Hot off the press

As the news media industry worldwide continues to nurse the wounds inflicted by a global economic crisis that took an inordinate amount of casualties from among our ilk, universities are astonishingly still churning out wide-eyed, eager young journalism graduates. At a time when prospects for media professionals look bleaker than they ever have, one has to wonder, is there really a future for students of journalism? One Prague university is opening a new BA program in journalism this fall, and the theory behind this bold move is that a solid foundation in the fundamentals of the profession - reporting, writing and editing - combined with training in new media technologies like blogging, using social networking sites like Flicker and Twitter to report and market, as well as courses in digital photography, video and film production and broadcasting, will prepare the next generation of journalists to compete in a constantly changing media landscape.

"It's not easy to break into the job market anywhere, even as an experienced journalist, these days," says Tony Ozuna, asssociate dean at Anglo-American University's (AAU) new School of Journalism, and freelance culture writer for The Prague Post. "But the students that come out of our program will have versatility."

All newspapers are working to figure out their online strategy, some more adroitly than others, and the organizations that succeed will inevitably be the ones with staff versed in new media tools. A brief perusal of any journalism job board shows that, these days, journalists have to be dexterous not only with words, but with photography, broadcast, design and basic Web development. As budgets tighten, employers want dynamic journalists who can fulfill what used to be multiple roles.

"Ours is a program for 21st-century journalists," says Ozuna.

Freedom and a free press

Publications everywhere are facing difficulties, but the importance of sustaining a strong press, one of the essential pillars of a healthy democracy, is acutely felt in the young countries of the former Soviet Union, where many of Prague's private university students come from. "For students coming from the former Soviet Union, journalism is a new or still-expanding field, and these students are possibly more interested in the program because they see opportunities for themselves back home," Ozuna says. "A developing democracy and a healthy environment for journalists go hand in hand."

Ozuna expects five or six current Anglo American University students to transfer to the journalism BA program this fall and says another 10 new students will probably apply between now and the fall semester. "This is a good number for lecturers to work with in the classroom," he says. "By the fall of 2011, I would be glad to have over 20 students in the program."

Journalism students at AAU will be taught by an international faculty of professional journalists, some with especially impressive résumés. "History of Broadcasting" and "Radio Broadcasting" courses will be taught by David Vaughn, former editor-in-chief of Radio Prague and current Prague correspondent for the BBC. A freelance journalist based in Prague since 1992, Bruce Konviser, instructor of "Media in a Democracy," is a correspondent for the Global Post and has been published in The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. Instructor Jan Macháček is an award-winning Czech journalist who has written about economic issues for most of the major Czech newspapers, including Mladá fronta Dnes, Respekt, Hospodářské noviny and Lidové noviny. He is also well-known as a rock guitarist, and prior to 1989 was a dissident and signatory of Charter 77.

Even in these early stages of the new school, Ozuna has high hopes for how it could develop into a community resource as well as an academic program. "One of my dreams for the program is to have an Internet radio station that would be based out of one of the school's sites," he says. "It would broadcast live stream and archived programs produced by the students. It would also have public affairs programming that students would produce with the staff addressing local issues."

The new school will work closely with local professional journalists to provide real world training for AAU journalism students. Ozuna says he is in contact with the director of an academy run by the Czech News Agency, and together they are organizing a course focused on hands-on training for young journalists. "This will be especially interesting for the Czech students, but not exclusively for the Czechs, since it will be taught in English," he says.

For Czech students in need of financial assistance to fund their journalism studies, AAU offers a scholarship that covers all of the core courses for one student per year. The scholarship is named in memory of the late Alan Levy, a distinguished American journalist who worked in Europe for 37 years, much of that time spent in the Czech Republic, and who helped found The Prague Post in 1991 after the fall of communism. "Levy was a journalist who made such a significant contribution to Prague and Central Europe that he should not be forgotten," Ozuna says.

AAU is currently accepting applications for the fall 2010 semester.

Emily Thompson can be reached at
ethompson@praguepost.com