Darrell Davis: Going back to a different university

I’ll be in a university classroom for the first time in 39 years today, listening to several professors and grad students discussing the nuances of journalism.

It’s orientation week, so I figured I should get re-oriented before moving to the front of the class next week as a sessional lecturer for the Faculty of Arts, teaching a journalism class called “Introduction to Print.”  There will be 15 aspiring journalists in the class, spending a semester together to discuss the importance and evolution of print media. There are way more students and buildings and computers on campus these days, so I’ve been dropping in to familiarize myself with the place. The School of Journalism, for instance, used to be the bookstore, which has since moved. After that, it was the training area for the wrestling team, which no longer exists.

I spent 28 years writing for newspapers. And most of them still exist, getting printed on newsprint while evolving more into an online product. All types of media are changing, but it’s still too early to teach a class called, “The End of Print.”