8. Education, Training and Management of Journalists

Education & Training For Convergent Media Production

Since the previous State of the News Print Media in Australia report, convergence training and education have become critical activities for two reasons. First, as concerns about the costs of newspaper publication intensify and digital news strategies expand, newsrooms are seeking more efficient ways to diffuse convergent and online production knowledge through the workforce. Convergence here means the ability to work across two or more platforms (eg. print and online). Online production refers to both web publication and the delivery of news to internetworked screen–based services, including mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs).

Secondly, while news organisations are shedding editorial positions, they still face digital media skills shortages. John Butterworth, CEO of the Australian Interactive Media Association (AIMIA), indicates there is a strong demand for Flash and mobile–applications development people, as well as staff with senior business development and sales experience. He says on–going rapid technological change means no educational body—be it private college, training body or university—is able to turn out graduates with sufficient technical or business skills to meet industry demands. As the curriculum design and development process, and technical infrastructure, invariably lag behind industry change, Butterworth argues responsive, in–house training is fundamental to bridge immediate skills gaps.

This section examines training issues and trends at three organisations, Fairfax, News Ltd and AAP. It then reviews the delivery of digital journalism education at university level and indicates how internationalisation is impacting on education strategy.

At Fairfax “changing minds” has taken precedence over changing work practices. The 2007 Jasjam mobile journalism trial has been scaled back and the editorial staff is now doing a two–day change–management training program before moving on to technical up–skilling. As of March 2008 just over half of the company's 400 Sydney–based newsroom people had completed the course. According to Kerry Metcalfe Smith, Group Organisational Development Director, it was designed to give staff the context and incentive to work on new platforms, including smh.com.au:

In order to get people to the point where they can perform you not only need to teach them the tin tacks of the technologies and the techniques for how you write, you need to help them gain an umbrella understanding of why they might need to write in a different way and why they might need to choose different things to write about.

In a participant survey, training was named as the biggest concern out of 56 change–related issues. However Metcalfe–Smith argued the impact of multi–skilling was the chief issue for those “who were struggling with the change process”.[1]

The i–mate Jasjam experiment was based on the vision of all reporters carrying mobile phones capable of multimedia production. Yet it illustrated how cultural differences within Fairfax have strong impacts on acceptance of new technologies, attitudes to technological change and learning approaches. The Jasjam was originally chosen by photographers and did not get broad–based newsroom acceptance. One–third of people on the change program said they found it difficult to use. Metcalfe–Smith said it was introduced prematurely: “people became focussed on finding fault with the device and arguing why they shouldn't use it”. Program feedback also indicated reporters needed better visual narrative skills before they were expected to use other mobile journalism devices.

As Fairfax photographers have been digital innovators, a core strategy now involves training them to record audio and make sound–slides. Yet Metcalfe–Smith observed that not all staffers have been supportive of DIY new media experiments:

Our most innovative photo guy, who's now a videographer...he's forging new pathways and forms for rest of the newsroom, but many people see his pushing of envelope is to be derided. It's uncomfortable [for them] and they're worried that it may not be the right thing to do.

In Rural Press, she notes reporting staff is more accepting of multi–skilling and self–initiated take–up of cameras and video production. Regional staffers are “comfortable with trial and error and discovery learning” whereas in the metros people were used to having expert trainers explaining processes step–by–step.

Until now Fairfax has used face–to–face training in its convergence project. As its production base is now dispersed well beyond Sydney and Melbourne it will move within the year to using e–learning modules, complemented by small group training, field assignments and workshops.

At News Limited online training is well established for professional program delivery. By September 2008 News's Online Journalism course had already superseded Reporting for the Web (RW), launched in February 2007. The new course, which takes around two hours to read, includes modules on the integrated newsroom, digital lingo, writing for the Web, digital storytelling, blogging, audiences and interests, and legal issues. The latter module is extensive with sections on international defamation, breaking news issues, copyright, the cost of comment and linking practices. News has also developed a DVD on video production to accompany face–to–face workshops and online delivery.

