Journalism A Hot Commodity In Higher Education

So I'm sitting at home watching some post-dinner television when I see a commercial trumpeting "digital journalism" on my screen.

"Learn digital journalism at the New York Film Academy," it told me. "Versatility. Curiosity. Is this you?"

Hot on the heels of the newly-created City University of New York's Journalism School, the New York Film Academy has linked up with NBC to offer this program within their filmmaking section, and it was quite an interesting approach.

Indeed, here is a specialty arts school taking on the craft of journalism to teach, rather than a specialty journalism school taking on the craft of filmmaking (or audio manipulation, or web design, and so forth). And I hadn't heard about it until just now.

The program details are listed here if you scroll down, or download this PDF. And it makes me wonder -- what were the challenges in designing such a program in a non-j-school setting?

Either way, this program's existence leads me to think that all the journalism programs in New York should get together for one big industry pow-wow and screen their students' work. Wouldn't that be an interesting night?

The "next generation journalist" now has Columbia, NYU, CUNY and NYFA to choose from. A lucrative profession? Maybe, maybe not. But a lucrative academic program? Seems so.