Do journalists need to learn to be programmers? Yes. And no. – Martin Belam

"I've yet to see a software developer stand up and say that "citizen coders" will inevitably devalue the work that they do, and lead to job losses and a lack of quality in the sector.

[…]

The second thing is the whole premise itself – do journalists need to be able to program?

I think the ability to mark-up some HTML and understand why <span>, <div>, classes and IDs are important for CSS and Javascript is essential for anyone publishing in the web.

But my answer is that no, journalists don't all need to be able to write program, but the ability to think like a programmer is an invaluable skill."

Question remains, which is the best way to teach someone to think like a programmer?

Whilst I was at Teesside University we ditched Dreamweaver for CMS/template based design, and we're about to enter the same discussions at Bournemouth University over the summer. Looking forward to it 😉

External link

Del.ici.us tags: journalists practice webdesign programming future martinbelam