Journalism is a pool staffed by distracted lifeguards and no matter how fancy your school is, your first week in a real newsroom will feel like a shove in the small of the back into 15 feet of water. Most of us come up for air eventually, but if you’re like journalist and educator Colleen Steffen, you may still be left feeling like all that training in inverted pyramids and question lists left something important out: you! Journalism is people managing, wrestling truth and story out of the messy, confusing raw material that is a human being, and the messiest human involved can often be the reporter themselves. So it’s time to talk about it. Instead of nervously skirting the sizable EQ (emotional intelligence) portion of this IQ (intelligence intelligence) enterprise, Soft Skills for the New Journalist explores how it FEELS to do this strange, hard, amazing job—and how to use those feelings to better your work and yourself.
This book explores the significant changes in Chinese journalism education in response to the rapid development of digital and new media technologies. It emphasizes the need for journalism education reform to keep pace with changing times and cultivate talents with an international outlook, innovative capabilities, and professional skills. It begins by exploring the concept of media convergence and its historical development, as well as the challenges and opportunities it presents for journalism and communication education. In particular, it explains how media convergence affects the demand for journalistic talent and changes the concept of journalism education in China. The author then presents practical examples of journalism education reform in China, including innovations in talent development models, curriculum reforms, and textbook improvements. A case study of reform practices in a top journalism school in China adds depth to the discussion of educational reform and core curriculum development. The author also discusses unresolved issues in journalism education reform, such as the scale of education, the positioning of talent cultivation, and the construction of faculty teams, and proposes solutions. The book will appeal to scholars and students of journalism education, journalism and new media, Chinese journalism, and Chinese studies.
How do we practice journalism in a digital world, in which the old 'rules' no longer apply? This text offers comprehensive, instructive coverage of the techniques and secrets of being a successful online journalist, both from a theoretical and practical point of view. Reflecting the vitality of the web, it will inspire you to acquire new skills and make sense of a transforming industry. Key Features: How to investigate and break stories online Learn to broadcast to millions using video and podcast How to blog like a pro Learn to manage and stimulate user-generated content Include and use social media in your toolkit How to dig out stories using data journalism Rise to the challenge of citizen journalism Make your journalism more interactive at every stage of the process Dedicated chapter for Law and Online Communication The Online Journalism Handbook is essential reading for all journalism students and professionals and of key interest to media, communication studies and more broadly the social sciences.
The handbook provides tips and practical guidance on copywriting for the Internet and intranet, moving images and podcasts, social networks and communities, forms and formats of the medium, and content management processes. How does one become an online journalist? Where do online journalists work? What do they need to know: journalistic craft, Internet skills, online law? How do you write teasers? How do you integrate user activities? What role do audio and video play in the cross-media web offering? How do you ensure that your content is found (search engine optimization)? This book is a translation of an original German 5th edition Online-Journalismus by Gabriele Hooffacker, published by Springer VS, imprint of Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature in 2020. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors.
Research Skills for Journalists is a comprehensive, engaging and highly practical guide to developing the varied skillset needed for producing well researched, quality journalism across a range of platforms. Illustrated with original interviews and case studies, the book guides readers through a clear understanding of sources of news, as well as illustrating the skills needed to undertake successful digital and non-digital research and to conduct interviews for a variety of media. It examines the skills needed for basic data journalism and presents an in-depth exploration of the different research skills specific to producing print and online text, as well as those for broadcast and multimedia journalism. Key research skills explored in the book include: Developing digital research skills, including researching through search engines, messages boards, discussion groups and web forums, social media, apps, and using user generated content Working with data, including sourcing, auditing and analysing data, data visualisation and understanding the importance of accuracy and context Essential non-digital research skills, including telephone technique, using libraries and working with librarians, understanding copyright, working with picture libraries and research services, and producing freedom of information requests Working directly with people to research stories, including the power of persuasion, tracking down great contributors, managing and protecting sources, planning and managing interviews, and interviewing vulnerable people Researching for multimedia production of stories, including researching a radio story, podcast or video story, and planning for outside broadcasts. Research Skills for Journalists also explores specialist research skills needed for working overseas and investigates new areas, which could be used for journalism research in the future. The book is illustrated with original contributions by journalists from a variety of backgrounds; including veteran investigative journalist John Pilger, pioneering data journalist Simon Rogers and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism’s award-winning reporter Abigail Fielding-Smith. It is an invaluable guide for students and practitioners of journalism to the skills needed for finding and developing original news stories today.
