Professional Perspectives: placing lived experience at the heart of journalism education

This paper will consider the importance of the blend of theory and practice in journalism education. It posits that in order to be equipped for a lifetime in journalism, students need to operate as reflective practitioners, with a well-­‐‑formed sense of professional and personal identity. Now more than ever, in a post-­‐‑Leveson landscape, they need to know who they are, what they stand for and to have their own individual ‘voice’. Drawing on the example set by the BBC College of Journalism and my own doctoral research, for context, I also use a case study from my own teaching to illustrate the point: Professional Perspectives operates a programme of visiting speakers from industry that provides students with differing perspectives on current and key issues in journalism, such as ethics, original storytelling, impartiality. In the final assignment, students address a key challenge, placing quotes and ideas from the practitioners into a theoretical context supported by wider reading. In addition, they reflect on their own sense of self as a journalist. The paper will conclude that active learning from the lived experiences of others can enhance the lifelong education of journalists, informing their self-­‐‑understanding and encouraging an ethical approach to their craft

Journalism Education 2016 Vol 5(2): Guest Editor

“It’s the story that matters! Teaching journalism’s storytellers” Special Edition of Journalism Education Guest Editor: Karen Fowler-Watt, Bournemouth University, UK. Storytelling is the journalist’s craft skill. Shaped by the tenets of objectivity and accuracy, the news narrative informs the debate and brings us the human stories. If journalism is a craft, then the story is the journalist’s work of art. In a rapidly changing landscape of technological revolution, shifting business models and ethical challenges, one thing remains certain – the story still matters. As award winning BBC foreign correspondent, Fergal Keane reminds us, the journalist is first and foremost a storyteller who is ‘trying to tell them what it is like to stand where I do and see the things I see.’ But this core skill is being challenged on all sides. The demands of the 24/7 news cycle emphasise story – processing, rather than storytelling. Originality – the storyteller’s stock-in-trade - is often sacrificed as newsrooms shrink in size and journalists fail to get out of the office. The online environment moves us away from linear storytelling and focuses on the imperative of interactivity. Stories require simplicity and multi media features to engage an audience consuming in byte-size, whilst on the move. If storytelling lies at the heart of journalism practice, how do journalism educators face these challenges? How do we teach the next generation of journalists to find original stories and to tell them in innovative ways? How do we encourage young journalists to engage audiences through their storytelling techniques? How does investigative, in-depth research and long-form storytelling fit in to this digital context? This special edition of Journalism Education aims to invite discussion and debate about a range of factors currently informing the role of storytelling in journalism education. It will devote particular attention to the ways in which journalism educators are embracing multimedia and new media approaches to storytelling. Possible topics to be examined may include: - Definitions of storytelling in a digital age - Teaching storytelling to journalists: - the role of accuracy, redefining objectivity - reporting human interest, reporting conflict - Original storytelling - Influences of social media on journalistic narrative - Understanding the role of audience in storytelling - Ethical issues in storytelling - Technological innovation, experimentation and teaching multimedia storytelling techniques - Experiential approaches to teaching storytelling - Teaching storytelling using data - Selling stories - teaching entrepreneurship: pitching story ideas, getting stories commissioned Articles will be peer-reviewed in accordance with the JE guidelines for peer review Guest Editor Dr Karen Fowler-Watt is Head of the School of Journalism, English and Communication in the Faculty of Media and Communication at Bournemouth University. She is a former BBC journalist and co-editor (with Stuart Allan) of Journalism: New Challenges (2013, CJCR) Contact Dr Karen Fowler-Watt Head of School, Journalism, English and CommunicationW338, Faculty of Media and Communication Bournemouth University Talbot Campus Fern Barrow Poole. Dorset. BH12 5BB Email: [email protected] Tel: + 44(0) 1202965129 Web: www.media.bournemouth.ac.uk “It’s the story that matters! Teaching journalism’s storytellers” Special Edition of Journalism Education Guest Editor: Karen Fowler-Watt, Bournemouth University, UK. Storytelling is the journalist’s craft skill. Shaped by the tenets of objectivity and accuracy, the news narrative informs the debate and brings us the human stories. If journalism is a craft, then the story is the journalist’s work of art. In a rapidly changing landscape of technological revolution, shifting business models and ethical challenges, one thing remains certain – the story still matters. As award winning BBC foreign correspondent, Fergal Keane reminds us, the journalist is first and foremost a storyteller who is ‘trying to tell them what it is like to stand where I do and see the things I see.’ But this core skill is being challenged on all sides. The demands of the 24/7 news cycle emphasise story – processing, rather than storytelling. Originality – the storyteller’s stock-in-trade - is often sacrificed as newsrooms shrink in size and journalists fail to get out of the office. The online environment moves us away from linear storytelling and focuses on the imperative of interactivity. Stories require simplicity and multi media features to engage an audience consuming in byte-size, whilst on the move. If storytelling lies at the heart of journalism practice, how do journalism educators face these challenges? How do we teach the next generation of journalists to find original stories and to tell them in innovative ways? How do we encourage young journalists to engage audiences through their storytelling techniques? How does investigative, in-depth research and long-form storytelling fit in to this digital context? This special edition of Journalism Education aims to invite discussion and debate about a range of factors currently informing the role of storytelling in journalism education. It will devote particular attention to the ways in which journalism educators are embracing multimedia and new media approaches to storytelling. Possible topics to be examined may include: - Definitions of storytelling in a digital age - Teaching storytelling to journalists: - the role of accuracy, redefining objectivity - reporting human interest, reporting conflict - Original storytelling - Influences of social media on journalistic narrative - Understanding the role of audience in storytelling - Ethical issues in storytelling - Technological innovation, experimentation and teaching multimedia storytelling techniques - Experiential approaches to teaching storytelling - Teaching storytelling using data - Selling stories - teaching entrepreneurship: pitching story ideas, getting stories commissioned Articles will be peer-reviewed in accordance with the JE guidelines for peer review Guest Editor Dr Karen Fowler-Watt is Head of the School of Journalism, English and Communication in the Faculty of Media and Communication at Bournemouth University. She is a former BBC journalist and co-editor (with Stuart Allan) of Journalism: New Challenges (2013, CJCR) Contact Dr Karen Fowler-Watt Head of School, Journalism, English and CommunicationW338, Faculty of Media and Communication Bournemouth University Talbot Campus Fern Barrow Poole. Dorset. BH12 5BB Email: [email protected] Tel: + 44(0) 1202965129 Web: www.media.bournemouth.ac.u

