King's MJ focuses on new ventures, data

Program aims to serve freelancers, differentiate journalists from citizen media, says director

Sangster and Black are catching up between classes in the King's computer lab. Photo: Vanessa MacKinnon

What keeps a university established in 1789 fresh in these fast-paced times? The ability to look at itself, honestly evaluate its programs and not be afraid of change.           

The University of King's College faculty did this three years ago. King's took a hard look at whether the traditional curriculum offered in university journalism programs was enough to prepare graduates for the changing news industry, says Kelly Toughill, director of the school of journalism.

The result? The faculty designed the master's program after seeing two emerging trends.  

The first trend shows more journalists starting up new projects or freelancing. The program addresses this with its new ventures stream, teaching the necessary business skills for journalists to succeed, says Toughill.

The second is a growing number of citizen journalists. The school designed its investigative stream to give journalists deeper investigative skills, differentiating them from citizen journalists.

King's partnered with Dalhousie University's Faculty of Management to offer the master of journalism program becoming one of six Canadian universities with such a program. These include Western, Ryerson, Carleton, Concordia and University British Columbia.

Dalhousie has a well-established graduate studies program. The two universities already have a close relationship and offering a joint master's made sense. The new ventures stream ties in with courses already offered at Dalhousie and tailored to journalism. The program is 10 months and students pay $7,000.

King's is known for being at the forefront of curriculum development, according to Toughill. But students see other reasons to come to King's.

Eight students were accepted into the program. Ezra Black is one of those students enrolled in the new ventures stream. He isn't new to Halifax - he came from Montreal in 2010 for the one-year bachelor of journalism program.

Black says he connected with the atmosphere at King's, calling it a change from the "factory education" he had experienced while studying for his first degree in history at McGill.

Black built strong connections with both faculty and students because of the small program.  So he continued on in the new master's program.

Halifax resident Lily Sangster graduated with an honours degree in history from King's and Dalhousie - and then King's one-year bachelor of journalism program. She stayed, applying to the investigative stream of the master's program.

Sangster didn't have any concerns about joining the master's program in its first year.

"It was at a place that I liked. I liked the faculty. It just seemed like a good fit."

"I was voted most likely to never leave King's ...  that's pretty accurate," she laughs. 

Although still in its infancy there are already changes planned for next year's program, says Toughill. The university is offering a separate week-long seminar before classes start, for students requiring experience with technology such as cameras and editing software.  

Evolving technology and social media have left many questions as to the future of journalism. Flexibility like this is needed in any journalism program.           

"No one knows where journalism is going," Black said. But he feels King's is going in the right direction.

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