Wanted: Mass digital literacy training for all higher ed students

In recent years, as enrollment in journalism schools has continued to grow, I listen as amusement as various folks scratch their heads in amazement. What could these people possibly be thinking? Don't they know the media is dying? Why are they signing up for a dead-end major? But I see it from a different view: To various degrees, everyone will be a content creator in the coming years. At the same time, as the number of content creators swells, and the platforms and volume of content explode, people will need to be equipped to wade through, evaluate, and critique what they read. People need to learn how to be both better creators and better consumers of media. These skills become more essential, more vital with every year. We talked about this idea back in 2007-8, when I was knee-deep in the Next Newsroom Project, I was spending a lot of time at Duke University. I felt that one of the most progressive things Duke could to would be to create a digital literacy requirement. When I attended Duke (1987-1991), we were all required to take a freshman writing class, to ensure that we came out with a baseline of writing skills, something considered essential for our professional success.