Columbia J-School’s Existential Crisis -- Daily Intel -- New York News Blog -- New York Magazine
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/03/columbia_j-schools_existential.html

columbia revamping its curriculum

compares Columbia's attempt to move from more traditional approach to journalism education with CUNY's focus on digital journalism as "single ray of hope on an otherwise dark media horizon"

Beginning in August, Columbia will offer a revamped, digitally focused curriculum designed to make all students as capable of creating an interactive graphic as they are of pounding out 600 words on a community-board meeting. The force behind the change is former WSJ.com managing editor Bill Grueskin, the school’s new dean of academic affairs. Grueskin wants to make multimedia skills and storytelling mandatory via the school’s core course, RW1, shorthand for “Reporting and Writing 1,” which has, since its inception in the early seventies, stuck to very traditional lessons in beat reporting and on-deadline news writing. "But the push for modernization has also raised the ire of some professors, particularly those closely tied to Columbia’s crown jewel, RW1. “Fuck new media,” the coordinator of the RW1 program, Ari Goldman, said to his RW1 students on their first day of class, according to one student."

blah blah blah blah Columbia wants to teach beter journalis, butecause they suck right now