Shorthand gives a journalist a competitive advantage

Our second year came to an end yesterday as I handed in my last piece of work.

Next year I am going to be following the magazine route on the course,more of that in a later post.

One of subjects that we have to study next year is shorthand.Two hours a day,five days a week and one of the grumbles that is heard is whether it is really necessary in this day and age with the various technologies.Of course there are situations where these new mediums are banned.In particular the court room.

It was therefore interesting to see an article by Charlie Beckett(via Martin Stabe) where at a conference he heard the question,“do you need to insist that ALL journalism students have good levels of shorthand?”

In reply it seems the answer is yes

Even with new media,it has become even more important because it gives the ‘professional’ hack a market advantage.

Good point and as he further says

There can be no harm in having a skill that doesn’t depend on a computer chip or a battery