About 190 people have already done the introductory RW course, but Sharon Hill, Group Editorial Development Manager, indicates that at least the same number have developed a higher level of web production knowledge than the course encompasses through their online work. Hill indicated that Online Journalism would be updated every six months to respond to industry change and that, unlike other courses, which are only available to enrolled staff for the set time it takes to complete the material, this one would be permanently open with email notifications of updates.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is one topic slated for the next update. Hill said there was basic explanation of the benefits of SEO in the new course to build awareness of the practice, but no directives because of journalistic sensitivities about writing to that format:

We're trying here to get people to understand why clickability is important to us. It has a direct bearing on the commercial viability of our publications. So nowhere do we say we want you to do it like this, but what we do say is, if you want to make this a factor, here are some of the things you can do. Here are some key ideas. In six months we'll greatly enhance the SEO content and by then I believe culturally the resistance to [it] from journalists will have been dissipated to some extent.

Hill noted that her biggest challenges were catering for different sites at widely different levels of engagement with the Web and with integration, and trying to meet demand for new media training. News has only two national trainers, so News sites have been partly reliant on local, in–house training expertise.

At the Leader Group, Julian Burton, a self–confessed geek, supplements online courses with face–to–face training in writing for web, video production, content management systems and online marketing. As the group papers don't have the resources for dedicated online journalists, Burton says the pressure has been greater for reporters to learn web skills and adapt to multimedia publishing. Long–term he sees these skills being normalised: “You can call your self a VJ or a convergent journalist or a web journalist but it's all missing the point really, it's all part of what a journalist does now.”

While News's News Solutions and Fairfax's Newsroom of the Future programs are well underway, at AAP getting a complex content management system upgrade bedded down has taken precedence over integration and convergence training in the last 12 months. Now AAP Editor–in–chief Tony Gillies is ready to implement a convergent workflow model and to get his staff cross–media oriented. As a trial in building skills and confidence in convergent reporting, Gillies has called for forty volunteers across the organisation to work with a multimedia kit including a Nokia N95 phone, a Canon IXUS 980, a hard–disk audio recorder and point–and–shoot home–video camera. He argues his staff will be more inclined to adapt if their equipment is easy to use: “if they can see [me] take a photo on Sydney Harbour from 70 metres of a guy climbing scaling the wall of Government House... which ended up on the front page of The Daily Telegraph, it ended up in The New York Times, then hey, why not?” Gillies wants reporters to ‘own’ the gear, “Take it home, play with it... be comfortable with it—and once they are, they become your sales people for the technology.”

Generally video and audio training is being extended across the board, although training for wireless reporting and mobile publication is yet to be delivered in a standardised manner in any of the locations. There is surprisingly little training available on building and supporting user generated content (UGC). Sharon Hill notes that current editorial interest in UGC training relates to risk management:

We talk about it in our training as being a benefit to our papers, but being fraught with danger from the legal perspective. I guess our training focus is around the legal web, when we talk about use comment in terms of presenting risks to us. I think it would be fair to say we've talked more about the risks of user generated content than the advantages.”

Interviews conducted for this report indicate there is little industry consensus on what multimedia or internet competencies are required of editorial staff, as publishers are attempting differing routes to convergence. Group directors from existing mastheads put emphasis on traditional reporting skills and some video and audio production knowledge, while editors in newer online publications, such as Fairfax's WAtoday.com.au, list a range of skills they are looking for in new staff, especially producers: html and Flash; search engine optimisation; social networking; user generated content management; ratings and reputation marketing.

In response to this divergence and the pace of technological change, university journalism educators are often second–guessing the skills and knowledge industry needs in 5–10 years time. Currently they have chosen four major paths to developing new professional orientations:

A survey of Australian university undergraduate and postgraduate curricula, drawn from online enrolment information for 2008, shows that 63 per cent of university journalism courses contained dedicated online, web, multimedia or convergent journalism units. Another eleven institutions offered supplementary multimedia, web design or electronic writing units, and several indicated they integrated online production into their existing print news units. Only two institutions, Notre Dame University and Macleay College, did not offer any of these options.

