Five Questions: Robert Gunnison
The state of journalism is in a state of flux and therefore, so is journalism education. In a series of expert interviews, VisionPoint Marketing explores how the journalism-education industry is doing and how it must now market and present itself to prospective students. Our first interview is with Robert Gunnison, Director of School Affairs at the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
1. How has your curriculum changed from when I studied at the J-school 10 years ago?
Our curriculum is in constant flux. We are now the digital school of journalism. Every entering student takes multimedia training and the three J200 classes run local news sites:
Much of our Boot Camp (first year, first semester) curriculum now focuses on video and digital training.
2. How are internships at the J-School now versus 10 years ago?
Internships are handled differently from 10 years ago. Now they are more varied and not largely newspaper or print focused like before. The destinations of our students are mostly digitally focused jobs with many shooting video, from the Houston Chronicle to The Wall Street Journal in China.
3. Do many newspaper jobs or internships surface?
Newspaper jobs are a rarity. Bloomberg picks a couple each year and is a very astute recruiter.
4. Do you feel that graduates from a journalism program at Berkeley are still in demand?
The skills of our graduates are very in demand because they have both technical and storytelling skills. They are ready to adapt to the newest things and have no pretensions about the world they are entering.
5. How do you feel about graduates from a prestigious journalism program such as yours entering into marketing and public relations? Often these fields are frowned upon within the journalism industry.
I try not judging PR as an industry, but by the people I work with. I find many are committed people who care about good journalism and hate the things I hate -- sloppy, lazy reporting, for instance. There are creeps and shills, but that is not exclusive to PR. I hope that our graduates, whatever field they enter, conduct themselves with honesty, dignity, and respect for the truth. That is not a bad legacy, I figure. (Don't want to get too lofty here.)