By Chasity Gunn — Belmont University

Are online journalism educators "preparing students for a world that doesn't even exist?"

Nora Paul raised that question among a small circle of coffee-carrying participants as they kicked off the first session of ONA's Hollywood conference early Friday morning: "Goodfellas: The New Media Dons."

Paul, director of the Institute for New Media at the University of Minnesota, moderated the movie-themed session attended by about 40 online-journalism professionals, educators and consultants concerned with how to train students for the rapidly changing world of news reporting and communications.

Universities, Paul said, are wrestling with how much emphasis their curriculums should place on computer programs used in online journalism and on basic storytelling and reporting skills.

Jody Brannon, executive producer at USATODAY.com and an adjunct professor at American University, said "universities are not churning out interns" that she wants.

Brannon said her concern is that students don't want to be interactive journalists, just reporters. She said she is looking for "synthesized thinkers" who are adaptable in the newsroom.

"They don't want the whole shebang," she said.

Steve Fox, senior news editor at washingtonpost.com and an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, agreed with Brannon.

He said that instead of just teaching students how to use computer programs, the focus should be on applying those programs to new forms of storytelling.

Another challenge facing online-journalism programs, the educators said, is the continuing need to upgrade and maintain equipment.

"When you buy digital cameras, you have to constantly replace them [with] new ones," said Janice Castro, associated dean of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Paul also noted that, when it comes to the application of online storytelling techniques, the university is ahead of the professional newsroom.

Ju-Don Roberts, managing features editor at washingtonpost.com, agreed: "Some [universities] are ahead of the actual newsroom because they can get the equipment [news] organizations have a hard time getting."

The New Media Dons are a loosely organized group who meet at journalism conferences. For more information, go to their Web site at www.newmediadons.org.