Innovation journalism: a perspective through Trend Studies
Innovation in journalism is not only a matter of technology or investment — it is also a matter of discomfort.
Innovation seems to be another trendy term used freely everywhere such as disruptive, convergence, transparency or transmedia. When it comes to journalism, innovation has a specific connotation that not exactly suits to its original meaning from the Economy and the Business fields of study.
To understand better how it is possible to think about this topic, we suggest a perspective from Trend Studies — an upcoming scientific area that brings together concepts, techniques and tools of the social and human sciences.
(And if we are trying to think in a more innovative way, expand to new angles from different fields of knowledge seems mandatory.)
A trend is a direction of change in values and needs which is driven by forces and already manifests itself in various ways within certain groups in society — as Els Dragt defines. The scenario in the crisis of contemporary journalism suggests being a “support engine” in the continuous and new manifestations of the activity. From our perspective of study, innovation journalism always brings innovation in journalism, for example adding in the reporting team, game developers, infographic designers or audio editors to create legitimately convergent products. On the other hand, not all innovation in journalism is considered innovation journalism, as it may be strictly related to a technological or administrative aspect, with no immediate and relevant consequence for the practical journalistic field.
As a result of an original study and a newly developed methodology (Trends for Journalism | T4J) different current movements with still lasting potential for journalism were identified.
Divided into three main stages: 1) Identification, 2) Validation and 3) Appropriation; each phase is subdivided into various techniques and tools (desk research, coolhunting, experts panel, immersion room, netnography, among others).
In this post, we will discuss the concept of the force Discomfort Innovation — as part of the results of the PhD thesis Jornalismo de inovação: os Estudos de Tendências como ferramenta de pesquisa (available in Portuguese).
The entire innovative spectrum in journalism is based on an even more comprehensive context that pushes everyone and everything towards a need to confront discomfort.
The well-known comfort zone (and the condemnation of those who succumb to it), is now even more saturated: it is not enough just to leave the safe and known environment, it is mandatory to overcome discomfort. Publicly. Clearly. Transparently.
The Discomfort Innovation force understands discomfort through the perspective that brings it closer to restlessness and realizes that this is the current state of journalism. Restlessness, in a way, is the structural basis of the reporter and journalism who are always in search of the new, the interesting, the necessary.
When we analyze the themes conveyed in journalism as a whole, we observe the escalation of the approach to sensitive topics on a daily basis. Reports on school suicides, domestic violence and feminicide, racism in institutions, the fight for LGBTQ rights, corruption in the state, paedophilia in churches or the legalization of abortion have brought these issues to the debate — or at least punctuated the notion of existence and its importance.
If we look at it from another perspective, we realize that journalism had to learn to talk about certain pains especially the crisis in its business models. Talking about money in journalism is uncomfortable. The journalist until then was trained to understand the investigation, the facts, the checking; not financial control. And this behaviour is systemic since until recently, most schools of journalism did not include subjects on business management or entrepreneurship. This suggests that it happens because journalism is seen — especially by its most passionate representatives — as an ideal and a right for every citizen. And is. But it is necessary to be economically sustainable to survive financially and the traditional subscriptions and advertising plan are no longer able to maintain the journalistic system in contemporary times. Even though journalism idea of “publishing what someone doesn’t want to be published”; is a famous saying in the activity, for the first time in recent history, the inconvenience is that of the journalist himself.
A combo of discrediting journalism by powerful agents coupled with a widespread crisis of confidence in the institutions drives an even more forceful movement in the area. It is about what should be obvious: the quality of journalism. The boom of fact-checkers, in which an essential action of the activity needed to be scrutinized, especially in a new era of disintermediation between sources and the public. Power structures and political leaders question ethics, truthfulness or manipulation in journalism. The era of post-truth or post-fact questions everything. The politically incorrect is disguised as eccentricity. Journalistic activity, until then, had little to prove its credibility while quietly occupying the role of fourth power.
Current times and those of the near future impose new challenges. This logic should last for a long time. Until the end of the discomfort or until the almost normalization, these themes are in agreement with a zeitgeist always in transition.
Innovation then appears as a pendular response that oscillates from minimum to maximum, with measures not necessarily technological, but with an impact on a contextual understanding that must consider the behavior of the public and the current scenario of journalism. The popularity of technology seems to be going through a plateau period, in which the dizzying growing consumption of products and technological devices tends to stabilize and it will be the content and its approach that will make journalism relevant again. No scenario is overwhelming and absolute, as technologies like peripherals — personal voice assistants or wearables — will impact niche audiences. Know your audience; above all, we are all plunged into discomfort.
Check more about the research and the Trend Report. Any further information, please feel free to send an e-mail to amflores@fcsh.unl.pt
