Michael Wolff Comes to the J-School

By Maile Cannon created and taught by successes of the "old

October 12, 2009 industry" is inherently flawed, he said.
One student in the room, Catalina Lobo-
Michael Wolff, media columnist for Guerrero, of Colombia, argued that the school
Vanity Fair, came to Columbia University today recognized new trends in media and was making
and told 16 bright-eyed, financially committed tremendous effort to advance its new media agenda,
graduate journalism students that they all were by offering all students more opportunities to learn
being screwed. more about Web site design and interactive media.
Wolff, also founder of news aggregator Wolff brushed off her comment, saying what is
Web site, Newser, said the news industry, in its taught in the new media program is not up to date.
present state, is dying; successful future journalists Leela de Kretser, adjunct professor and a 2005
must be enterprising, creative and technologically Columbia Journalism School alumnae, nodded in
savvy. They must think outside the ivy-choked agreement.
walls of Columbia. Owen Kibenge, a broadcast journalist from
"There is a fundamental opportunity that Uganda, asked Wolff about his thoughts on the
exists for an ever growing market for news and school's deans, especially, the newly appointed
information that has nothing to do with the forms Dean of Academic Affairs, Bill Grueskin, formerly
and business supported by Columbia and the J- of the Wall Street Journal.
school," Wolff said. "These people are wedded to "It's good because it shows someone is
an institutional mindset and you're being screwed in thinking we've got a problem here," Wolff said, but
the process." added that "someone from the Wall Street Journal
Wolff compared training at the Graduate is not the solution. Someone from the New Yorker
School of Journalism at Columbia University to is not the solution."
being educated in the former Soviet Union, only to Wolff was unable to provide the group
then see the system fold. with clear guidance for addressing changes in
"Then the oligarchs will come in and take media, but emphasized that disorder in the industry
over," he joked, offering hope that independent made ripe opportunities for enterprising would-be
thinkers will profit in the media industry's changes. journalists.
Journalists today face a climate where the "That story [media's future] is not written,
Internet and technology have made news content yet. That's why it's so exciting," he said.
more available and thus, very cheap, Wolff said.
This environment also gives audiences power to
choose what they consume and they are opting
more for specialized information. This inherently
changes the role of the journalist.
"The people we are supposed to be
represented are voting with their feet," Wolff said.
"If news is not efficient, not pleasurable, and not
giving us the story...[they don't want it]. You [as
journalists] can't be in the position to say 'This is
the story.' The story is changing."
Journalism students at Columbia
University are being trained to produce content that
is losing value, Wolff said. Understanding human
behavior in terms of news--how, when and why
people consume news--and staying abreast of
technologically advances are essential to forging a
new news marketplace, but Wolff said he did not
see those elements discussed at the elite journalism
program.
Students "must have the wherewithal to
negotiate all of these variables," but a curriculum