As the Web Editor of my college newspaper and a blogger with a keen interest in online journalism, Innovation in College Media is a Web site that serves as an invaluable resource to me in my day-to-day life.

However, I’m shocked when I talk to other journalism students who work on their college papers that they don’t know about CICM’s valuable resources.

If I were lucky enough to receive the CICM internship, I would begin a serious outreach effort to encourage college journalists who may are not aware of CICM to take part in their new weekly features.

What features you ask?

One of the first things I would do as an intern would be to ensure that it is possible for interconnectivity to exist between college newspapers, so that information and techniques can be spread about more effectively.

Two ways to accomplish this are through using either Ustream or podcasts (or both, perhaps).

A weekly Ustream could be very useful. It could be a known, recognizable place where interested college journalists could get together to discuss any problems or concerns they might have in running a college newspaper and Web site.

Regular podcasts could be helpful too, as they could be a regular form where accomplished college journalists could be interviewed and their knowledge can be spread to others. The podcasts could even expand to include people from College Publisher or other organizations immediately related to college media.

The work CICM could do on their weekly features and outreach could prove that the future of CICM and college media is absolutely limitless.

This blog post was written in response to a blog post by Innovation in College Media announcing the CICM Spring 2009 internship.

Upon hearing that many journalism students are throwing in the towel in light of a shaky job market and low pay, I began to sit back and analyze why I’m still a journalism major. I like money just as much as the next person, yet I’m still here. I am one of those people that needs stability but yet I’m a journalism major.

I came up with a list of the top 7 reasons I’m still a journalism major, why I’m not giving up and why if you’re still in college (or just starting out), you shouldn’t either:

1. I will get paid to learn new things. With every article I write, I am exploring something I didn’t previously know, meeting people I wouldn’t have met otherwise and encountering circumstances I would have never known existed. Sure, the pay isn’t great but at least my life won’t be boring.

2. Because it’s up to us. We all know journalism is undergoing some monumental changes as it embraces the online world more and more. However, the future of journalism and where it’s going is largely going to be left up to us — college journalism students. Think of how major that responsibility is. Think of how inspiring that is. It’s up to us to help make journalism web savvy in way that our elders can’t even imagine.

3. You’ll have the opportunity to learn what makes us human more than any other profession. You’ll be there in some of the most important moments of people’s lives. Weddings, funerals, births, etc. You will be interviewing people on some of the best and worst days of their lives and will learn things about how people live and think in ways others can only imagine.

4. Because who doesn’t like to hold people accountable? If you’re doing your job right, you’ll be there to help investigate and stand up for the little guy. Corruption downtown? You’re on top of it. Politician not following through on promises? You’re calling him out on it.

5. You will get to meet some trying awesome, influential people. OK, this one is a little self-serving but let’s face it, you WILL get to meet a few of the people you see on TV or read about in the news and that being said you get to ask them all the things everybody else is wondering.

6. You’ll know some things before everyone else. OK, this one is ALSO self-serving, but you will hear of things before they become part of the public record.

7. It’s only just begun. I don’t prescribe to the theory that journalism is dead or dying (self-preservation, maybe?). It’s changing form and the opportunity exists for it to be better than ever.