Do journalists need to know programming code? In all the blogospheric excitement, it’s easy to imagine that young journalists are empty vessels into which statistics, programme code, audio-visual editing, camera-work, law, and – most important – fake sincerity can be poured before being squeezed into the 24/7 roster moulds that managing editors have waiting for them.

Like everyone in the j-school biz, we’re looking at online skills. But one of the biggest remains the ability to get attention. (Plug coming) For example, some of the international postgrad students at City have got their site mentioned on Boing Boing, and in the Sydney Morning Herald. (Plug over)

And speaking of international students, one of the most useful skills any journalist can have is not mastery of computer code, but the ability to speak another language (especially the word ‘receipt’). But it says something about the technological bias of the online world that languages are rarely mentioned. How many young US or British journalists wanting an international future are learning Arabic? Or Russian. Or Cantonese? You could probably throw a party for them all and still have change from a tenner.

IMO the most important thing in developing journalists is to think about what they don’t need to know. Anyone want to edit the syllabus?