Abstract

Ryerson University’s journalism school, one of Canada’s largest, has dramatically redesigned curricula to better prepare students to navigate a rapidly changing media landscape. The introduction during the past decade, especially the past four years, of new approaches in teaching journalism aims to address changes in information dissemination propelled by online and multimedia technology. The challenge is retaining and teaching core journalistic values/basics in a society that is increasingly dominated by social media, blogs, podcasts, and websites that can be updated within seconds-a development that requires journalists to possess greater mental agility than ever before. This paper will look at how the school’s curricular choices have addressed the changes that have swept the industry with tsunami-like speed, as well as the challenges of remaining relevant in this brave new digital world.