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Journalism funders call for ‘Teaching Hospital’ model of education

Aug. 3, 2012, 8:26 a.m., Posted by Eric Newton – 8 Comments

news21fellow

News21 fellow Joe Henke spends an afternoon reading through voting rights material. Photo by Lizzie Chen/News21.

Journalism and communications schools need to recreate themselves if they are to succeed in playing their vital role as news creators and innovators, a group of foundations said in an open letter to university presidents.

The foundations, all of which make grants to journalism education and innovation, urged more universities to adopt a model that blends practice with scholarship, with more top professionals in residence at universities and a focus on applied research.

“In this new digital age, we believe the ‘teaching hospital’ model offers great potential,” as scholars help practitioners invent viable forms of digital news that communities need, said the letter, signed by top representatives of Knight Foundation, McCormick Foundation, Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, Scripps-Howard Foundation, Brett Family Foundation, and Wyncotte Foundation.

The model was described in the 2011 "Carnegie Knight Initiative for the Future of Journalism Education" and is practiced at the Arizona State University, where student-powered News21 has become a major national news source. But it is by no means widespread.

The funders said they would support efforts by The Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications to modernize standards, including the integration of technology and innovation into curricula, and would not support institutions that were unwilling to change.

 “Simply put, universities must become forceful partners in revitalizing an industry at the very core of democracy,” it said. “Schools that favor the status quo, and thus fall behind in the digital transition, risk becoming irrelevant to both private funders and, more importantly, the students they seek to serve.

Schools interested in the ‘teaching hospital model’ could start by reading the Carnegie Knight report and New America Foundation’s report on journalism schools becoming community content providers. The University of Missouri boasts the nation’s oldest journalism program, runs a community newspaper as well as commercial television and public radio stations where journalism students learn by doing. Other examples of student-produced journalism include Neon Tommy at USC, the Medill News Service from Northwestern Universeity, Mission Loc@l by UC Berkeley students, reesenews at the University of North Carolina and the New York World by Columbia University students. Universities also may apply to participate in News21. 

By Eric Newton, senior adviser to the President at Knight Foundation

Comments

Aug. 3, 2012, 10:16 a.m.

Dave Winer

From Educating the Journo-Programmer, 2011:

"I would also insist that every student, without exception, run their own server. Bursting the mystique of the cloud is the easiest first step. That server will play the same role that a cadaver plays for a medical student. It's a place for them to make mistakes, to gain experience, to gain rational and realistic fears, but not unnecessary ones."

http://scripting.com/stories/2011/01/21/theJournoprogrammer.html

I feel so strongly about this. There's a tremendous resistance to embrace technology amongst journalists, but running a server is really no more difficult than running a laptop. And if it is, we have to work at making it easier.

News reporting is going to be a universal skill, but first the profession has to embrace the technology that will accomplish that.

Aug. 3, 2012, 2:23 p.m.

Peter W. Klein

I completely agree with this open letter, and with the "teaching hospital" analogy. It would be hard to imagine teaching rote medical techniques without the scientific and ethical underpinnings, and likewise it would be ridiculous to teach medical theory without the practice.

At the University of British Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, we try to do both. We're a relatively new school, just over a decade old, so we've been fortunate to be able to adopt this "teaching hospital" model early on. One of our adjuncts, Duncan McCue, developed a new course with a Knight-Stanford fellowship, called Reporting in Indigenous Communities, in which he works closely with students to build trust in indigenous communities and produce major works of community journalism. The resulting project this year, available at www.riic.ca, was a collaboration with the CBC, looking at aboriginal health in British Columbia.

Our International Reporting Program takes graduate students overseas to take on a major projects every year. This year we worked with The New York Times and uncovered a series of murders in Brazil over land disputes. Shortly after our piece ran, the Brazilian authorities began a sweep of arrests, and the students got to both see the impact of their journalism, as well as wrestle with the legal and ethical complexities of enterprise reporting.

We try to marry this practical approach with thoughtful discussions, led by some of the top thinkers in their fields. Mary Lynn Young helps students unpack the power dynamics in media relationships. Candis Callison works with students to analyze how the narratives around climate change have emerged. Alf Hermida writes about the role of social media in changing how media operate.

Going back to your "teaching hospital" analogy -- I would argue what we do in journalism school is as important to the health of democratic society as what medical schools profs do is important to the health of individuals. Thanks for championing this issue.

Aug. 3, 2012, 2:39 p.m.

