Some thoughts on a citizen-learning model for journalism

Journalists and writers about journalism often decry the knowledge of audiences. Each time polls reveal a stunning lack of knowledge of facts in the news (the who, what, when, where of news) or the possible causes and effects of news (the why and how of news), the responsibility for such knowledge deficits are attributed to audience members themselves. Citizens aren’t interested in news, in general, or specific topics like international or business news, or they are only interested in sensational stories such as crime or celebrity, or they have ideological blinders that limits what they will consume.

Certainly, all these audience factors play a role in how news is consumed, but we, as journalists, can’t control differences in audiences. What we can control is how we construct the news. I was recently struck by how our language regarding the construction of news echoes how we talk about teaching. Teaching has relied on a similar transmission model, where a professor stands lectures and the student receive. It was felt that if students didn’t do well on exams, it was their fault for not learning the material.

There has been a change in the way teaching is conceived, away from a transmission model. Contemporary writing on pedagogy emphasizes that teachers should think about what students are learning more than what is taught: a student-learning orientation versus a content-coverage one. This emphasis leads to a focus on learning outcomes, in other words, what students should know or should be able to do when they finish the class. Faculty are encouraged to find ways to assess whether learning is happening, whether in a single class or over the course of several classes. If students aren’t getting something, teachers are expected to change how they are teaching. Another part of a learning-centered teaching model is to understand that students vary in learning styles, requiring teachers to utilize a variety of teaching strategies to account for such variation. Some students learn best through reading, others through discussion, and still others through demonstration.

What if we turned the transmission model of journalism to reposition journalists as teachers? Such a change in perspective positions a lack of audience knowledge as a failure of teaching. I have been a journalism educator now for 20 years. If I had a class that was performing as poorly as citizens do on knowledge tests, I would rethink my approach to teaching.

If we examine journalism through a learning-centered lens, we come away with a view of a failing institution. With a few exceptions, journalism produces content in forms that have been around for decades, emphasizing a predominant media format (writing, video, audio), even in a multimedia environment such as the web. These formats in which journalism is disseminated are rarely implicated in poor public knowledge. Journalism as an institution does little in the way of experimenting with ways to package stories to better ensure audience learning or even whether the article is the best way to convey certain ideas. The main testing that occurs is at the level of headlines, to see which ones are most likely to draw readers in.

Journalism needs to put learning of content, not just the transmission of content, at the center of its practice, finding ways to assess what audiences understand and don’t on a single topic or over the course of time. Moreover, citizen learning should be a key metric for any news outlet. News articles should be framed more consciously around key learning outcomes, and these should be made explicit to audiences. Moreover, simple assessments to measure what audiences have learned could be developed and implemented. One exercise in classes, “the muddiest point,” asks students what they still find confusing at the end of a class. The same could be done for news audiences. The results could inform future journalism, which would aim to clarify what audiences find confusing. Such responsiveness not only would answer the specific questions raised by audiences, but demonstrate concern by the outlet for what audiences are learning. This concern could lead to greater engagement and trust between citizens and the news outlet.

I am not suggesting that a learning model replaces the important work journalists do in holding the powerful accountable, investigating issues that need exposing, or providing readers with a greater connection with their communities. I am suggesting that journalists need to be in greater contact with audiences about learning, and that a story is not complete when it is posted, but may need to be reworked, repackaged or reframed to better help audiences understand the topic.

My colleague Jeff Jarvis argued that we need to think of journalism as an advocate for better, more engaged communities, and that journalists need to think of themselves as educators. “A true educator empowers students to experiment, share, and build on their own, according to their abilities, desires, and needs.” Journalism has more means at its disposal to convey information and engage audiences: multimedia, mobile, events, experiential tools, etc. Likewise, journalism has more ways to receive feedback from audiences. Informing audiences and audience feedback need to be combined into a pedagogical model of journalism that puts citizen learning front and center.