[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Journalism Students Required to Buy IPhone or IPod Touch here

[jabberwolf]

How Pathetic!
Journalism, is a field that is supposed to give objective views of reporting and analysis.
Now they push a name brand on students, for someone's back-pocket and propaganda use.
Shame on Apple and their mactarded followers!!

[JorgeGarcia]

For as long as the education system has existed, students have been required to purchase specific products. Requiring students to purchase an IPhone or iPod Touch is no different than requiring a student to pay tuition for a professor they don't like, a book they didn't select or a diploma's quality they didn't want.

So hogwash! If you don't like the requirement, go to another .edu ; that's your ultimate right.

[Alligooh]

Assuming people can read, it says that it's a choice if they purchase it or not. It's only a requirement so they can charge it to financial aid. Schools do this with tons of other items that can be used in the classes, so it's no big deal. I wish my school would offer something like that for more items. If it can be used, it should be allowed.

[Calmor]

The Point is not that it's REQUIRED it's that they are pushing students to purchase a very over priced piece of hardware. I'm in the Distance Learning field myself, and I would assume that they are using iTunesU to podcast their lectures. iTunesU does not require you to have Apple hardware to use it. I would assume that Apple is paying someone off to have this as an requirement. Not to mention the fact that the loans to pay off their iPhone or iPod will have interest on them making it morally it, just not right.

So HOGWASH! The University should never REQUIRE overpriced hardware to the already unbearable financial load of a student.

[Alligooh]

I guess I'm just some idiot who can't read that it says it's only LISTED as a REQUIREMENT so they can charge it. Wow, I'm stupid. I not only live in Missouri where this is happening, I work for a college and am a student. I have a loan, and I get federal grants. They listed the items, either an Iphone or Touch because they fill a student needs it. Well, these items are pricey so, lets list it as a requirement, and let the student charge it. How simple can this be? You list a item as required in the school bookstore(the only place they can charge, which I've worked in) and then they can buy it. Also, at my school, you have to take a class to even because about to get loans. So if you are using your loans like an idiot, you screw yourself. Besides that fact, I doubt you even know that the article did say, it's listed as required so the student can defer it like I've said repeatedly. They DO NOT HAVE TO BUY IT, as it even states. BESIDES, I can go on Itunes which I use and download the stuff needed and load onto another mp3 player as I have in the past and will continue to do so.

[Alligooh]

Oh, and they aren't pushing anyone to buy anything, it's simple being allowed to be bought. As I stated, I work in the book store occasionaly, and the school has no control if you buy what they list or not. Life is all about choice. I've served hundreds of students in their vintures of buying items, and I tell them what is REQUIRED, but they don't really have to have. WOW.

[jinx101]

Required and allowed are two very different words. This is ridiclous. It's an MP3.. there's no reason a $200-400 iPod Touch or iPhone is needed when you can use any existing MP3 player you have. Why would you want to have to use iTunes to download these??? What a joke of a Journalism department.

[Cush]

That is no so bad. I remember when Apple Computer gave free computers to Cupertino schools. How noble and great! Not. Remember the old colonial deal of building dependent nations. Consumerism works that way. How long will internet and its ancilliaries be free? Let me guess..... How about until enough people are dependent so prices can change to bring solid profits. Let's get them all addicted as soon as possible for long term benefit of the rest.

[smax013]

jinx101 said:

Required and allowed are two very different words. This is ridiclous. It's an MP3.. there's no reason a $200-400 iPod Touch or iPhone is needed when you can use any existing MP3 player you have. Why would you want to have to use iTunes to download these??? What a joke of a Journalism department.

Even bother to read the article? From the article that everyone is commenting on:

"Before you protest that it may seem ridiculous, lavish, or favoring Apple to force students to pick up one of these expensive pieces of hardware, Brian Brooks, associate dean of the journalism school, told the Columbia Missourian that the requirement "will not be enforced, however, and there will not be a penalty for students who chose not to buy an iPod touch or iPhone.""

[Cush]

Yes. I did read the article and YOU did not read between the lines. The battle is not over this one incident. The industry has to find users for their products and do many different approaches to this end. The school attempting to make these gadgets a requirement will not end with this one incident. The Dean can say he requires or not but the message between the lines is the gadget is good and better for students to have it than not. They may back down today but some students will acquire them. Next term, and term after more and more students will voluntarily use the existing technology and will benefit something till everyone is ready to get them as requirement. NOBODY IS UPSET IF REQUIRED TO HAVE ACCESS TO A COMPUTER OR INTERNET. It wasn't like this the first day they started PUSHING the technology. Now everybody does it with a smile. Go read the article again and spend a few minutes THINKING about it.

[smax013]

Cush said:

Yes. I did read the article and YOU did not read between the lines. The battle is not over this one incident. The industry has to find users for their products and do many different approaches to this end. The school attempting to make these gadgets a requirement will not end with this one incident. The Dean can say he requires or not but the message between the lines is the gadget is good and better for students to have it than not. They may back down today but some students will acquire them. Next term, and term after more and more students will voluntarily use the existing technology and will benefit something till everyone is ready to get them as requirement. NOBODY IS UPSET IF REQUIRED TO HAVE ACCESS TO A COMPUTER OR INTERNET. It wasn't like this the first day they started PUSHING the technology. Now everybody does it with a smile. Go read the article again and spend a few minutes THINKING about it.

I would rather deal with the "here and now", which by a large is what is being discussed, rather than deal with what MIGHT happen. The problem with discussing what might happen is such discussions tend to get colored by what different people assume. In otherwords, it is largely speculative. Feel free to speculate all you want...I would rather deal with what is actually happening right now. And right, now it is NOT a requirement at that school...at least not one that is going to be enforced.

Now, I will agree that it is a bit "shady". You will certainly catch some students who don't know that the requirement will be enforced and as such will go out and buy the items assuming that they thought they had to buy. But, that was not what the post I was responding to seemed to be talking about...it seemed to commenting on how it was actually, truly required and that students could not actually choose just a run of the mill MP3 player instead.

[Cush]

Good for you. You can narrow it down however you want but you miss a very big point: This is not an isolated incident. It is not a question of what may or may not happen. This is how products marketed! iPhone is not worth a damn! Do a little google search. Japanese refused to buy iPhone because it is too primitive. They have far more advanced phones there. iPhone was free in Japan when it was hot here! Somebody has to buy these products and most people have been around long enough to know how to pick cell phones and digital devices. What is actually happening now is what the article says is not a simple incident at this college. The incident at the college is a step in a conventional marketing scheme. Dean requires iPhone. Students complain. Dean requires not but recommends. The first step is done. The marketing people are very smart and experienced. They know this requirement won't go through but 1. will get lots of publicity 2. will get some people to volunteer to use the phone. In a few terms, the number of USERS will go up and some inevitably become ADDICTS. In time, iPhone will graduate to a new device and its sales continue to grow because a community of users has been developed. WHAT HAPPENS HERE IS CLASSIC MARKETING and not a failed attempt at a college campus. That is what is written between the lines. You have to know a little about marketing too. It is called background information. It is not included in here and now happening.