(NeonTommy.com) Former Washington Post Executive Editor Len Downie said Thursday there was no “silver bullet” to fix the problems newspapers faced with declining revenues and staffs.

“We obviously are in a crisis in the American news business right now, a terrible, terrible crisis,” Downie said.

But at a talk at the Annenberg School for Communication, Downie said new media outlets wouldn’t replace the role of newspapers.

“In some places the new ways of doing journalism are going to replace the old ways, but not necessarily by eliminating traditional journalism,” Downie said. “It’s traditional journalism alongside what you can have on the web. They’re not incompatible.”

While publications like Politico, which publishes primarily online, have pushed the envelope in the way news is covered in Washington, Downie said the two-year-old publication’s real test will come now that buzz from the election has died down… READ IT

Inspired by the series on social media by Danny Brown, “Discussing JMC with…” features a collection of interviews with academics from across the U.S. and abroad discussing current topics and trends in journalism and mass communication.

Serena Carpenter joined the Arizona State University faculty in 2007 specializing in newer media after finishing her Ph.D. degree in Media & Information Studies at Michigan State University. Her research has been published in research journals such as Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Mass Communication and Society, and Telecommunications Policy.

Carpenter teaches courses in the areas of online and broadcast journalism in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Carpenter has also taught courses at Michigan State University and Bloomsburg University. Her professional background includes working as a television reporter. Carpenter has produced an award-winning documentary on rural issues. She also works with journalists and faculty helping them transition to the online environment.

Her teaching and research interest areas include newer media, news quality, and sociology of news production. Carpenter is an active member of the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, International Communication Association, Broadcast Education Association and National Communication Association.

How do you define mass communication?

This definition is not my own, but I am not sure who defined it. Mass communication is organized communication to anonymous audiences. The communicator operates within an organizational setting.

However, we have to go beyond the mass-marketing mindset. Educators not only have to reevaluate skills courses that they are teaching, but they have to also concentrate on discussing how communication is changing among individuals, and how the news industry fits into people’s lives. In the past, the mass media were directed toward a large, heterogeneous audience whereas today’s consumer market is more fragmented and complex than the mass market, which translates into news media having less impact in a concentrated way. Organizations need to understand readers and how to connect to readers offline and online. Power has tilted in the direction of the people. The use of social media is one approach to connecting to readers and opinion leaders.

This also means teaching journalists to not only understand how to produce online content under the organization’s umbrella, but also to educate students on the economic, entrepreneurial, and relational aspects of the business and the implications of their actions. Scott Rosenberg, formerly of Salon.com, said that being part of a monopoly let journalists be ignorant about every aspect of the business besides the content. Today, journalists need to understand the broader components of the business to survive. This includes understanding their readers to a greater extent. This is why I also believe that mass communication theory courses should contain interpersonal communication theory as well.

How do you keep your students excited about working in the field of communications in light of shrinking job opportunities?

Students are frustrated, scared and tired of hearing their future may not be possible in journalism. There is a good chance that journalism students will or have questioned their future. I tell them that journalism will always exist, however it may not be as they envision it.

Researchers argue that the work of journalists is a reflection of routines, however today’s world is unstable. To prepare them, we must think more broadly about our educational goals. We have to teach them to adapt and lead, not to just work for a news organization.

I encourage students to embrace their entrepreneurial spirit. In my online media class, I teach them skills that will not only be useful for traditional media, but also arm them with information on how they can create their own site and how they can use social media to promote their own content. There are opportunities; many students just don’t know where to look, or don’t understand that journalism is a product produced by many talented individuals and passionate organizations, not just those who work in a traditional newsroom.

What changes do journalism and mass communication programs need to make in order to stay relevant today?

The topic of how to educate students to produce online content is controversial. The increasing abundance of new technologies presents challenges to journalism and mass communication programs. Journalism and mass communication program educators should train students to do more than get a job, but they should also prepare them to evolve with the field. For example, training journalists to work only for print is not the most forward-thinking approach. Students must be trained to work for a variety of media outlets, not just the traditional media.

I believe teaching technological skills is important, but programs must do more than teach non-broadcast students how to shoot video or teach students how to create a Web page. These skills empower students to create their own content; students need to understand how to use these tools to communicate. I believe that understanding online communities and their culture is also an important knowledge area.

The mission at liberal arts colleges is to nurture students to become “whole” people. To survive the changes, students must possess both skills and broad social knowledge to understand to what extent their behavior and product influences society. If we just focus on skills training, we have prepared them to enter the field, but not to evolve with the field. We need to teach them to create, think critically and creatively, and solve problems.

