Ayo (tired of using?) Technology

As I have probably said on this blog I am taking NCTJ exams next month in a bid to make myself more employable. But last week I got an e-mail from the holy examination gods themselves about the changing format of the Newswriting exam that I will be taking.

In September, the NCTJ introduced multi-media units to its news writing programme of study to ensure that students and trainees are taught about convergent multi-media skills in the newsroom.

Editors agreed that students and trainees should be tested on their ability to write for print and the web, and to test their knowledge of different multi-media platforms. It is essential that all candidates can think about different publishing platforms when reporting news stories.

Minor adjustments have been made to the news writing exam to reflect the changes. The format of the exam primarily remains the same, but question four has been split into two sections, A and B.

So it got me thinking that maybe UCLan was one step ahead of the game when it merged the Print and Online routes for the first time in my last year into a Print and Online journalism course and it wasn't because there was not enough numbers to fill each route ;)

I wish I had an example of the old website of my local paper compared to this one as the new one is a massive improvement visually and to navigate around - so it shows that newspapers are concentrating almost as much on websites as their printed version.

One of the best online versions of their newspaper has to be the Manchester Evening News but as I studied in Preston for three years we followed the Lancashire Evening Post quite closely and they also are embracing the web as a way to boost their competitiveness and maybe even reach a new audience.

Anyways, my point is the NCTJ are acknowledging that the Newswriting exam has to change to make sure newly trained journalists can write for the web and more time is being invested in newspaper websites so what is the end result?

The end of newspapers = I doubt that but obviously adaptations will have to be made and as anyone can see who takes a minute to browse around some newspaper websites they are as some are prepared to break stories online before their next print edition.

Whatever the future holds I hope I can be involved in some way which is why I am taking the NCTJ exams and why (I hope) they will send me on the right track to a good journalism job.