The Storytellers Tell Their Stories: using stories of lived experience in journalism education

Stories are ‘hardwired’ into journalism as a craft (Marr, 2004); this paper explores how stories of ‘lived experience’, the personal stories of journalists, can play a credible and useful role in journalism education. Focusing on the BBC College of Journalism as a case study and using examples from in-depth auto/biographical interviews with journalists working there as educators, this paper analyses how ‘self-stories’ of experience from journalism practice can inform journalism education in an age that has been described as ‘autobiographical’ (Plummer, 2001). The inter-relationship of personal and professional identity is also considered, utilising the emergent concept of autobiographical journalism to scrutinise the role of self within the context of the newsroom and the classroom. The imperative to restore trust in journalism provides a crucial context and the paper assesses the importance of personal stories in inculcating good practice. The interviewees highlight the importance of credibility and utility in sharing their experiences with others in a learning environment. The paper concludes that active learning from the lived experiences of others can enhance journalism education, informing students’ self-understanding and encouraging an ethical approach to their craft, so that good practice and a pride in the ‘craft artistry’ of journalism emanates from placing the storied selves of self-reflexive practitioners at the heart of the learning experience. Keywords: journalism education; storytelling; lived experience; reflexivit

The Lake Was Full of Artificial Things

Short story originally published in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine (October 1985): 125-135

Women War Correspondents: From the Frontline with Empathy

This paper explores the role played by women in reporting compelling narratives from the frontline in a ‘post-truth’ era. In January 2017, Clare Hollingworth died, aged 106: the first war correspondent to report on the outbreak of WWII. Her American counterpart, Martha Gelhorn (1908-1998), was described as ‘that special breed of women who never had problems identifying both as a woman and with men at war’ (Sigal, 1986). Their lives provide a context for this paper, which will examine narratives of conflict, written by women and focused on human suffering (der Lippe & Ottossen, 2016). It will posit that an empathetic approach to the stories of others resonates in an ‘autobiographical age’ (Plummer,2001), whilst also informing geo-political debate. Time for a ‘non-dramatic’ journalism of compassion, shining light into dark corners? The conflict in Syria offers a case study to examine the writing of two modern day female war correspondents – the late Marie Colvin and Janine di Giovanni – this paper considers how notions of empathy are reconciled with the shibboleth of impartiality and the role of literary, auto/biographical accounts. Colvin postulated that ‘I feel strongly that we have to include these stories of the suffering of civilians to get the point across’ (Swain in Colvin, 2012:534). In 2012, staying in Homs when others had left, she lost her own life. Does looking at war through the dispatches of female war correspondents tell us anything about ‘truth’? Does it enhance our emotional and media literacy? And should we expect it to? Keywords: frontline; truth; empathy; gender; emotional literacy; war reporting

Letters from Home

Short story from In the Field of Fire, Jeanne Van Buren Dann and Jack Dann, eds. (New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1987): 71-89

Media Literacy versus Fake News: Critical Thinking, Resilience and Civic Engagement.

