Candace Perkins Bowen directs both the Center for Scholastic Journalism at Kent State University and the statewide Ohio Scholastic Media Association.

She teaches media writing plus journalism teaching methods and desktop publishing for Integrated Language Arts majors.

A former high school journalism teacher with a BS in newspaper journalism and an MA in journalism education, Perkins Bowen is a past president and remains on the board of the Journalism Education Association. In addition, she heads the Steering Committee of the Student Press Law Center Advisory Council and is the current head of the Scholastic Journalism Division of AEJMC.

How do you keep your students excited about working in the field of communications in light of shrinking job opportunities?

Are job opportunities really shrinking? Or are they shifting and rearranging? Our democracy still needs an informed citizenry, and thorough, fair, honest and accurate information must be available. Journalists need to be flexible and creative in their approach to providing that. In today’s world, that also means being digital and thinking about audiences and trying new techniques. Doing THAT makes it easy to keep students excited — they can use Flash and Soundslides and all sorts of bells and whistles. The not-so-exciting part is when you must remind them of spelling and grammar and AP style and ethical considerations. [Read more...]