Are J-schools doing the job?

Editor & Publisher is preparing a major feature for its June issue on the state of journalism education.

Are young journalists receiving proper training for the new digital age? What do editors think about the quality of j-school grads they are hiring? And what do the students think about their job prospects in a shrinking industry?

In a podcast preview, senior editor Joe Strupp says what he found surprising is that most students are not learning about digital journalism in the classroom. There are some multimedia offerings and technology based assignments, he said, but little is required. So students have to get digital experience on their own, usually by working at a student publication, and the amount and type of experience they get varies widely.

Editor Greg Mitchell notes that Missouri recently launched “a convergence piece of its journalism major more than 10 years after most newspapers had Web sites.” And he says hiring editors find that students know the lingo of the Web but they haven’t been taught to use Flash.

Does this assessment ring true? Do you think it applies only to print journalism sequences and students?