Media Literacy versus Fake News: Critical Thinking, Resilience and Civic Engagement. ‘Truth was fake, fake was true. And that’s when the problem suddenly snapped into focus’ (Rusbridger, 2018). This is the essence of the disruptive age within which we, as journalism educators find ourselves, summarised by the former editor of The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger in the opening pages of his recent treatise on the broken state of news and news consumption. Journalists are presented, as drinking in a different type of last chance saloon this time – yet, once again facing the challenge of restoring trust in themselves and the journalism they produce. However, this time it will take more than a new set of editorial codes to get journalism’s house ‘in order’, since the problem is largely external: the media is ‘the opposition’, disinformation is rife, virtually everything is PR (Pomerantsev, 2015). This paper will consider whether media literacy can help journalists and journalism educators in tackling the age of disinformation through building resilience in young citizens. It posits that encouraging media literacy in news consuming publics, specifically young people, can facilitate a more engaged and critically aware civic society. It will share the initial findings of a project funded by the US Embassy in London, which brought together leading media literacy researchers from the United States and UK with teachers, librarians, journalists, digital media producers and young people to devise a toolkit for building resilience. These key stakeholders took part in a series of workshops in which they listened to young people and shared perspectives, working to a collective aim – a practical strategy for harnessing media literacy to develop young people’s understanding of and ability to withstand ‘fake news’, with a focus on case studies from both the UK and the US. Working collaboratively in this way, bringing together academic research, news providers and the new generation of media users, the project gives voice to young citizens to help us to help them in the age of disinformation and disruption. The research team captured the raw material for an online, open access toolkit for media literacy resilience. After production of the toolkit, it will be shared with all the stakeholders for feedback. Following feedback and adaptation, the toolkit will be available online as an open access resource for use by journalists, journalism educators, media producers, teachers and academics, amongst others. From the US, a recent report by The Data and Society Research Institute, responds to the rise of disinformation by arguing that stakeholders should: ‘a) develop a coherent understanding of the media environment, b) improve cross-disciplinary collaboration, c) leverage the current media crisis to consolidate stakeholders, d) prioritize the creation of a national media literacy evidence base, e) develop curricula for addressing action in addition to interpretation’ (Bulger and Davison, 2018). In the UK, media literacy academics working with the Media Education Association, the professional association in the field, have called for a more ‘joined up’ approach to media literacy in the context of disinformation, saying that ’Issues of bias, truth and falsehood in news are well-established topics for media education. However, fake news is largely a manifestation of much broader problems, which apply to ‘real’ news as well. We need a more systematic conceptual approach; and while media literacy may provide part of the solution, we should beware of oversimplifying the problem, and underestimating the difficulty of the task. (Buckingham, 2019) In line with this, the project applied the key conceptual and pedagogical approaches of critical media literacy (for example, representation) as well as involving other stakeholders in the media and in civil society. The projects objectives were tackled by: 1. using participative dialogic methods to develop new insights into the experiences of young UK citizens with regard to fake news and civic engagement with media, 2 applying the existing research findings from the academic experts to the insights from the young people, 3 working with teachers, trainers, librarians and young people to pilot and evaluate a toolkit for critical media literacy and resilience to disinformation, 4 leaving behind open access resources which can continue to be re-purposed beyond the life of the project, 5 enabling the voices of young citizens to inform policy planning and development with regard to media literacy and civic media. It is hoped that the resilience toolkit will make a small but important contribution to tackling this complex problem, by supporting the development of curricula to help build resilience. This should, in turn equip the next generation of journalists and media consumers to engage in a dynamic way with the challenges of fake news, whilst helping those journalists currently immersed in the quest to re-imagine journalism practice and actively re-engage news consumers

Computer Supported Strategic Management

This paper presents an overview of the essential components of effective strategic management and a detailed description of the methodology for leading an organization through the strategic management process. This process can be extremely time consuming and can easily fall victim to pep rally thinking, rather than producing useful critical evaluation.The authors have successfully used GroupSystems software, one of a limited number of software products designed to support meetings, to significantly reduce the amoimt of time required for meetings and to improve the level of independent, unbiased input from participants. The parallel processing afforded by the software typically reduced meeting time from one-third to one-half that of face-to-face meetings, and the input anonymity feature of the software encouraged insightful candor from participants. The GroupSystems seuip for each of the computer-supported meetings is detailed to illustrate how software of this type can be used to make strategic management efforts more successful. (GroupSystems is a registered trademark of Ventana Corporation, Tucson, Arizona.

The Acquisition Process Map: Blueprint for a Successful Deal

Paul Mallette, Ph.D., is associate professor of strategic management, Department of Management, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523. Karen L. Fowler, Ph.D., is professor of strategic management, Department of Management, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO 80639. Cheri Hayes, MBA, is a merger and acquisitions specialists with Union Carbide Corporation, Danbury, CT 06817