Afternoon concurrent track 2: The State of climate change education

AFTERNOON CONCURRENT TRACK 2: THE “STATE” OF CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION Moderator Scott Mensing Student Union Room 211 David Hassenzahl, Michael Collopy, Scott Mensing – NSHE EPSCoR Climate Infrastructure Grant Education Component Abstract: The Nevada System of Higher Education has received funding from the National Science Foundation EPSCoR program to develop climate change research infrastructure. This session will present information on what the Education Component is doing and plans to do, and solicit ideas on future climate education efforts for NSHE. Education is one of six components of this grant, and will support NSHE efforts on: Undergraduate research. Each school year and summer, funds are available to undergraduates at any NSHE institution of higher education to do research related to climate change. Graduate research. A number of competitive graduate research fellowships are available to graduate students at UNLV and UNR. Students propose research, supported by at least two faculty mentors. Curriculum development. A graduate student will work with the Component Lead to do research on climate education norms and methods across the United States and in Nevada. Part of this will be in anticipation of a 2010 NSHE Climate Education Conference, which will establish existing courses and programs, identify gaps, and propose course and program activities. K-12. The K-12 program will provide school-wide climate change education to middle school teachers in at-risk middle schools in Clark County and Washoe counties. A new cohort of teachers will be supported each year. Paul Buck – A Team Teaching Approach to Improving Climate Change Education in Nevada Middle Schools Abstract: The NSF EPSCoR RII Climate Change Infrastructure Award includes a small but important effort to build educational infrastructure among in-service middle school science, math, and English teachers at six Nevada middle schools. We will focus on whole school or whole grade level approaches, often referred to as a “professional learning community” or “community of practice” model, engaging a cohort of teachers at selected schools. Using specific elements of Nevada climate change research themes particularly relevant to each local community, this project will create a magnet school in one of the proposed themes at each school. The themes will be guided by the Nevada state science teaching framework and national science teaching standards. Target schools have student populations 50% or more minority and the proportion of science classes taught by teachers considered not highly qualified is above the school district mean. The use of graduate students to act as mentors and content links to in-service teachers will help develop a science research community that includes NSHE and middle school teachers working together. Donica Mensing, Hans-Peter Plag, Jen Huntleysmith – Assessing the State of Sustainability Education: A Case Study of Faculty Efforts at the University of Nevada, Reno Abstract: The University of Nevada, Reno established a Sustainability Committee in 2008, one goal of which is to strengthen the focus of the undergraduate curriculum on sustainability. In the process of implementing this goal, a faculty working group has discussed and come to agreement on several critical issues, including definitions, participation, methods, and culture. Discussion also led to recognition of a spatial component of sustainable development, in addition to the often referred to temporal component, and addressed the implicit ethical obligations that arise in considering these aspects of sustainability. Participation in the working group has been guided by the desire to be as cross-disciplinary as possible, explicitly including faculty from every college, on the understanding that sustainability naturally concerns almost all disciplines and areas of study. The initial method chosen by the committee to collect data is a survey of both faculty and undergraduate students, to develop a baseline on which to assess the current coverage of sustainability issues by the undergraduate curriculum. A secondary goal is to assess and compare the strength and direction of personal attitudes about sustainability issues. Discussions have also stressed the need for developing a culture on campus that values sustainability as a practice and subject of inquiry. Efforts to address cultural, administrative, attitudinal, and practical barriers to improved teaching on these issues will also be discussed

News Accuracy in Switzerland and Italy

Nearly 80 years of accuracy research in the United States has documented that the press frequently errs, but empirical study about news accuracy elsewhere in the world is absent. This article presents an accuracy audit of Swiss and Italian daily regional newspapers. Replicating US research, the study offers a trans-Atlantic perspective of news accuracy. To compare newspaper accuracy in Switzerland and Italy to longitudinal accuracy research in the United States, the study followed closely the methodology pioneered by Charnley (1936) and adapted by Maier (2005). News sources found factual inaccuracy in 60 percent of Swiss newspaper stories they reviewed, compared to 48 percent of US and 52 percent of Italian newspapers examined. The results show that newspaper inaccuracy—and its corrosive effect on media credibility—transcends national borders and journalism cultures. Nowadays, digitization offers new ways of implementing correction policies. Media organizations need, however, to adapt to these changes and to adapt their structures in particular to new forms of participative and interactive two-way communication

