CMA wrap up 5: Rob freakin Curley!
October 29, 2007 in Conferences, hope for the future
If students and advisers weren’t inspired by the passion and conviction of Rob Curley’s keynote at the CMA/ACP convention, then something is seriously wrong with them. Here’s an excerpt from Curley’s speech that contains practical advice for students – skillset and mindset are both important if you want to keep working in the 21st century journalism field. #
What’s even cooler is that Rob invited numerous students down to wapo.com to spend time with him on Friday. He didn’t have to do that, but he shares generously, because he’s passionate about the future of journalism. #
Click here to hear Rob talk about students and what they need to succeed. (mp3 file – if it sounds a little distorted, it’s the MacBook Pro mic effect. Better some audio than none at all, right? – ed.) #
I could introduce you to some of these kids! It's scary. I've heard peers say they didn't get into journalism to blog, to take pictures, to come up with multimedia, to do whatever. They want to write. The other stuff "isn't that someone else's job?" or today, another reporter (23-yo recent grad) commented, "why don't they just hire TV reporter to do the video?" *sigh* Me? I want to hand them a white towel and tell them to surrender now and get out before they get left behind.
As for the skillset vs. mindset, both are necessary. And I'd say you can teach the skills but not to someone without the right mindset, so if I had to pick an employee with one or the other (and I won't be in a position to pick employees for a good long time, if ever) I'd rather have someone who "gets it" than someone who can make things pretty in photoshop but is above doing man on the street interviews. That said, you usually acquire the skills because you have the mindset to realize it's important. So, I guess he's pushing that it's not enough to "get it," to stand out you have to act on it.
Thanks for posting!
I was in town over the weekend but I didn't get a chance to pop in at WPNI… I hope everyone that was able to visit did so, though, because Rob is an amazingly passionate and inspiring guy.
Link to mp3 doesn't work.