Ryerson University School of Journalism chair Paul Knox names his department's different course overhauls in the same way that the U.S. National Hurricane Center names storms in the North Atlantic.

Media scrum. Photo: Hector Mata/Reuters

Media scrum. Photo: Hector Mata/Reuters

And that's appropriate, considering the gale-force winds of change buffeting journalism.

Mr. Knox has named the 2003 curriculum change Alice. It is currently being phased out at the Toronto school, while Bertha, its 2007 successor, is being phased in.

The exponential growth of multimedia use has journalism departments around the country reacting. Those that spoke to GlobeCampus.ca have been bringing in new courses and altering their hiring priorities in order to adapt to the era that now uses video streaming, news tweets, Facebook communities, reporter blogs and online news outlets.

While the technological changes in the industry have been huge, economic changes have also been making curriculum designers busy, as they prepare graduates for an industry that has seen newspaper and TV journalists bought out or laid off, new recruits frozen out, and countless magazines folding.

The change in the newsrooms of the country, where journalists are taking on new multi-media tasks, means that at Ryerson no longer will a student be streamed into either broadcast, print or, since Alice, online journalism. In a new mix-and-match curriculum, the school is bringing in a broader range of courses, with on-line journalism taking a bigger place. Those heading toward specialties like arts or health are also being accommodated with tailored courses.

Most importantly, online skills will now be a component taught from the beginning of their studies and not something brought in later.

"We want to give them the biggest, fattest, most versatile tool belt when they get out," Mr. Knox said. He says the basics of good research and reporting have not been sacrificed, it's just that online journalism has proven itself as a legitimate player and has taken its place at Ryerson. "There are great opportunities for storytelling in multimedia."

At the graduate School of Journalism at the University of British Columbia, multimedia has also taken a greater role than ever before. Like Mr. Knox, Alfred Hermida, a professor at UBC, has also recognized that online journalism has become its own medium. It has been integrated into UBC's journalism curriculum and in class, Prof. Hermida now helps his students recognize when a story lends itself to various platforms. One of the more recently designed courses begins with assigning students a basic news story for the print medium and then asks them to layer on other media to the story, from a slide show with sound to a photo gallery.

The switch-over to this more integrated curriculum has taught students that there are certain elements to a story that suit certain media, according to Prof. Hermida. One example he gives is on-line video, saying that since the person watching the segment has probably seen the news piece and knows the basics of the news story, the item does not need to have as much basic information. He calls this and other aspects of UBC's curriculum "an integrated approach to teaching the fundamentals of journalism."

At Carleton University, more and more online reporting has been pushed onto the curriculum. The main booster for that has been Mary McGuire, who oversees the production of Capital News Online, a web-based publication produced by students at Carleton University's School of Journalism

The professor of journalism says their mission is to train good reporters in the stock-in-trade activities — collecting information, understanding what makes a good news story, verifying facts, connecting to your reader — with the new platform as just another way to present stories.

"I'm a big believer that you can teach core journalistic skills through multimedia," she said.

Putting new online courses into the curriculum means that some old courses are going to have to go by the wayside. Carleton dropped its four-week computer-assisted reporting class that looked at areas like databases and spreadsheets, and Ryerson no longer teaches the more technical aspects of building websites. Ryerson, with a bit of nipping and tucking, has actually even been able to add a history of journalism and a course that features some of the best examples of journalistic writing, neither of them falling under the new media category.

All three say that, despite the changes to the curriculum over the past few years, there has been no change to the core journalistic skills taught at their schools.

So, what about the old stalwarts, who cut their teeth in the old traditional newsroom and may feel that there is too much of an emphasis on the new toys?

From all accounts, most faculty have been on board with the changes to the curriculum. Some older professors who may not be comfortable in new media, for the most part teach basic and traditional journalistic skills and theory courses and are involved in research and administration, while multimedia skills are taught by part-time faculty involved in online areas of the media, more recent full-time hires and older faculty who are comfortable with the new medium.

Prof. Hermida says it's actually a great time to be a young journalist. He sees his students setting standards for some of the less-explored areas, such as how to use social networking sites as a research tool.

Prof. McGuire also feels optimistic for her students, despite the downturn in the economy and the moribund nature of traditional outlets. "The young have an optimism about the future, and they're always resourceful and enthusiastic. And they're now picking up more of a variety of skills so that they can become more and more versatile."

Special to the Globe and Mail