EITHER A SIGN OF THE END OF CIVILIZATION OR A TRIUMPH OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA MAVERNS.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported on October 16th that Griffith University added “tweets” as part of a writing exercise in journalism class.
“Some students’ tweets are not as in depth as you might like. But I don’t know if getting them to write an essay is any more beneficial,” said Jacqui Ewart, senior lecturer at the university. SMH article HERE
On October 23, Switched.com commented on the story, using the headline University Adds Twitter to Curriculum and adding a graphic that is republished here:
The information starts to skew. The original newspaper article mentions an assignment where journalism students were required to “tweet” a story from the field. My impression is that was an assignment in an existing course.
Amar Toor, writing in Switched.com, makes a commentary that may have changed the story:
We understand the reluctance of some students to show up for a 9 AM class on something as apparently “colloquial” as Twitter. But it’s pretty inarguable that Twitter is the new face of media. For better or worse, the value of brevity in broadcast media is at an all-time high, and the next generation of journalists should at least familiarize themselves with the requisite tools — how exactly one goes about crafting an “in-depth” 140-character tweet is another question. Switch.com article HERE.
Seventeen hours ago, under the “Holy Kaw” section of Alltop.com, the story is titled University makes Twitter class mandatory for journalism students.
The post by Noelle Chun provides the following commentary:
As a journalism school graduate, I think this is silly. Why?
1. There are no rules for Twitter.
2. To truly succeed at Twitter, you should think outside the box—not how a social media professor instructs you to.
3. Most of the student journalists can likely learn the mechanics of microblogging on their own.
4. Why are journalists supposed to excel at Twitter again? Is there an economically sustainable model behind it?Show me a class that will teach students how to write a great nut graf, headline or deck. Then we’re talking. Great tweets can come out of the foundations of good writing, the instinct for a good story and just a little bit of enterprise. So let’s work on those skills first.
Am I totally wrong here? See Holy Caw item HERE
Chun may not be wrong, but the assumption that there is a stand alone Twitter class may be. The path to Alltop never got back to the original newspaper article:
[via Mashable via PSFK via Switched (true story)]
No one sent an email to Doctor Jacqui Ewart, the senior lecturer at Griffith University interviewed by the Herald, for clarification.
Added:
Dr Jacqui Ewart is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities at Griffith University. She is a former journalist and media manager. She is interested in how the media represents Muslims and ethnic minorities.
Her research focuses on media representations, cultural diversity and the media, talkback radio, citizen journalism, and terrorism and the media.
She is the author and coauthor of several books and more than 30 journal articles. I have sent an email to Dr. Ewart asking for a reaction/response.
ADDED
Professor Ewart’s response.
Alltop removes item, Professor Ewart’s observations about her experience.
Also on FireGeezer…
- Professor Ewart responds to Twitter misrepresentation – October 24, 2009
- New Age Media, Old Age Response – October 27, 2009
