on 10th December 2014
IJIE member Asbjorn Slot Jorgensen (Danish School of Media and Journalism, DMJX) presented his paper ‘Adapt or die – teaching swiss-knife journalism’ at the “JEANZ 2014 – State of the Industry” annual conference. The event was held at the University of Canterbury (Christchurch, New Zealand) on December 4 and 5, 2014.
In his presentation, Jorgensen delved into the key findings of the IJIE project. More precisely, he addressed the core dilemmas facing the teaching of cross-media journalistic work that have emerged from the national reports and comparative report, documents produced within the research. Those include: (1) the multi-skilling/de-skilling schism; (2) the diverse tech-savvy among journalists and (3) the constant restructuring of journalism education.
In his talk, Jorgensen also shed light on central recommendations from the IJIE project, such as the following:
- We seriously need mobile thinking in our curricula.
- The market demands highly specialised experts and fast-working generalists; and nothing in-between.
- There is an urgent need for updating ethics codes and teaching practices, with regards to changes in the way we collect, assess, and disseminate story elements.
- Journalists must master cross-media platforms, and must also possess collaborative skills.
- Entrepreneurial skills are needed while a new media industry is taking over from legacy media.
- Journalists must speak the language of the IT experts; coding is a candidate for journalism curricula.
Xavier Ramon