Do journalists need to learn computer code? It's a question which has raised passionate debate in the US – with typically polarised responses. As yet in the UK it elicits little more than bemused curiosity. But it's an increasingly important question as media adapts to the volatile requirements of digital technology and changing consumer expectations.

It's about more than data journalism, although that certainly sits at the heart of the issue. New digital platforms and applications offer new means of illustrating and disseminating information – but should technical development simply be the province of technologists or should modern journalists take an active role in shaping these new opportunities?

Last year, the Atlantic stirred the debate with an article by Olga Khazan, its health correspondent, arguing that young journalists should concentrate on internships and freelancing to win a first job and leave coding to the technologists. The concern was that learning coding would be a distraction from core journalism skills. In one sense she's right. Not every journalist should know, or needs to learn, how a website works. But protecting the routines of the past at the expense of adapting to the future is seldom a good idea.

The US has always taken journalism education more seriously than the UK, and many of those who responded to the Atlantic saw the future of news media as depending on young journalists being taught how to understand and lead digital development. In the US several university courses combine journalism and computer science skills – here there are just two, one at Goldsmiths in London and, from September, a new cross-disciplinary course at Cardiff University.

Industry increasingly recognises the need to recruit graduates with both computer science and journalism skills. As online and mobile more clearly become the future of media, recruits are needed who can combine editorial judgment and sensibility with a technical understanding of what's possible. They also require a more entrepreneurial mindset in new graduates who will be developing the digital services on which major media brands will rest in future.

It's a new area of expertise which is opening up – and a major source of creative energy.

In the US, journalists are spinning out their expertise into new enterprises such as Vox, which seeks to provide context to the news, or Nate Silver's data-led FiveThirtyEight. Less innovation is visible in Britain – but major players such as the BBC, the Financial Times, and of course the Guardian have planted their flags in an online future. Groups such as Trinity Mirror are investing in data innovation with sites such as UsVsTh3m and Ammp3d. In doing so they too need technologists who understand journalism, and journalists who understand technology.

There's nothing new in that. Each generation of journalists has to absorb new skills. Today's trainees are able to shoot and edit video, before that it was adapting from typewriters to computers. Tomorrow, familiarity with HTML, JavaScript or Python will be a career advantage. In a sector which is undergoing rapid and turbulent adaptation more skills can only be an advantage.

However, it's more fundamental than future-proofing skills. The media sector, defined in the UK in economic development terms as part of the "creative industries", is enjoying a period of rapid growth relative to other sectors.

Creative industries account for 6% of UK GDP and achieve a higher value of exports than any sectors other than financial services and advanced manufacturing. Beyond the UK, a number of other countries have attached high priority to the growth of creative industries, including emerging major economies such as China and India.

If the UK is to continue to be recognised as a world leader in media – with key players in demand by global firms – it has to develop a cadre of graduates with the cross-disciplinary skills that are shaping the industry.

Beyond even that, journalism has much to learn from the disciplines of computer and data science. In a world awash with opinion there is an emerging premium on evidence-led journalism and the expertise required to properly gather, analyse and present data that informs rather than simply offers a personal view.

The empirical approach of science offers a new grounding for journalism at a time when trust is at a premium.

Not every journalism student or mid-career professional seeking to protect their future should turn to coding. It's not a binary question. But some understanding of what technology development entails will be increasingly important. And the digital innovation, on which the UK's strong and admired media sector depends, requires this new and expanding area of expertise to be embraced.

Richard Sambrook is professor of journalism at Cardiff University