Patrick Beeson

Most college journalism students won't be learning how to code during their four years of study. But those students also realize they might be facing a job market that puts value on knowing basic Web design skills.

This makes for a confusing time, especially for students nearing graduation.

I received a Facebook message the other day from one such student (and friend) studying journalism at the University of Alabama. She will be graduating next year, and wanted to know what Web skills she should master before entering the job market.

This student has already done more with her time in college than many other students in her field. In fact, I first met her during my role as supervisor for the Multicultural Journalism Workshop the summer before her freshman year.

Since that time she's become very involved with Dateline Alabama, an online news publication run by students in the College of Communication and Information Sciences, as well as other campus and off-campus publications.

Gaining experience in this manner is the first step any student should take, especially in the field of journalism. It doesn't matter if you get paid; you should get in there and learn, learn, learn.

Ideally, you'll pick up a lot of what will make you appealing to employers during your internships and in-school work experience.

But what you learn on top of that effort is what really sets you apart.

It doesn't matter if you master Web technologies such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript or Flash. What matters is that you understand how they're used (or can be used) to deliver information to an audience.

Most reporters won't use HTML unless they're posting stories to the Web. And with the shrinking newsrooms of today's media this is entirely plausible.

So learn some basic Web design skills. You can even do this by blogging -- you should be doing this anyway.

The student in question is graduating in a business climate where many newspapers and magazines still separate their print and online departments. This means mastering skills such as videography or programming will be valuable for getting a specific job in online.

But I believe in the future newsrooms won't be segregated -- everyone will work to gather and distribute information in a meaningful way no matter what the platform. In this way, an array of skills might be beneficial.

When I entered the job market in 2005 I had the unique advantage of not seeing journalism as print or online. It was just journalism, though I knew then online was the future despite the nay-saying of the campus newspaper groupies.

I didn't know a fraction of the Web design and development skills I know now. I knew journalism, blogging and how to combine text, audio and photos to tell a story.

It would still behoove today's students to gain a solid understanding of journalism, but also to realize its future probably won't be as you were taught. And learning a little about how information on the Web comes together will definitely help reenforce that notion.

It might also help you get a job.