As if paying out the snout for a graduate degree to help you land a low-paying job in the highly unstable field of journalism wasn't hard enough. Now, Inside Higher Ed reports, J-schools are adding "new media" concentrations and programs to their repertoire. That's right: THEY'LL TEACH YOU HOW TO BLOG.

"Many schools gradually branched into video editing, Web design and blogging, among other media, as they became more widely accepted over the years. More recently, courses are being organized into concentrations and in several high-profile cases, the programs are receiving significant backing from foundations seeking to improve and reform journalism education for the 21st century. "I think one of the main benefits of encouraging convergence and learning how to tell stories not just through one medium but many media" - such as video cameras, cell phones, pen and paper, Twitter and other tools - is "creating an environment [in which] you are not just preparing a journalist to tell a story with one method," said Ellyn Angelotti, an adjunct faculty member at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank, and interactivity editor of its Web site."

Twitter. TWITTER. Tens of thousands of dollars a year in tuition and people are talking about TWITTER, perhaps the most idiotic form of communication of our time. Anyway! @J-School: Late for my YouTube seminar! One last important fact from the article: between 40-60% of working journalists never went to J-school. In New Media Programs, Who Benefits?[Inside Higher Ed]