And it's my own drum. Two "new" ideas:
A lot of traditional media folks are still wringing their hands about the Internet, blogs, podcasts, iPod downloads and so on. Still trying to figure out how to "fight" the onslaught. The answer is, of course, not to fight, but to hop onboard.
My first "I Told You So Award" to myself comes from re-reading an article I wrote 20 years ago. In it, I addressed the newspaper publishers who were worried about audiotext, videotext and even local cable television (which were like our public access stations now). Even way back then, I pointed out that they were not in the newsPAPER business, but the NEWS business and that they needed to get that news out using whatever technology was available. 1986. What's new?
My second award, the "I've Been Saying This for Years Award," was brought to my attention by an article in the Boston Herald (4/13/06). A BU j-prof is apparently getting a lot of ink for saying that public relations and advertising programs should not share a department with journalism programs. Been saying that for years (That's why I won. . . .).
Every time I have brought this up, I have been almost booed out the door. But it just has always seemed like a no-brainer to me. Journalists, even those who work in the belly of bean-counting conglomerate beasts, are trying to get at the Truth. Journalists and PR folks have nearly always had a bit of an adversary relationship. No matter how much PR folks claim that they always tell the truth to journalists, their jobs depend on spin. And advertising? Don't even get me started (see post below).
Yet we put all these students together in the same program. Journalists need a different training environment. Been saying that for 20 years, too.
End of drum beating.
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