How to remain loyal to an initial ideal and survive throughout changing scenarios? It’s a challenge that newspapers for example have to learn how to face.

I think there is a lot to learn if we are willing to…

Even a conversational knowledge of the history of newspapers would get at the thought models that clarify what is basic and what is ephemeral.

It’s a problem that is compounded, in my humble opinion, by a single minded focus on the next big thing. It’s all good to look forward. But without a geographically specific historical context to evaluate what you see, it’s too easy to connect the dots using the resident patterns in your own head, instead of the most useful patterns that to capture the most important elements of what is going on.

Teaching in different higher education institutions I realized how sometimes my students held more conservative ideas about technology than I did. Some of the most “rebellious” ones complained a lot, but wanted to achieve change within preconceived institutional frameworks.

The economic and cultural or ideological background and current context of younger folk also has a lot to respond to. Some people have no problem in shifting from a career in journalism to one in business if they think they will earn more at the end if they do so.

In my view real change can only be achieved by consensus and collaboration between younger and senior participants in an organization. Those participants need to be passionate about what they do, too, while having the willingness to accept different ideas.

Without passion in any field, you get whining and blaming and pointing to others as reasons for failure. Frankly that’s kid stuff. If you don’t have passion for what you’re doing, do something else. Until you find something that you are passionate about. There’s no crying in baseball and no whining for grown ups.

The issue is not that a journalist student needs to become a business person. The point is that any successful person has to be driven by passion. That’s true for a teacher, a mechanic, a pressman, fireman or journalist.

The key to succeed is passion + 10,000 hours of practice. If you have that no baby boomer is going to get in your way. If you don’t have that, then don’t complain. It’s your decision. Pays your money and take your choice.

The journalism industry, on the other hand, is the exact OPPOSITE of the tech sector. It’s founded on tradition, old values and rules, strict methods. Gates taught himself how to be at the forefront of change, Woodward and Bernstein were taught by editors at the Post to follow suit, despite their “revolutionary” reporting.

In terms of Josh’s worldview, you may be right. Perhaps he doesn’t have the right attitude. But, what – pray tell – are the tools and military strategies would you offer to Josh in order for him to “beat The New York Times,” as if it were some sort of video game. Hmm?

In my opinion, he IS doing something. He is saving himself from taking a career path that might not evolve into anything that can provide for a sustainable living. Right now, the only job in journalism is that of a philosopher. Thinkers like Shirky, Rosen, and Jarvis have the time and money to be able to sit around and write prose on what the future of journalism might look like. And they have the reputations they have built over the last two decades to provide an audience.

Josh doesn’t. He just graduated.

And, by the way, the news business IS more like the tech world now. Have you not read about newspaper companies like the Cedar Rapids Gazette radically reorganizing their “newsroom” to resemble more of a tech startup than a newsroom?

And again with the Harris example — I’d argue that it’s easy for someone with 21 years experience just pack up and become an entrepreneur than a recent college graduate. I am just as sure that he relied “mostly on the reputation and institutional gravity of the organized [he] work[ed] for” in order to leave and start up Politico.

And how do you know that Josh “and his ‘generation’” DON’T know how to run a news organization the right way? Obviously the Berke’s of the world haven’t gotten the answer. So, in reality, it seems likelier that the answer might very well be in the hands of the Gen Ys!

Josh said “let my generation try all these ideas we have about how the news should be presented.” He didn’t say “move over and let me build a news organization.” Because perhaps news isn’t supposed to be organized in the same, OLD, fashion as it used to be. Maybe Josh’s ideas are so completely revolutionary that you can’t fathom their existence much like a 15th century peddler couldn’t possibly understand the internet.

Josh doesn’t want the rewards of management while bypassing necessary responsibilities and stepping stones. He simply doesn’t want to waste his time climbing a broken ladder.

Long story short: You lost me at Catholic priesthood.

The reason Gen Ys want to work for newspapers and not web is clear: It’s what their institutions have told them to want. The rigid professors who tell them to bring the NY Times to class every day. And those who have broken away have found that writing for the web isn’t less legitimate — it pays shit, that’s what.

So — as a 20 year old journalism student — I’m certainly not giving up. I’m with you on that much.

But do I look down on Josh for leaving the industry?

No way.

I’m about to graduate during one of the worse economic times in history. I have second thoughts about jumping into a dying industry every day. If it weren’t for my deep involvement in social media marketing consulting and efforts to build a reputation for myself on LinkedIN, I don’t know what I would do.

And despite inclinations to go to grad school for new media at NYU’s ITP program where I would actually take fun classes — I am now seriously considering dropping the idea to go business school.

[...] we got trapped in an institutional mindset and began thinking like priests, not entrepreneurs. Eventually we got busy with other exciting projects and forgot about it (except for this op-ed we wrote in the toronto [...]

[...] Nieman Journalism Lab: Why Young Reporters Need to Get Past Their Institutional Mindsets; or How Rep… [...]

[...] a now-widely read post from Nieman Labs discussing why young journalists need to get beyond their institutional mindsets. [...]

[...] Why young reporters need to get past their institutional mindsets; or, how reporters are like priest… – The future of Journalism and Vatican II all in the same post. Joshua Benton explores the conservative mindset of some young journalists [...]

http://www.newschallenge.org

You don’t even need to hunt down venture capitalists — they give you money. There are other grant opportunities out there as well.

Even without any outside funding, you can do. If you have a good idea and are passionate and driven, it can work.

Shameless plug: check out CoPress. We’ve applied for Knight funding, but we’re not twirling our thumbs while we wait — we’re rolling on ahead.

[...] Nieman Journalism Lab: Why Young Reporters Need to Get Past Their Institutional Mindsets; or How Rep… [...]

[...] Why young reporters need to get past their institutional mindsets; or, how reporters are like priest… A long blog post which draws some comparisons with journalistic careers being like joining a car manufacturing firm – or the priesthood. (tags: journalism news newspapers media innovation reporting new reporters education journalists) [...]