on 10th June 2015
Universitat Pompeu Fabra will hold the international conference “Shaping the future of News Media”, that aims at covering new perspectives of media ecosystems. Interaction and discussion among academics, professionals and educators interested in fostering quality and innovation in the field of journalism will be promoted, as well as the expansion of research networks among scholars working in the field of digital journalism, media education and the journalistic practice.
On June 17th, 18th and 19th will take place the wrap-up activity of the “Integrated Journalism in Europe” (IJIE) project. Coordinated by Universitat Pompeu Fabra, four other European universities have also taken part: Université Paris 8, Danish School of Media and Journalism, Babes-Bolyai University and Linnaeus University. The conferences will be delivered by researchers from the international community, including presentations from keynote speakers and state-of-the-art lectures. It will also integrate newsroom’s software innovations demonstrations and new trends on Journalism teaching workshops.
This conference has born as a result of the moment of change, experimentation and restructuring that journalism is currently living. One of the main driving forces behind the changes in newsrooms today is media convergence. For this reason, European universities face the challenge of adapting their curricula to fit the new educational, economic and professional environments. The challenge is to train a generation of “integrated journalists”.
How are universities anticipating the changes that media convergence is bringing? What is the profile of a young trainee journalist? Is it the same one the industry is demanding? All these questions and a few more, will try to find answer during the conference.
“Shaping the future of news media” is part of the project “IJIE”, which is linked to changes in the European higher education curriculum and global media changes. In this ever-evolving media landscape, universities should foster research and encourage the adoption of new dynamics and innovative techniques in newsrooms, in order to train a new generation of versatile journalists.
In synthesis, the aim is to promote four key cornerstones in journalism education today: innovation in media convergence; collaborative ties between universities and media organizations; professional simulation in classrooms and internationalization of teaching. The long-term goal of the project is to create an innovative methodology of journalism integration that establishes what media companies expect nowadays from future journalists.
Now so far, “Integrated Journalism in Europe” has created a database, a guidebook and an interactive online map of European universities that provide training in journalism and offer different national reports on the academic and professional situation of integrated journalism.
On the other hand, it has also developed the online platform EUROMAIN, which would be the system for the future European Network of Journalists Student Correspondents. This will make possible the cross-border collaboration between European students in the design of journalistic contents. All these outputs were tested during a pilot week held at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in March 2015.
Mireia Rom