Data Journalism and the Regeneration of News traces the emergence of data journalism through a scholarly lens. It reveals the growth of data journalism as a subspecialty, cultivated and sustained by an increasing number of professional identities, tools and technologies, educational opportunities and new forms of collaboration and computational thinking. The authors base their analysis on five years of in-depth field research, largely in Canada, an example of a mature media system. The book identifies how data journalism’s development is partly due to it being at the center of multiple crises and shocks to journalism, including digitalization, acute mis- and dis-information concerns and increasingly participatory audiences. It highlights how data journalists, particularly in well-resourced newsrooms, are able to address issues of trust and credibility to advance their professional interests. These journalists are operating as institutional entrepreneurs in a field still responding to the disruption effects of digitalization more than 20 years ago. By exploring the ways in which data journalists are strategically working to modernize the way journalists talk about methods and maintain journalism authority, Data Journalism and the Regeneration of News introduces an important new dimension to the study of digital journalism for researchers, students and educators.
Science Journalism: An Introduction gives wide-ranging guidance on producing journalistic content about different areas of scientific research. It provides a step-by-step guide to mastering the practical skills necessary for covering scientific stories and explaining the business behind the industry. Martin W. Angler, an experienced science and technology journalist, covers the main stages involved in getting an article written and published; from choosing an idea, structuring your pitch, researching and interviewing, to writing effectively for magazines, newspapers and online publications. There are chapters dedicated to investigative reporting, handling scientific data and explaining scientific practice and research findings to a non-specialist audience. Coverage in the chapters is supported by reading lists, review questions and practical exercises. The book also includes extensive interviews with established science journalists, scholars and scientists that provide tips on building a career in science journalism, address what makes a good reporter and discuss the current issues they face professionally. The book concludes by laying out the numerous available routes into science journalism, such as relevant writing programs, fellowships, awards and successful online science magazines. For students of journalism and professional journalists at all levels, this book offers an invaluable overview of contemporary science journalism with an emphasis on professional journalistic practice and success in the digital age.
This book offers a first-of-its-kind, practical and person-centred guide to managing and contextualising journalists’ emotional wellbeing and mental health. Drawing on the author’s experience as a storyteller, journalist and media safety consultant, the book combines significant lived personal experience with reflections from an international network of journalists and mental health experts to collate industry good practice and guidance. It takes readers through a history of mental health discussions in the industry, moving from a focus on war correspondents and post-traumatic stress disorder to considerations of vicarious trauma, moral injury and the impact of online harm on journalists. It shows how pressures already faced by those in the sector have been exacerbated by the global pandemic, giving rise to the prospect of a mental health crisis in the media if these issues remain unaddressed. As a counter to this concern, Storm shares insights from experts on what leaders can do to create safer workplaces and processes, how they can channel the empathy that is core to healthy journalism to promote the health of its people, and how they should consider mental health as intersecting with other issues such as physical safety, diversity and inclusion. Insights from science shed light on resilience levels, how our brains and bodies respond to trauma, and strategies that can be adopted to help us recover from challenging experiences. While acknowledging that some news organisations are starting to take note, Storm shows how others need to do more, offering ways in which newsrooms can learn from the lessons of recent years to bring about long-lasting change. Mental Health and Wellbeing for Journalists is written for news media professionals, educators, and students, as well as anyone interested in promoting more sustainable journalism through supporting the industry’s most precious resource: its people.
This book investigates journalists’ work practices, professional ideologies, and the power relations that impact their work, arguing that reporters’ lives and livelihoods are shaped by digital technologies and new modes of capital accumulation. Tai Neilson weaves together ethnographic approaches and critical theories of digital labor. Journalists’ experiences are at the heart of the book, which is based on interviews with news workers from Aotearoa New Zealand and the United States. The book also adopts a critical approach to the political economy of news across global and local contexts, digital start-ups, legacy media, nonprofits, and public service organizations. Each chapter features key debates illustrated by journalists’ personal narratives. This book will be of great interest to researchers and students of journalism, media and communication, cultural studies, and the sociology of work.
The Media Convergence Handbook sheds new light on the complexity of media convergence and the related business challenges. Approaching the topic from a managerial, technological as well as end-consumer perspective, it acts as a reference book and educational resource in the field. Media convergence at business level may imply transforming business models and using multiplatform content production and distribution tools. However, it is shown that the implementation of convergence strategies can only succeed when expectations and aspirations of every actor involved are taken into account. Media consumers, content producers and managers face different challenges in the process of media convergence. Volume I of the Media Convergence Handbook encourages an active discourse on media convergence by introducing the concept through general perspective articles and addressing the real-world challenges of conversion in the publishing, broadcasting and social media sectors.
