Sunday 26 August 2012

Technology is in, but is it leaving journalism students shorthanded?


As Spencer Howson once tweeted, walking into a QUT Online Journalism lecture is like walking into a ‘convention of a particular fruit’. That fruit is Apple Mac of course. 

It’s hard to mistake an Online Journalism student – typing away on their Ipad, tweeting on their Iphone or admiring fashion websites on their MacBook. Sometimes they glance up at the lecture slides. Not many seem familiar with a notepad and pen anymore. 

It’s fair to say that Online Journalism is encouraging students to become a tech savvy bunch. But it came as a surprise to hear from our youngest lecture guest to date, Marissa Calligeros, what her most important tool in the field was. Yes she raved about Iphone apps like Qik and Instagram, but they weren’t it.

It was shorthand. Who would have thought an old school skill like shorthand could compete with apps or iphones to be an online journalist’s best asset? For me, Marissa’s news rang true. 

You can have more flashy gismos than NASA but sometimes old fashioned journalistic techniques and skills will prevail. 

Have a go at it yourself fellow fruit lovers.....



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