'Teaching Tech Where Girls Are' published by Nieman Journalism Lab

By Kristina Kenney
University News Service
October 11, 2012

Texas State University-San Marcos School of Journalism and Mass Communication Associate Professor Cindy Royal recently had an article published in Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab entitled “Journalism Schools need to get better at teaching tech where the girls are.”

In the article, Royal addresses the ever-growing discussion of how well schools are preparing new talent to enter the continuously evolving media industry. While journalists need to be more tech savvy than ever before, Royal says it is as rare to find a computer science major with an interest in storytelling as it is to find a journalist with a vast range of tech skills.

While the majority of computer science classrooms are made up of male students, Royal makes the point that more of the skills learned in such classrooms need to taught in the majority-female field of mass communication.

“I have begun to recognize the unique opportunity we have in journalism to contribute to a solution for the digital divide,” Royal said. “We can increase women’s participation in technology if we teach higher-end technology skills in a communications context--in essence, teaching tech where the girls are.”

For more information, contact Cindy Royal at croyal@txstate.edu. To read the article in its entirety, visit www.niemanlab.org/2012/10/cindy-royal-journalism-schools-need-to-get-better-at-teaching-tech-where-the-girls-are/.