A Qualitative Study of the Effectiveness of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Journalism Program for Preparing Students for the Workplace

Authors

Sarah Anne Carter Rosenbaum, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

Spring 4-15-2014

Citation

Rosenbaum, S. (2014, April 15). A Qualitative Study of the Effectiveness of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Journalism Program for Preparing Students for the Workplace.

Comments

A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts, Major: Journalism and Mass Communications, Under the Supervision of Professor John Bender. Lincoln, Nebraska: May, 2014

Copyright (c) 2014 Sarah Anne Carter Rosenbaum

Abstract

Journalism is changing at a rapid pace with every new technology and tool being released. Within the past year, Twitter’s Vine, Instagram video, and Google Glass are examples of technology that has emerged and journalists have incorporated them into their news coverage. Journalism education is faced with the task of figuring out how to best educate journalists so they are prepared for the current workplace. The balance is sought between teaching traditional journalism skills and knowledge and teaching the ability to use the latest technology. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications (UNL CoJMC) has made changes to its curriculum to try to best prepare its students. This qualitative study asked recent UNL CoJMC journalism graduates how well they felt UNL prepared them for workplace. Graduates were asked about how valuable both journalism and non-journalism courses were to them, if they had internships and how useful they were, what skills they needed to learn when they started working, and if their professors were relevant. Graduates were also asked to provide feedback on where the school was doing well and where it could use some improvement. The graduates also gave advice to future journalism students. The qualitative nature of the study provides personal experiences and specific details that UNL’s CoJMC can use to improve its journalism program.

Adviser: John Bender