M. Edward (Ed) Borasky

Dave Winer writes:

"I would also insist that every student, without exception, run their own server. Bursting the mystique of the cloud is the easiest first step. That server will play the same role that a cadaver plays for a medical student. It's a place for them to make mistakes, to gain experience, to gain rational and realistic fears, but not unnecessary ones."

Maybe - as long as that server is well-isolated from the public Internet, of course. But I disagree with "running a server is really no more difficult than running a laptop". It's a profoundly different beast once you have to take into account security and scalability.

I think what you're calling for is a dual-track journalism and IT curriculum. I personally would have loved that back when I was an undergrad, but I don't think

a. It's realistic, or
b. It solves a "problem" with "journalism".

Aug. 3, 2012, 5:08 p.m.

Mike Lee

We journalists must get to, and stay on top, of digital technology. I applaud the initiative by and thoughts expressed in the open letter. Yes, educational institutions can and must help lead the way. So let's assume, for a blissful moment, that every graduate will become a digital master of the new journalism. The next step in their careers will often be into the world of commercially funded journalism. Setting aside obvious differences in story selection between text and video (notice I no longer just say print or broadcast), even the most highly trained young journalists could well find themselves writing more stories about celebrities than about neglected issues like starvation, the environment, or human rights abuses. That leads us into a more or less standard rebuke of tv news and the tabs. The standard reply from big time producers and editors is usually that 1) We are in a highly competitive environment, 2) we do cover big issues (they just don't do it often), and 3) we are giving the public what it wants.

What I urge of university presidents is to not only bring their journalism schools into the digital age, but teach them how they can, as they climb corporate ladders, successfully stop hiding behind the skirt of advertising pressure as an excuse for dumbing down so much that they could be overheating our brain's 'reward circuit' which triggers sexual arousal, laughter, and other pleasures.

Here's part of how it can work (as a bullet point obsessed script editor might helpfully suggest): Find real people affected by issues and tell their ongoing story. I call it Serial Storytelling. You know how millions of people tune into their favourite tv serial drama each week, just to see what will happen next to characters with whom they have bonded. We should be doing the same thing for news audiences. Give them real life characters they can get to know and audiences will come back for more. I am not talking about self serving sweeps series which often star, well, the tv stars rather than people we need to know about. Instead, I am calling for serial storytelling as a long term commitment to informing the public. Oh, and by the way, I hope this doesn't upset too many executive producers, but it is possible to make serious issues interesting and even appealing. They too can reach the brain's 'reward center.' It just takes persistence (and yes, money). But the upside will be more credibility (anyone think we don't need that?) and audience loyalty. This will help support the enhanced university base which the open letter by the nations top funders so eloquently presented.

Aug. 6, 2012, 8:37 a.m.

Duncan McCue

Small clarification to Peter Klein's comments (which I wholeheartedly agree with) - the site built by students in my Reporting in Indigenous Communities class this year is www.indigenousreporting.com. Our "textbook" is the site Peter mentioned, www.riic.ca.

Aug. 9, 2012, 12:57 p.m.

Production Coordinator

I work for a local news program for a public television station in a major market. There is a wide variety of technical aptitudes among our small team (all milennials with the exception of the E.P.) but what seems to me to be most important is the art of storytelling. We are digital natives - we get the web and new digital media tools. Teach us how to tell better stories - we want to learn.

Aug. 31, 2012, 4:22 p.m.

Tricia Grindel

While I am strongly in favor of ensuring that today's journalism programs meet the ever-chaninging needs of the news environment, it seems that in adopting the new technoligies of message distribtion much of the traditional focus of news writing (e.g., accuracy, newsworthiness, use of quality sources, correct grammaretc.) is being lost. I teach basic news writing techniques to primarily sophomores and juniors and I can't tell you how much time I spend addressing sentence frgamnets, comma splices, agreement, misplaced modifiers, etc. This, aside from the fact that today's students think that "news" is anything related to the Khardashians!

It doesn't matter how much they know about technology if they can't write worth a darn!

Sept. 15, 2012, 12:02 p.m.

Eric Newton

Thanks for the interesting comments. On this thread there is general support for faster change (and a good warning not to give up fundamentals). On other threads there's more debate. See http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/09/eric-ne where some said raising up professionals is not the answer. Also http://www.knightfoundation.org/blogs/knightblog/2012/9/5/exploring-the-value-of-academic-research-in-journalism/ where others said academic research is far better than my blog would imply.

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