This document discusses issues related to teaching journalism to digital native students in the age of social media. It summarizes research on students' use of social media and online skills. The key points are: 1) Most journalism students are millennials who are comfortable with technology but consume online content more than they produce original content. 2) Facebook is the dominant social media platform used, while YouTube and Twitter are also popular. Students check email and social media frequently but do not spend extensive time on any single platform. 3) Students' commitment to social media is inconsistent and they are hesitant to use blogs. The balance of teaching hard skills versus values needs refinement. 4) The curriculum aims to better incorporate

1. No longer ‘new media’: Journalism education and social media

2. ‘Blogs bother me’ Social media, journalism and the curriculum A paper for WJEC, Grahamstown, South Africa, July 2010 Martin Hirst & Greg TreadwellSchool of Communication Studies, AUT University

3. What are the issues Our students are “digital natives” (Prensky 2001) and described as “Millennials” (those born between 1982 and 2002) Who are they and how do they learn? Do they have the digital media skills that make them “naturally” inclined towards journalism? What should we be “teaching” them to best develop their skills? How and why do we do it? Greenberg & Weber, 2008

4. New MediaJournalism@ AUT Introduced at AUT in 1997, in response to the migration of news to the net Journalism Technology Workshop first new media course taught at a New Zealand university in 2000 became NMJ from 2000—2008 underwent several metamorphoses as the use of the Internet by news organisationsdeveloped 40-50 students a mix of journalism majors and those taking journalism as a minor reasonably wide gap in skill sets.

5. NMJ – the future Current Curriculum Retains html-based web page assignment Greater variety in news assignments, including emphasis on video Retains theory-essay component Future Curriculum Maintain theory-practice linkages Perhaps move away from html to php (drupal, etc) Greater emphasis on multimedia and non-linear story-telling Introduce social media tools in a systematic way

6. Where are thestudents @? Before we make significant changes we felt it important to engage with students and establish their levels of competence and comfort with social media tools Survey of journalism students across New Zealand(n=359) 105 responses (29%)

7. Survey demographics The demographic data from 105 respondents clearly shows that the vast majority—83.9% of males and 86.5% of females—are “Millennials” ©fastcompany.com

8. The Millennials Who they are How they learn Ethnically diverse Well educated Self-aware & Optimistic Smart about technology Embracing mobile media Like using technology Results more important than facts Enjoy multi-tasking Demand immediacy and gratification Oblinger, 2003 Millennials are "profoundly shaped by, and comfortable with, the new technologies that connect people with the world electronically.” Greenberg & Weber 2008, Generation We, p.24

9. Millennial J students Testing the mythology they understand “intuitively” how to tailor messages to particular audiences they value “truth and accuracy” and have the “ability to recognise both” they may nod at our wise pronouncements from the front of the lecture hall, but they will also know that our words are (for the most part) “historical artifacts of a pre-Web culture, leftovers from how things used to be” (Dianne Lynch, 2007, pp. 61-62)

10. Email accounts How many accounts? How often checked One for personal use, one for "junk" ie facebook notifications that would clog up my normal email, one for work and one for school. (Respondent 56 /M 17-19yo) Old hotmail hardly used but where I get businesses I sign up for to send their annoying emails, personal gmail account and school microsoft outlook account. I also treat facebook as am email account. Respondent 39 /F 27-30yo)

11. Social Media Accounts Other social media Do you have a Facebook profile? Clearly, Facebook is the dominant social media application. YouTube is a distant second Most uploading is to social network sites

12. Facebook What use? How much time? I generally just stalk my facebook friends and see what they've been up to rather than contacting them. I also use it to try and contact sources if I am having trouble via phone or email. (Respondent 74: M/31-35)

13. YouTube Why I use YouTube How long on YouTube Facebook and Youtube are the only ones that I frequent daily. (Respondent 19: M/23-26yo) Maybe one to two hours but not at the same time, I'll flick on several times a day for a couple of minutes. (Respondent 75: F/20-22yo)

14. Twitter Use of Twitter …signed up to Twitter because I thought I should be up to date…but have only used it once in six months I primarily use Twitter as a news source…but I don’t do tweets myself Simply to follow others, I don’t update my account I have del.icio.us, Twitter and Flickr accounts because they were course requirements 13 of 34 males had Twitter accounts (41.9%) 35 out of 71 females have Twitter accounts (47.3%)

15. ‘blogs bother me’ “Blogs bother me. I read online newspaper columns, but not blogs.” (Respondent 19: M/23-26) Do you visit blogs? Do you blog? It’s basically just a place to vent…I blog under an alias (Respondent 101 /F) I decided it was too public and pointless to make it private (Respondent 72 /F) I don't update the blog regularly; I keep it to publish my poetry and stories (Respondent 50 /F)

16. What the data says Online Skills Our digital natives are good social networkers They are mostly able to manage multiple identities Their commitment to social media is fickle They consume at a high rate, but do not produce much (if any) news-like content outside course-work

17. What are we doing? Still working out the balance of skills teaching What software or platforms do we need? Web publication Sound and image recording and manipulation Social media as journalistic tools Digital story-telling Online learning and engagement E-learning software Values Exchange

18. Values Exchange http://autuni.values-exchange.co.nz/

19. Global City Project Collaborative project with Ryerson University (Toronto) and Napier University (Edinburgh) Internationalisation of the journalism curriculum Peer-to-peer learning in a cross-cultural environment Developing critical thinking and collaborative skills Journalism and broadcasting students will be encouraged to collaborate on the production of a web-based news product – provisionally called Global City Desk – that will showcase their work around a set of agreed themes and story projects broadly encompassing “the global city”.