Disclaimer: This is my own opinion and does not necessarily represent that of Ryerson Univeristy’s journalism program.

There’s a school of thought around online journalism that believes teaching Web languages to those wanting to work in the field is pointless. Not surprisingly, many members of the group don’t believe in journalism schools either.

The core of the argument centres around HTML. One group believes knowing the mark-up language now is equivalent to knowing how to pour hot lead type fifty years ago. They believe it is a technical skill that lands the journalist in a webmaster-like position of a “web monkey”.

The other group—which I count myself a member of—believes that, like grammar, HTML is an essential tool for the online journalist.

Know your medium

To work in a medium and not understand its lingua franca is doing the audience a disservice. Would it be reasonable to expect a TV reporter to not know the makings of a good shot? Should magazine writers not bother to learn the proofreaders marks? Should copy editors ignore the house style?

To know HTML is to know how the medium works—its limits, its benefits, its potential. It is a skill, unlike pouring hot lead, that is simple enough for a ten-year-old to master.

Journalists knowledgable in HTML generally work in “web monkey” jobs out of:

• desire: they love Web building
• necessity: the job was offered with double the pay of a journalist's
• ignorance: an employer who didn’t understand the medium misrepresented the job as journalism
• false hope: there was a belief the “web monkey” job would lead to genuine online-journalism opportunities

Stronger journalists

Over the past four years, I’ve taught hundreds of students the basics of HTML and watched skeptics smile when finally putting their work online. For many that was their first and only Web page, but each year, more and more become happy “web monkies” or journalists working everyday online.

None have said HTML has stopped them from succeeding.

Online writers have no need to become experts to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Online editors, probably the most maligned working journalist today, don’t need to become full-fledged Web developers. Online broadcaster don’t need to be SMIL experts capable of install a streaming media server.

But if online journalists can understand the fundamentals of the medium, they can work with designers developers and producers to put together packages pushing the Web’s potential.