Training and Education

Newsroom training and education has been expanding slowly this past decade. The 2002 Knight-funded multimedia study, "Newsroom Training: Where's the Investment?" the most comprehensive study of newsroom training and education to date, said that American journalists today feel ill-equipped to cover the complexities of the modern world. Eight out of 10 journalists said they want more professional development. Training heads their list of job-improvement needs. Knight's Journalism Program, therefore, seeks to emphasize education for current and future journalists; increase the impact and number of journalists reached by existing programs; and encourage the $100-billion-a-year news industry to increase its investment in training.

Central to these goals is the Newsroom Training Initiative, which hopes to increase key numbers:

Number of journalists reached by our core programs on most-needed topics, including those reached by distance learning.
Number of middle managers who understand the value of training themselves and training their newsrooms.
Increase in "learning newsrooms" committed to the idea of the "learning organization."
Percentage of news industry payroll spent on training, or some other agreed-on industry training index.
Visible, lasting, sustainable change in news industry behavior.

Organizations that have received grants include:

Northwestern University: To launch the Newsroom Training Initiative (see link below)
American Press Institute (API) and American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE): To work with top editors to create 12 self-training newsrooms nationally.
Associated Press Managing Editors (APME): To train some 3,000 middle managers of print and broadcast newsrooms.
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies: To create News University (www.newsu.org), an e-learning program for journalists.
Committee of Concerned Journalists (CCJ): Standard-setting seminars are offered n newsrooms nationwide, training 1,300 a year.
Southern Newspaper Publishers Association (SNPA): Traveling Campus program trains 7,000 a year at 20 regional sites.
Knight Centers:
- University of Southern California and Maryland train journalists to cover complex subjects (see USC's Knight New Media Center; Maryland's Knight Institute for the Future of Journalism)
- Michigan State specializes in environmental journalism
- University of Texas-Austin expands training in Latin America
- University of Missouri at Columbia trains students and professionals to be better editors.
Year-long programs: MIT, Stanford, Michigan and Harvard offer the nation's most prestigious year-long journalism development programs.

More information is available with the following links:

Updated June 12, 2007

June 12, 2007