As digital tools continue to shape and reform news media, journalists will need to adapt to the dynamic mediascape. Universities are tackling this challenge in their journalism department — how to communicate information through new media while captivating a new genre of readers in today’s contemporary media ecosystem — by integrating new disciplines with traditional journalism.
One such university is The New School in New York City. They recently launched a new degree called Journalism + Design, which combines the “rigorous critical thinking” of Eugene Lang College with the “creative thinking” of Parsons The New School for Design. There was doubt, confusion and tension between the two communities, and one question remained unanswered:
“Why should journalists care about design?”
As a dual-degree student with an interdisciplinary background in design and media studies, I was asked to write about why design is important to journalism. Having attended the IxDA Interaction 15 conference this month, I make my attempt to explain why in this article, and my simple response: “Design provides a cognitive framework for inquiry and understanding.” The rest of this article will explain further…
Everywhere, we are confronted by data, overstimulated with information, and disrupted by new technologies — how we engage becomes an altered experience. Supplement the generational challenge: people are too consumed with their own lives for politics to bear significance or consequence, instead, it becomes a “spectator sport, something we watch but not do.” So what does the future hold, and how will news evolve?
In a conversation on BU Today, Andrew Lack and David Carr shared an optimistic future they call the “Golden Age” of journalism—an exciting time in “the natural evolution” of discovery and innovation. This where design can influence.
Design is about understanding behaviour and constructing experiences that take into consideration the holistic environment, system, service and product — it is shaping everyday life through physical and digital artifacts. As design creates entire hosts of things, it can provide affordances and experiences that enable and empower people. This symbiotic relationship between journalism, design thinking and technology is the potential to express stories in ways never before.
In Gaming Literacy, Eric Zimmerman defines literacy as “the ability to understand and create specific kinds of meanings based on three concepts: systems, play, and design. Each concept also points to a new paradigm for what it will mean to become literate in the coming century.” Teaching design theory and practice to journalists is enlightening them to critical design literacy — “a rich and dynamic process that emphasises inquiry, innovation, ideation, building, and problem solving.” It is the chemistry that informs the designer — journalist — the world through the eyes of his and her audience.
It is the duty of journalists to respond and adapt to the changes of contemporary culture and forge participatory journalism that stimulates new thinking while creating opportunities to engage. Design is a tool for discourse — the marketisation of a new language so it becomes accessible— and technology makes media interesting and explorative. As journalists, we should embrace our expanding library and sharpen the chisels in our toolbox to penetrate the world.
