A fellow Journalism student on shorthand, the industry and business models

Not me, but Rich Parsons, a postgrad print student at the University of Sheffield. It's good to vent every now and then:

On shorthand:

"The common argument is that its easier than electronic recording. Bollocks. We're not in the 90's anymore, recording audio onto a cd or a casette with only a fast forward and rewind function. Modern technology is valued by its UI, and as such, recording audio in digital format is a piece of cake. Recording devices will subdivide audio into tracks and subfolders, you can paste it onto a laptop and organise it on any number of programs. Also, recorders are much smaller than a notebook and easier to take with you. You also don't have to worry about losing your pen or it running out of ink. For goodness sake, the technology is so prevalent that most mobile phones can record a decent-ish amount of audio themselves"

I know there are counter arguments: namely that people are more put off by being recorded, that batteries can run out, that recorders can't be used everywhere. But I sympathise with the sentiments. Rich also wrote about the dying print industry (for a more detailed look, see the recent Economist article):

"It frustrates me beyond belief that the business models for journalism are so stuck in the past. Editors think they're screwed now, wait till mobile browsing really takes off and kindles become affordable to everyone. Then lets see people justify cutting down 70,000 trees for a week's production of the New York Times."

I couldn't speak for a generation of journalism students anymore than Rich can, but I think it's likely his frustrations (I hope he doesn't mind me calling them that, or highlighting his whole post!) are shared by many. I'm off to go and complete a survey about journalism education... Rich's post has certainly given me some comments to mull over.