Caught between Innovation and Tradition: Young Journalists as Normative Change Agents in the Journalistic Field

The necessity of innovation within the newsroom, and the rise of entrepreneurial initiatives outside it, have become increasingly apparent in the past decade. A common thread in this discourse is the desire for young journalists to be “change agents” who foster innovation and thus stretch existing boundaries in the profession. Employers hope new hires, seen as attuned to their generation’s news use and as offering fresh knowledge and insights, will be able to drive new journalism initiatives that can attract a younger audience and so improve the enterprise’s odds for economic sustainability. Using a longitudinal three-wave survey among students enrolled in two leading journalism programs in Britain and the Netherlands, we explore whether students’ perceptions of innovation and entrepreneurialism are in line with this optimistic industry discourse. Do students perceive themselves as change agents who will be challenging and potentially shifting the boundaries of journalism? Or do they adhere to traditional ideas about norms and behaviors that have been ingrained in the doxa and habitus of the journalistic field over previous decades? We find that although journalism students favor the idea of “innovation” and see the value of engaging audiences, they define change predominantly in terms of technology rather than more substantive cultural transformation

Introduction: Journalism education, training and employment

During this period of rapid and significant change in journalistic practices, journalism educators are re-examining their own profession and contributing to the invention of new models and practices. This edited volume of studies by respected international scholars describes the diverse issues journalism educators are grappling with and the changes they are making in purpose and practice. The book is organized into three sections -- education, training and employment – that explore common themes: How the assumptions embedded in journalism education are being examined and revised in the light of transformative changes in communication; How the definitions of journalism and journalists are broadening in scope and what this means for educators; How newsrooms and training programs around the world are being re-examined and made more effective. An introductory essay and section summaries provide context for the thirteen chapters that constitute the collection. The section on journalism education explores fundamental ways educators are seeking to make their institutions and practices stronger and more responsive. The section on training includes case studies of journalism training programs in sub-Saharan Africa, Turkey, Sweden and the U.S. The final section examines the job prospects and employment market for journalism students with data from the U.S., U.K, Australia, and Sweden. The scope of issues considered in the book makes it a valuable resource for journalism scholars from around the world, as well as doctoral students, journalism and communication administrators in universities, organizations that fund journalism training programs, and practitioners interested in understanding employment and education trends

Rethinking [again] the future of journalism education

For many of the previous 100 years the role of a journalist was to find information, shape it into an accurate story and transmit it as quickly as possible to a mass audience via a mass medium. Today, information is no longer scarce, breaking news is no longer the province of professional journalists, mass media are declining in influence and news is easily personalized. Like many news organizations, journalism education programs are distinctly unprepared to respond to such deeply structural changes in the environment. Preliminary research indicates that the response to date has been primarily to expand technology training and reorient sequence and media emphasis tracks. The present study recommends a realignment of journalism education from an industry-centered model to a community-centered model as one way to re-engage journalism education in a more productive and vital role in the future of journalism. A community-centered focus could provide a way to conceptualize a reconstitution of journalism education to match that taking place in journalism beyond the university. Three examples from current journalism programs illustrate the implications of this analysis and provide an indication of future directions for realignment

Journalism Professors’ Information-Seeking Behaviors: Finding Online Tools for Teaching

As the journalism profession continues to reinvent itself, journalism professors struggle to keep up with technological advancements that provide their students with industry-relevant skills. This study seeks to understand how journalism professors find information about online tools for teaching, to learn about the efficacy of their current strategies for navigating the fractured information landscape. The diffusion of innovations perspective is applied to in-depth qualitative interviews with journalism professors. The study finds that early adopters are the most adept at seeking information about, and using, online tools. Consequently, they experience the least stress around information seeking about online tools