The survey examined the offerings of 26 universities and three private colleges offering journalism as a named component of undergraduate or postgraduate degrees. This included Bachelor of Arts or Media degrees with a journalism major; Bachelor of Journalism degrees; postgraduate Certificate, Diploma and Masters journalism degrees; and those postgraduate degrees with a journalism major. It reveals a trend towards online production practice as the vehicle for delivering convergent media skills within a journalism degree structure, for example at La Trobe University, the University of Technology, Sydney, and the University of Wollongong. However it is impossible to evaluate student satisfaction with that approach due to the generic nature of the annual course experience survey conducted by Graduate Careers Australia.[2]

At the same time online journalism is yet to be given the same degree of curriculum focus as broadcast, print or radio. Only two universities, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and UTS, offered consecutive units in online journalism, while the University of Wollongong favoured the convergent journalism label for similar two–step offerings. Similarly there is not a great deal of choice for full–time media workers seeking flexible delivery options to update their skills. Online journalism in full distance education mode—that is, as study online—is only available through Deakin and Southern Cross Universities. The University of Tasmania suggests it delivers flexibly, with some on–campus attendance required.

Finally while most online journalism units include html and web development components, there has been significant debate here and overseas about the need to train online journalists in coding when most will be using publishing templates within content management systems. Supporters of code–learning indicate that this delivers better conceptual understanding of the internet publishing environment, greater creative and trouble–shooting capacities.

Overall it is possible that the industry will witness an accelerated internationalisation of online journalism training and education strategies through higher education and member use of online education resources. These include web–based software tutorials and specialist blogs, such as those by educators Paul Bradshaw (UK), Andy Dickinson (UK), Mindy McAdams (USA) and Amy Gahran (USA), along with journalists and industry commentators Julian Sher (Canada), Richard Koci Hernandez (USA), Jim Romenesko (USA), Mark Glaser (USA), Trevor Cook and Laurel Papworth (Australia).

Internationalisation of journalism education

Three other developments in the internationalisation of journalism education and research round–off this section on trends in journalism education: they concern higher education enrolments, the 2008 establishment of a World Journalism Education Council, and Australian participation in international journalism conferences.

Higher education

Although the overall count has never been high, the number of international student enrolments in journalism higher education programs in Australia has declined in recent years (since 2004). Australian Education International indicates there were 255 enrolments by international students studying journalism in Australia on a student visa in 2007, compared to 319 in 2005. Figures for the first six months of 2008 confirm the decline is continuing. The drop is largely explained by a fall–off in demand from Norway, which together with China, India and Singapore, account for almost half (44 per cent) of international student enrolments in journalism in Australia. The number of international students enrolled in media and communication degree programs mirrors this decline: there were 3,744 international student enrolments in media and communications generally in 2007 down from 4,558 in 2005.

World Journalism Education Council (see http://wjec.ou.edu/)

2008 saw the establishment of a new international professional association of journalism educators, called The World Journalism Education Council (WJEC). This follows a summit to discuss journalism education in Singapore in June 2007 that brought together 28 academic associations—including from Brazil, China, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and South Korea. The WJEC is working on two major projects: first, a three–year global census of journalism education programs (2,833 identified to date) and, secondly, promotion and adoption of a Declaration of Universal Principles of Journalism Education. Various Australian journalism academics have expressed their disquiet that the Declaration is bland, makes no reference to core concepts such as press freedom, democracy or human rights and therefore offers little as a teaching and learning resource. Others suggest it is a work–in–progress, a platform for developing dialogue between academics and practitioners from diverse political and cultural backgrounds.

Journalism scholarship and research

Important new conversations about journalism are also emerging in the two most important international professional associations for communication research—The International Association of Mass Communication Researchers (IAMCR) and The International Communication Association (ICA). The IAMCR's newly formed Journalism Research and Education section met in Stockholm in July 2008, with papers from Australian journalism academics on world journalism cultures, Freedom of Information, multiculturalism in Australian television, talkback radio, journalism students and a history of academic writing about journalism and cultural diversity. There is less Australian involvement in the ICA's Journalism Studies Division, set up in 2004, but nonetheless Australian academics made important contributions to the ICA's 12 volume The International Encyclopædia of Communication, edited by Professor Wolfgang Donsbach in 2007 (see, for example, Penny O'Donnell's entry, ‘Communication Professions and Academic Research’, vol. III, pp. 1–7).

Endnotes

  1. There are no data on how Fairfax staff in other locations perceives these issues, as the training program has not yet been delivered outside Sydney.
  2. Journalism league tables such as those compiled recently by Brisbane's J–school are misleading because they conflate student satisfaction and job placement out of different types of courses (generalist Arts degrees with journalism majors, more focussed Media Studies degrees, and specialist Journalism degrees). They also fail to examine digital media innovation in offerings or teaching methods.

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