George Solomon: The Journalism Cycle Continues
In a time when dozens of jobs in media disappear weekly, giving doom-sayers (and some parents of college-aged students) ammunition to question the future of our profession. And while many of the questions are legitimate, particularly when you see the cost of a journalism/broadcasting education, the one constant factor that bolsters all of us is the students.
The quality of students in the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism continues to improve. In my 11 years of teaching at Merrill it’s my belief the students have gotten better every year. It’s a view many of my friends working in journalism education at other universities share. If the more than 500 students in the Merrill College last year, nearly 100 had internships during the school year or worked for Merrill College’s Capital News Service. The same number had summer internships.
Two of our more enterprising students – Zainab Mudallal (May, 2014 graduate) and Kofie Yeboah (class 2017) – give huge promise for the future to even the most hardened ink-stained veterans.
Mudallal, an international student, was an excellent performer in her four years at Maryland, as well as gaining experience at Maryland’s Capital News Service, holding down several internships in her four years as an undergraduate, writing a column for the Povich Center website and doing other jobs on campus. She spent the summer interning for Quartz in New York City as part of the Atlantic Media fellowship.
Yeboah entered Maryland last fall and immediately created his own sports web site, “The Left Bench,” that during the school year gave more than 25 of his classmates and opportunity to write about sports. This summer he interned at USA Today.
That kind of enthusiasm also was on display at the first Shirley Povich Center Sports Journalism Summer Camp that was held at Maryland, July 21-25, with 50 campers in grades 9-12 attending.
Dozens of professionals and educators from the Washington-Baltimore area provided their time and experience to work with the kids on writing, reporting, game coverage, editing, social media, broadcasting, ethics and putting together a camp web site. In addition, panels on getting the most from high school and what’s it like being covered to the future of sports media seemed to hold their interest.
A day covering a Washington Mystics WNBA game in Verizon Center in downtown Washington a highlight, as was the postgame press conference. Even if the game story seems to be disappearing (see Cleveland Plain Dealer), but that’s an issue for another day.
The potential and enthusiasm shown by the campers — and Merrill College students — should challenge educators and mentors to help these aspiring sports journalists and broadcasters find places in a world that offers new and unique opportunities in sports media.
These opportunities include newspapers, newspaper websites, independent sports websites, blogs, network television, cable stations, local television stations, radio stations, satellite radio, team and league websites and who knows what else. Company health plans and pensions may not be available to everyone, but that’s part of the changing landscape.
Good people in the business unfairly lose their jobs weekly. That hurts. But in the cycle of life, new opportunities arise and a new generation of journalists and broadcasters believe they can thrive in this world. I hope we can help.
