Entrepreneurs wanted

Journalism organizations need teachers to help students learn how to function as digital entrepreneurs, a representative of the American Society of News Editors told a group of educators Sunday.

"Technology presents tremendous opportunities and tools for us," Diana Mitsu Klos, organization's senior project director, told 33 journalism advisers beginning the two-week ASNE Reynolds High School Journalism Institute.

"The spirit of entrepreneurialism is something that we hope you carry from this program and is something you can instill in your students," she said.

The program, held at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, gives the teachers two weeks of intensive instruction in journalism methods, values and technologies.

Klos' comments about entrepreneurship resonated with me because I work down the hall from two Cronkite School programs devoted to entrepreneurship and innovation: the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship and the New Media Innovation Lab, both of which have students working under leaders in those areas to develop digital products.

Despite the current interest in innovation and new platforms, I think it's also important to continue focusing on quality journalism, particularly watchdog journalism. We will hear from two Cronkite School faculty members with strong opinions on that: Leonard Downie Jr., former Washington Post executive editor, and Steve Doig, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter.


I was pleased to hear Klos say that she and other industry leaders believe that journalism remains vital despite the economic woes that have beset the mainstream media in recent years.

"What holds it together and what gives so many of us a passion for the future and potential of journalism is knowing that quality journalism is essential for this society and for this democracy to make any sense," she said.

I consider the core mission of journalism creating better-informed citizens and voters. That to me often involves complex information for which social media can only be a complement, not the chief means of delivery.

That said, I have seen how alternative ways of presenting information and data can be very effective at informing the public. For example, a group of student multimedia producers created this powerful video-and-data look at the issue of medical marijuana for the Cronkite News website. And those same producers put together a helpful package profiling new state lawmakers by combining bulleted information and video rather than doing traditional stories. At the heart of each are fundamental principles of journalism.

To me, you pick your spots and use the format, including long-form storytelling, that works most effectively for the issue at hand.

Steve Elliott
Arizona State University
Phoenix