Media Innovators Need Apply
By Peter Fray
Something a bit special, if not, frankly, bloody magical, is happening. My university, University Technology Sydney, is advertising for three senior academic positions in journalism.
Yes, no misprint, JOURNALISM.
And not only that, the ads overtly connect the somewhat old fashioned and perhaps even contested word — journalism — with that bright little button of a thing called innovation.
We’ve advertised for two associate professors and one professor who want to innovate. Sure, everyone is saying the I-word these days. It is up there with the T-word, transactional, and C-word, collaborative, words as transformed as Vegemite. Spread thin.
So, yes, we may all be eating innovation as a side order at every meal.
But not that many folks are talking about innovation in journalism x 3.
But we are.
Here’s why. We all know journalism is changing. Rapidly.
We are all trying to work out how to put some new and solid starch in the concepts of the Fourth Estate — or, more to the point, the business models around it.
So, let’s face that challenge head on because slinking up to it sideways ain’t working.
We can stay true to the eternal truths of journalism and at the same time grow new practices, business models and ethical frameworks that might just coax back some of the audiences who gave up on us.
Certainly, we can remind those audiences why journalism exists.
Answer: for them.
Three professors, of course, do not a revolution make. But along with the goodwill and smarts of the existing staff, they can make a blow and help change the dialogue.
Can we get beyond the legacy vs new media debate? Perhaps, we can.
Perhaps, having people like me in the academy can help it. Having three new professors certainly will. It has got to be worth a shot.
Media innovators wanted.
That’s music to an old journalist’s ears. Play on. Play on. Play on.
Peter Fray is Professor of Journalism Practice at University of Technology Sydney, the founder of PolitiFact Australia and a former Editor-in-Chief of the Sydney Morning Herald
