Updating the Journalist'S Toolbox : an Analysis of the Multimedia Skills That Journalism Graduates Need and Employers Want in Today'S Converged Newsroom

Abstract

Journalism has changed at a faster pace in the first decade of the 21st century than during any time period in the history of the profession. If journalism students expect to be hired upon graduating in the new convergence journalism world, they no longer can afford to specialize in only one skill area. This thesis compared and contrasted current journalism seniors convergence journalism skills with the skills that journalism employers were looking for when hiring. A total of 17 journalism seniors and 45 journalism employers responded to two separate online surveys, the following results were sought: In answering five research questions posed about multimedia journalism skills, 16 independent t-tests were conducted, 10 of which were statistically significant. Journalism employers and journalism seniors largely saw convergence journalism as a multiplatform industry reality that brought the worlds of print, broadcast, and online journalism together. Journalism seniors were also confident that journalism employers were looking for them to be competent in print writing, broadcast writing, audio, video, photography and blogging skills. When surveyed about specific software skills, journalism employers seemed to favor the audio software editing program of Adobe Audition over the program that journalism seniors were most familiar with - Pro Tools. In contrast, both journalism employers and journalism students seemed to be on the same page regarding video editing software. The only area of convergence skills that journalism employers felt journalism graduates were properly trained in was print writing. Both journalism seniors and employers placed a high amount of importance on the opportunity to acquire and advance journalism skills once in the field. This result was consistent with previous literature done in the field of convergence journalism.