Improving journalism education: a priority for the future
The final panel of the Journalism in the Time of Crisis symposium wrapped-up with a look at education in journalism schools.
Moderated by Allan Thompson, head of journalism program at Carleton University, the panel focused on the differences between present-day journalism education — stressful to say the very least — versus it’s future form.
“(Students) are so stressed and so overworked,” said Maryn McKenna, an independent journalist, author and Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Human Health at Emory University.
“How do we respond to this moment and be compassionate to our students, but not be soft on them and not decrease our standards?” added McKenna.
Jennifer Leask, a journalism instructor at both Langara College and the University of British Columbia, brought forward the idea that small communities can be better served by new methods of teaching. Methods that were discovered through the transition to online learning.
Panelist Karen Fowler-Watt, former head of the School of Journalism, English and Communication at Bournemouth University, in the UK, agreed that the sense of community should be fostered and expanded on by graduates.
Speaking to fostering community, Fowler-Watt said, “People do understand that they can serve really small areas really well.”
She added that the pandemic may enable students to be more “emphatic and focused on listening,” a skill she said would serve them well when they enter the workforce.
The panel was the last of 17 presented throughout a two-day conference hosted by Carleton University’s journalism program.
All three panelists and Thompson agreed that the environment of the newsroom — and therefore the environment of the classroom — needs improvement.
“I was trained in the environment where your editor yelled across to you in the room,” said McKenna.
“How much of that was abusive and not actually useful?” added McKenna. “Did it create better journalism? Did it make my product better?”
McKenna added that while end-of-term school deadlines must be maintained, professors should be more flexible at the beginning of a semester, especially when students are not familiar with a journalism environment.
Leask also spoke on the need for flexibility.
“Be flexible and responsive to what’s happening in the newsroom… allowing people to be better humans,” said Leask. “And don’t we want better humans to be the people in the newsroom?”
When asked for a takeaway learned from teaching remotely, McKenna spoke to the idea of trust.
“The single biggest lesson for me is that we have to be prepared to trust remote students to manage their learning themselves,” McKenna said.
