Last week, I delivered a keynote talk to the faculty of a university Journalism department. “Change” was the theme of the retreat. Some of the change had to do with remaining viable in the face of massive budget cuts. As one participant in the retreat said, “Higher education in California will never be the same.” But an equally important dimension of the change discussion centered around changes to journalism.

I’m experienced in a lot of things, but even though my degree is in Journalism (California State University Northridge, 1976) I haven’t worked as a professional journalist since 1977 when I made the move into organizational communications. So I began the process of fleshing out the presentation by putting the question to my Twitter followers: What should I tell this group?

The answers mostly reinforced what I already thought. Most of the presentation addressed the changes to journalism business models and my own prognostications about the future. My last slide summed everything up with a list of skills and philosophies that should be incorporated into journalism classes.

It’s a relevant discussion because, even as the newspaper business continues its downward spiral, the number of students registering for journalism programs continues to be high. I’ve always believed a journalism degree is useful for any number of career paths—after all, the main thing you get out of journalism training is how to learn (as in, how to learn about the story you’re covering even though you have no background in it) and how to articulate what you have learned.

But you also have to suspect most of these students are working toward a journalism degree because they want to be journalists. The question they’ll face upon graduation is what kinds of journalism jobs will exist?

Whatever those jobs are, journalism students will be better equipped to qualify for them if they have learned the following as part of their education:

• SEO—Most of what I remember about writing a basic news article is consistent with the principles of on-page optimization, but the importance of writing so people can find your articles shouldn’t be underestimated. It’s particularly important since students in journalism classes today don’t have a clue whether they’ll be working for a centralized news organization or some kind of distributed network. This synchs nicely with my next point:
  
  
• How to think like a freelancer—With nobody certain what economic model or (more likely) combination of models will pan out for professional news, journalism departments need to instill a mindset in students that will allow them to tap into whatever opportunities arise. That’s quite a shift from the view of professors when I was in journalism school: If it’s not a daily newspaper, major newsmagazine or network TV news channel, it’s not journalism.
  
  
• Flexibility—Print, broadcast, radio, online…journalists had better be prepared to report anywhere. When I worked in journalism, I was a print reporter with no interest in electronic journalism, which was a whole different ballgame. Those lines are gone and today’s students need to be prepared to do it all.
  
  
• A continuum of reporting—When I was a reporter, I filed a single story following on-site reporting of news or research for an investigative piece. Today, a single report is inadequate.
  
  Take a lead from the Spokane Spokesman-Review, whose reporter covering a sensational murder trial tweeted regular updates from the courtroom, wrote longer blog updates during breaks then filed the complete story from a hotel room after court adjourned for the day. I wrote about this on my blog about a year ago, as it was happening.
  
  The very definition of news is changing. With channels like Twitter and Google News email updates, nobody has to wait for the 6 p.m. newscast or be in front of a TV to get the latest, smallest update to a story. The thirst for these updates is insatiable and it is up to journalists to fill the 140-character news cycle. Tweets from the courtroom included information like, “The prosecution has challenged 16 jurors so far” and “Peremptory challenges have ended. The court is on a 10-minute break.” Such updates feed the hunger for the latest information and give people something authoritative, rather than speculative, to talk about.
  
  
• How to be a curator of links—If you haven’t seen the clip of NYU Journalism Professor Jay Rosen talking about the ethic of the link it’s definitely worth your time. The idea that news operations must contain links to their own content is a bankrupt notion in an environment that thrives on diverse linkages. Becoming a trusted filter of valuable content does not mean you don’t generate your own; you simply analyze and distill the best related content, wherever it may reside, to make it easier for your readers to pursue more reading on the topic. No single news organization contains all relevant knowledge and viewpoints within their staffs. The better you are at curating links, the more readers will want to come back to the well.
  
  
• How to develop a digital footprint—Given that reporters are not likely to get a job with a single news outlet, they will want to build enough of a reputation (what some might call a “personal brand,” but not me) that she will be followed and read wherever she goes. Journalists who participate in discussions about their articles, who tweet (assuming their employers are smart enough to allow it) and who are accessible will go a long way toward establishing that identity.
  
  
• The Web 2.0 dimensions of reporting—The online dimensions of reporting are relevant to every aspect of journalism education. I cannot think of a class for which issues such as sharing tools, RSS feeds, monitoring feedback, participation in resultant conversation and embed codes, to name just a few, should not be taught.
  
  
• The role of news crowdsourcing and citizen journalism—Rather than viewing non-professionals who publish news as competition, teach students to understand their role in an ecosystem of news. There are more non-professionals with mobile phone cameras than photographers on your staff, for one thing. There are more individuals who might be interested in doing a bit of research on a topic of personal interest than there are research assistants in your newsroom. Professional journalists will need to know how to crowdsource some of what they need for their stories.
  
  There is also no reason professional journalists can’t come to the aid of citizen journalists who are on to something good but don’t have the chops to bring it home.
  
  
• Ethics, accuracy, and balance—As the ranks of trained, professional journalists thin out, those who remain will be under a greater microscope than ever. Adherence to the highest professional standards won’t be just a good idea; it will be a baseline requirement.
  
  
• Transparency—One way for journalists to maintain a high credibility standard is to become far more transparent. I can imagine every reporter maintaining a blog where they catalog the sources for every story and, where appropriate, the full text (or audio files) of their notes.
  
  
• Multimedia—During one of my newspaper stints, I would often carry a camera with me. We had only three photographers on staff and they couldn’t go out on every story. Today, carrying audio and video recording equipment should be just as commonplace. These needn’t be complex or expensive. A Flip-like camera and an iPhone with an audio recording app work just fine. The more multimedia a reporter can inject into his coverage, the more compelling it will be for online readers to consume it… and the more likely it will be that the story will spread.

What’s missing? Where do I have it wrong?