Why we need to change how we teach (Science) Journalism

Today’s news process is, first and foremost, Social

Social media and mobile technologies have not only changed the distribution and business models of news organizations, but are changing, or at least should change, how journalists view themselves and their roles in media environments.

According to the editor in chief of The Guardian, in the past journalists were considered gatekeepers, “figures of authority because they had the access to news sources” (Cochrane, Sissons & Mulrennan, 2014). As the Pew Research Center reports, an increasing percentage of people in the U.S. get their news online — and many of these people might well be turning to non-traditional outlets online. Speaking of science, many of us today bypass traditional news stories to talk to scientists and science storytellers on Twitter or in blog comments. I mean, how cool, now we can ask the sources the exact questions we want answered, as readers!

So what is the role of the science journalist today? I still think the science journalist has MANY important roles, but perhaps a new one is connecting readers and sources together directly.

Online journalism is also increasingly becoming interactive. Readers are participating in the gathering of facts and information, such as Tweeting breaking news photos and videos from their smartphones. Readers are also becoming the centers of content distribution, with some (or most?) digital news outlets relying primarily on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook as referrers to their content. Today, the distinct line we’ve known between traditional journalism and “citizen journalism” is blurring, and more and more serious journalism is being tackled collaboratively. And there is much reason to encourage this collaboration between readers and journalists (and bloggers and journalists; and journalists and journalists; and sources and journalists!). For one, “audiences” are getting better at breaking news than traditional news outlets are. And if we talk about science journalism, story sources are increasingly the scientists who blog and tweet about their research.

So why not go even further, by involving readers, sources, non-traditional digital writers and external fact-checkers more intimately in the news process? From a business standpoint, social storytelling processes enabled by social media may help journalism itself stay afloat. From a content standpoint, social storytelling processes may even be able to revive in-depth and investigative reporting. (A small plug for #OpenSciLogs here — getting more aspiring science writers involved in in-depth science reporting).

However, in order to foster this collaboration, future journalists (AND bloggers, although this distinction is murky and perhaps even pointless) must be savvy of user-generated news tools and practices. How does traditional journalism “respond to a world where consumer preference is for […] news that is distributed via a host of social media channels such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and viewed on mobile devices such as the iPad rather than print media?” (Cochrane, Sissons, Mulrennan, 2012). How does traditional journalism respond to a world where everyone wants to feel empowered, to add a small piece of his or her own self to any given story online?

One answer is that leading schools of communication and journalism need to be changing their curricula to reflect a more social, “spreadable” and participatory news process. If journalism schools can make classroom learning more of a social process, perhaps they can also train future journalists to be more “social” in their news gathering, news sourcing, storytelling, investigation, fact-checking, etc. Journalism students should be learning how to make the best of collaborative, social media based reporting while avoiding the pitfalls of “lazy” social media journalism, viral “misinformation,” etc.

Cochrane, Sissons and Mulrennan (2014) suggest that more communication and/or journalism programs adopt the following activities:

1. collaborative student writing via Google Docs
2. classroom engagement with Twitter virtual communities
3. student blogging
4. student use of Google Plus and other social networking sites for interviews
5. student use of social photography
6. student practice with user-generated news tools

In a course I’ve been teaching this semester in the Manship School of Mass Communication, I’ve had students live-tweet every single lecture using the hashtag #Manship4002. This way, students discuss class material not only with each other, but with students and professionals outside of our classroom. I’ve had students collaborate on social media assignments. But I think we’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg of activities that could promote digital collaboration on valuable storytelling.

We’re not talking about substituting social media content for the valuable pieces of science journalism we all know and love. We are talking about empowering and motivating more aspiring journalists to use the tools of the social web to brainstorm, ask questions, gather information, write, produce content, vet information and distribute stories with the help of OTHER readers, sources and journalists.

But this idea flies in the face of keeping journalistic endeavors close to the chest for fear of being “scooped.” It flies in the face of many traditional news norms, in fact. And breaking these traditional norms is absolutely essential.

“Social media raises questions about journalism’s jurisdictional claim to the news. Journalism has developed as a relatively closed professional culture for the production of knowledge, based on a system of editorial control. Yet social media is characterized by its connected and collaborative nature. […] Journalists need to be able to learn and understand how news and information work in a social media ecosystem, instead of simply applying established norms and practices that may no longer be effective in communicating.” — Alfred Hermida

How else do you think we could teach and empower aspiring (science) journalists to be more “social” in their storytelling and search for truth?

Reference: Thomas Cochrane, Helen Sissons and Danni Mulrennan, Journalism 2.0: Exploring the Impact of Mobile and Social Media on Journalism Education (2014)