Mac Slocum has produced a trilogy of must read posts on what he wish he had learned in school.
He’s absolutely right on all three points.
Interestingly, if your school won’t teach you these web essentials, or if you’re out of school, there is an easy and free way to learn all three: Blog.
[…] Three essential web skills they should teach in J school. Howard Owens passes them along: how to be a guide and a researcher, how to grow audience, and how to lead communities. Admirable skills all. The first is relatively easy, being an extension of what journalists are already trained to do. But when it comes to growing audience and leading communities, while I can point my students to examples and strategies and start a thought process, these are things that are born of feet-on-the-ground experience. The idea of leading communities, for example, relies to a great extent on the experience of being an active, engaged member of a community. J-schools can start the process on these three, but bringing them to fruition is going to depend on forward-looking newspapers willing to mentor and train. […]