If you could save one journalism and mass communication course from extinction, what would it be and why?

Theory.

Theory helps make sense of what is happening and what will happen. A good theory withstands time. The goal of scientific theory is to explain aggregate behavior, even when the journalism and mass communication field is in a state of flux.

For example, the definition of “what is news” is being challenged. Many people who aren’t employed as journalists are producing journalism. For some time, news content has looked somewhat similar in nature across mediums. For example, the framing, types of sources, and issues covered in the news media has been shown to similar. Theory is necessary to understand what leads humans to create and share, and how this influences content and people.

What new media tools or applications do you incorporate in your teaching? Why these in particular?

I change my syllabus every semester. Some experiments work, some are fine-tuned and some are shelved. For example, I just had my students live blog a guest speaker using Cover It Live. Live blogging is the act of exchanging commentary in real time. I will likely use it and Twitter for guest speakers, however I need to be a better guide in directing the conversation in a meaningful way.

As long as you teach them the basics, they will have the foundation to build their online communication, multimedia and Web design skills. I teach visual storytelling, use of social media, and Web page creation. It is too much for one course. Unfortunately, however, many programs cannot find individuals who can teach online skills. Thus the task of preparing students to work in an online world falls on a few people. But online communication is much more than teaching applications.

If you could offer a piece of advice to both your fellow educators and media professionals in the field, what would it be?

I would suggest talking with other faculty outside of your program. I know that this seems silly, however many faculty do not have access to resources to help them learn applications. I have spoken with so many faculty members who have expressed fear and frustration with learning new technology. However, it is not difficult to incorporate innovative techniques to engage students in the classroom; faculty just need someone to share with them a few ideas that can be incorporated in a classroom or direct them to resources that can help them.

This is what motivated me to start my blog, “Online Journalism” at http://serenacarpenter.com. I share resources, teaching strategies, newer media research, syllabi and handouts with educators, students and anyone else who wants to learn.

• You can find more “Discussing JMC with…” interviews here.

(New York Times, Caitlin Kelly) [...] Sometimes I feel like Alice slipping through the looking glass, toggling between worlds. In one world, I interview C.E.O.’s, write articles for national publications and promote my nonfiction book. In the other, I clock in, sweep floors, endlessly fold sweaters and sort rows of jackets into size order. Toggling between the working class and the chattering class has taught me a lot about both: what we expect of ourselves, how others perceive us, ideas about our next professional step and how we’ll make it.

The contrasts between my former full-time job and my current part-time one have been striking. I slip from a life of shared intellectual references and friends with Ivy graduate degrees into a land of workers who are often invisible and deemed low-status.

In journalism, my workplaces often felt like rooms filled with balloons, enormous and fragile egos rubbing and squeaking up against one another until, inevitably, several burst with a bang.

In retail, divas are fired or soon quit. In journalism, I’ve had managers who routinely shrieked abuse. In retail, I’m managed by a man who served in the United States Air Force in Mogadishu and who wears his authority comfortably and rarely raises his voice. Even the most senior regional and national managers in my company who visit a few times a year know my name, say hello and listen to sales associates with respect. I never expected that.

In journalism, all too often perception helps people get ahead. One editor’s star performer is another’s nightmare. In retail, numbers win. I’ve become one of my store’s top salespeople, and, for the first time in 30 years of professional life, I know my clear value to my employer. Our individual sales are posted on a wall for everyone to see. I like that clarity. Social capital means nothing here. Our retail sales floor is the levelest playing field I’ve yet seen… READ IT

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

Who said no news is good news? The people of Guinea-Bissau, a nation of 1.6 million people in west Africa, have had no newspapers for more than seven weeks.

“There is a paper crisis in the printing-houses and the newspapers here,” Atizar Mendes, director of the Ultima Hora weekly in the former Portuguese colony, told AFP.

“This crisis has gone on for more than 45 days,” he said. “We have asked the new government for help which has yet to materialise.”

Guinea-Bissau may have only five publications but none of them are now able to print.

Simao Abina at the government newspaper No Pintcha confirmed the news, or lack of news, with a simple statement. “We have ceased to exist since last December,” he said.

An official at the national printing works explained that the paper for the publications had come from the Netherlands.

“But the type of paper we were using is no longer available on the Dutch market and we no longer have the resources to buy it from elsewhere,” he said.

Joao de Barros, owner of Diaria de Biassau, which has a circulation of 1,500 — four days a week — has stocked up on paper in Senegal.

“But it cost me twice as much as before. I will therefore be obliged to increase the price of the newspaper or keep the same price but reduce the circulation,” he said.