I think having some experience in tech is going to be the norm alongside writing skills. My friend teaches at UNC and focuses on the tech side of things. Their students are learning JS, some Django (as of 2013, maybe something else now) and the basics of how the web works. I think understanding more of the medium might help prepare future journalists for what's common across the field.
However, coming from having worked at a newspaper, I don't think anything prepares them for the "rapid media creation and frantic consumption". It's amazing how ephemeral online media is yet how much effort still goes in to a lot of the content prep and presentation.
[0] http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/07/care...
Many of my classmates have either joined public relations firms or completely switched careers.
Journalism always was a low-paying field, but besides being satisfying, it still was a job you could retire in a decade ago. Very few of the young newspaper reporters I used to work with 10 years ago are still in the business, having gone into doing PR or government for saner work hours and much better pay. I can only think of one of my fellow interns who put her years as a beat reporter at a regional paper who successfully made her way to a national outlet. I made the jump myself but only because I was also a programmer. While there are new avenues into big journalism careers, such as blogging or getting your start at places like Vox/BuzzFeed...it doesn't seem like the career path from college to small to regional to national paper exists anymore (I've heard the freelancing route has been just as decimated), and the jobs created by online outlets are a fraction of what traditional news outlets used to have.