There's also Livewire, which acts as a wire service. Students who have had pieces accepted have seen them reprinted in publications from all over the country. NYC Pavement Pieces is a multimedia project of New York University's Department of Journalism; students tell the stories of New York City and its neighborhoods. The Business & Economic Reporting program (BER) has its own webzine called BER Business Times, as does The Science, Health, Environmental Reporting program (known as SHERP), which publishes Scienceline. Several other courses cover new media, including blogging and criticism.

Finally, we even posted our department ethics code on the Web with some nifty software that makes it possible for readers to comment on the very passage that concerns them.

In short, I think NYU Journalism has done a good job of incorporating the Web into its curriculum. And as the landscape shifts, I'm sure we will do more.

Is a working knowledge of the Internet, including video and blogging, a requirement for new journalists to be successful? In the near future, will graduates be employable if they only know print?
No [it's not required], but multimedia skills can certainly help students find jobs. Check out the job listings on mediabistro.com, for example, and you see a lot of posts for people with working skill in Web video. The Web will do to broadcast and cable news what the Internet did to print. (You can be sure network and cable execs are well aware of this.) Sites are increasingly adding video to their offerings and I think it's important that journalists understand how to tell stories and relate news by using the best medium for the job. As a writer, I can tell you that some things are better told in words while others are superior as video or even as photos. For example, relating back story and providing analysis is better suited to text while action is usually better in video. And blogging enables readers to get a sense of the personality of the reporter, so it's a good way to create a community of readers. All of this, when you get down to it, comes down to business. You want your readers sticking around your site (hopefully they'll check out the ads while they are there) and video and photo slideshows keep them around longer. That's why you see The New York Times and Washington Post investing so heavily in multimedia.

My advice to any journalism student who wants to work: Start a blog on a subject you are passionate about, learn to shoot and edit video, post some audio interviews, some pictures -- in other words show that you have an arsenal of skills, know how to report and write a story, prove you can post video, too, and you'll be a much more attractive job candidate than someone with a slim file of clips. In this business no one is interested in your potential. Frankly, with there being virtually no barriers to entry in the field of journalism anymore, there's no excuse not to post your work. As David Carr, Times media columnist says, journalism grads are part of the "show me generation." So show us how good you are. Don't just tell us.

What has the Internet not changed about j-school?
That's easy. No matter what kind of reporter you are, there will always be a need for reporters who can report the hell out of a story and write well. At NYU we stress the basics, because once you know how to craft a strong news story or magazine feature, you can pick up the skills you need to write for any medium, whether it be magazines, newspapers, online news sites, blogs, or books. Multimedia is something that we believe has to be layered over this primary skill set.

Are j-schools doing enough to keep up with the changing landscape of the media world?
I think many j-schools are rising to the challenge. Realize that no one knows precisely where journalism is headed -- not only within academia but inside journalism, as well. The fact that NYU Journalism recently moved into a new state-of-the-art facility, with a broadcast studio that is the envy of some working professionals, radio booths, work stations equipped with video and audio editing software, universal WiFi, and new classrooms with laptops for every student, and you can gauge the quality of our investment. Columbia University and CUNY have fine faculty made up of working professionals. Berkeley is well regarded for its heavy emphasis on multimedia while Medill has undertaken a radical restructuring to better reflect these changing media times. As with the industry as a whole we may not have all the answers, but it's not for lack of trying.

Some people blame the inability of j-schools to keep up with the fact that many professors are career academics rather than practicing journalists, and are thus out of touch. Do you agree with this? How can this be combated? Should professors be required to write articles for publication? Do you think there's too much "academia" in j-schools?
If you look our faculty, almost every single professor writes books, magazine and newspaper articles, blogs, or works as a producer for TV news, and some even populate the heady world of pie-in-the-sky academia. I'm a contributing writer to Fast Company (I had December''s cover story), was a columnist for both Slate and Wired News, and am on sabbatical to write a book on media (for University of Michigan Press). Some of my author colleagues include Charles Seife, author of the bestseller Zero who has just completed a book on fusion and Stephen Solomon, who recently published a wonderful book entitled Ellery's Protest, on the Supreme Court's 1963 decision governing school prayer. Jay Rosen is a well-known blogger (PressThink) and working on a book. Science journalist Dan Fagin is also writing a book. Rob Boynton is a top magazine writer for Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, and Rolling Stone and author of The New New Journalism. Jane Stone is a producer for NBC News. Mark Dery is a top media critic. Katie Roiphe is a well-known essayist and author. Marcia Rock shoots documentaries. Mitchell Stephens has written a number of influential books and our chair, Brooke Kroeger, published some excellent biographies. David Margolick of Vanity Fair is an adjunct professor and Dean Olsher of NPR is teaching about radio in the age of the podcast. There are many more examples.

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And there's a simple solution for students: Before you register for a course, google the professors. Look at the kind of work they do. Check out the publications they write for. Do a complete lit search. Actually read the articles. Skim the books. If you can't find anything interesting, take another class with a different professor.

In your opinion, what should a j-school graduate know that they wouldn't have known five years ago? Are they learning this information?
Clearly the answer is multimedia. You don't need to know how to code a Web site from the ground up. You should, however, invest in some multimedia training, but not at the expense of learning how to write and report great stories. Figure out that balance and you're well on your way.

How has the increased role of citizen journalism changed j-school? It seems as though people need less and less training to become a functional member of the media. Would you agree with this statement?
I disagree. Citizen journalism certainly has its place. After the bombings in Spain, witnesses posted pictures and blog entries within minutes. NY 1, our local news station, solicited pictures of a tornado that ran through Brooklyn, and posted some of them from their viewers. This is all a tremendous addition to journalism. But it won't replace journalists or journalism. Most blogging is analytical by nature. It is symbiotic to the news media it loves to hate. Without the news -- which someone has to go out and get -- there wouldn't be much material for bloggers to mull. So little blogging actually breaks news, it merely amplifies what already exists. I don't say this as a criticism. I think it's wonderful that news consumers can share their insights and criticisms of media with their own readerships. But bloggers won't replace journalists, just like TV news reporters didn't replace print journalists.

It takes an enviable amount of skill and experience to write a truly good magazine feature or tight news article. They offer an experience you simply can't replicate on a blog. You can ask a bevy of people to act as citizen journalists to research a story, but that doesn't mean that the information will be good. And let's face it: few of us have the luxury of working for free. I can assure you that I do far better work when I am being paid than if I'm doing it pro bono. How about you?

[This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]