attest to the value of Randy Smith’s classes.
I took Creativity and Innovation in Journalism with Randy, and it was by far the most beneficial class I took during my program at Mizzou.
I am in agreement with Rich that you can’t necessarily teach people to be entrepreneurial, but acquiring skills that could help to guide you in that direction is very important for survival in the journalism industry graduates face today.
I think if more j-schools don’t start teaching students what entrepreneurial skills are needed to survive in the industry, they will be doing their students a great disservice.
The exercise of writing a business plan that was journalism focused in Randy’s class was invaluable. I recently was interviewed for a job with a start up company in Seattle, and they were really impressed that I had the opportunity to write a business plan, especially as a j-school student. I’m pretty sure that was a tipping point for them wanting to hire me.
After speaking with many people starting up their own journalism entrepreneurial ventures during my independent studies at Mizzou, I can attest to the need for these skills. Pretty much all of the people I spoke with emphasized that journalism has become very individual and entrepreneurial. They all recommended taking classes in accounting and entrepreneurial leadership. Those types of skills need to be a part of the j-school curriculum.
My great hope for j-schools across the country is that they will start paying more time and attention to the entrepreneurial piece of j-school education.
RT @journaccel: @wemedia is a clearinghouse for info on new media initiatives. Any suggestions for other #journalism resources? http://cot.ag/iqarhL
Hey everyone! Sorry for joining the conversation a little late. I have two things.
1) I have to plug Prof. Randy Smith’s courses at the University of Missouri. I’m biased. I took one of his classes. I never expected to learn how to write a business plan, especially the financial portion. But somehow, I learned. And it’s proven useful this summer as the organization I’m working for is searching for funding.
2) The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism offers a unique degree in Entrepreneurial Journalism. Although I’ve not sat in on one of Jeff Jarvis’ lectures, I’ve seen him speak on this topic before. I know it’s an area his passionate about. WIth course titles like “Tech Immersion” and “New Business Models for News,” I’m sure this would be a great place to both workshop ideas and prepare for a converged journalism-business field. (http://www.journalism.cuny.edu/academics/entrepreneurial-journalism/)
Thanks Adam! What about Project 573; The American Response? http://americanresponse.project573.com/ Something you don’t mention, but that’s pretty amazing, is this project you and your partner Evan Bush produced in collaboration with other students. A “first ever” cross sequence collaboration produced as your senior capstone project that you and Evan proposed to create with a team of students at the University of Missouri’s J-school. It has been an inspiring project to watch unfold, could you guys speak to this a bit?
This is fantastic example where students have led the academy to think about curriculum and cross sequence collaboration in completely new ways. What do you guys think about the opportunity students have to inspire, and empower other students, to pitch big ideas with promise to shape their future careers in journalism?
No problem, Lisa! Well, since you’ve already started it, I suppose I can talk a little about Project 573. Like you said, it was an experiment to see what would happen if we gathered students from each discipline in the j-school, and let them report on a single topic for the entire year. What we found was it provided a great way for the reporters, who were all used to working in one medium, to learn from each other. And as one of the project’s leaders (the other being Evan Bush), I can say it was also an experiment for us on an entrepreneurial level. I learned more about not only conceiving a bold multimedia project but also about pulling it off. This took a plan, a pitch to the dean, recruitment and more management than j-school usually teaches. I don’t know about inspiring other students yet, but I certainly hope our inaugural effort had some impact. I can say that the project lives on in 8 new reporters next year, and I can’t wait to see it. What I always tell students with entrepreneurial drive is, if you have an idea, ask someone. I was surprised at the outcome.
From my vantage point, facilitating an interdisciplinary initiative aimed at getting both faculty and students working across disciplines (http://www.missouri.edu/mizzou-advantage/), I can tell you that I am learning to build sandboxes for students to innovate in…and then get the heck out of the way. If we in the journalism academy can invest in building collaborative spaces for students to create, and if we can build relationships with corporate partners who want to work with us, students benefit from those relationships. This is a long-winded way of saying that we don’t overtly “teach” entrepreneurial skills, so much as we bake them in by providing a variety of experiences that encourage it.
Here’s one answer, courtesy of American Journalism Review:
Many schools now have classes that are focused on entrepreneurial journalism, the business of self-publishing, or the creation of media products. Personally, as the article quotes me as saying, I’m not convinced you teach people to be entrepreneurs. But you certainly can teach people the skills and knowledge they need to be successful if they do have an entrepreneurial itch — or acquire one along the way.
I am also not sure to what extent you “teach” people to be entrepreneurs, at least in the sense of a classroom approach. There are many important skills one can learn in a school setting, and these help contribute to the overall recipe of an entrepreneur, but there are so many other ingredients. Clearly, much comes from job experience, including apprenticeship or “intern” type situations and other work. I believe everything about a person’s work and career is impacted by life experience, and many of those things occur far outside of school or job, like a person’s upbringing/friends/role models, etc.
Agreed. As someone who works in experimental (or “entrepreneurial”) journalism and is also considering grad school, I’m not particularly interested in returning for journalism. You either have “the itch,” as Rich said, or you don’t right now (or you can mimic other projects without necessarily being able to assess whether it suits the community you’re targeting). Creating sandboxes can be a great learning tool to allow students to experiment, even play, but nowadays, I get the sense that when we say entrepreneurship, we really just mean the guts to create something new.
An understanding of business needs to be part of the foundation so students can also craft imaginative funding models to sustain imaginative approaches that energize communities with information.
What if you could go to grad school, divvy up your classes between some business modeling, IT, humanities and journalism? Build a model of your own?
I agree with this statement and believe me at age 58 (after having “retired” at age 45) I can attest to the importance of job, career, peers and life experiences enriching and making the more effective entrepreneurer.
The link to “The Future of Journalism” on this page was very helpful.
@phylumm check out this video “Hunt for the newsroom of tomorrow” from that site above. Link > http://www.paleycenter.org/carnegie-newsroom-of-tomorrow