For a journalist student who has not had the opportunity to study abroad, a meeting set up by scholarship organization Thanks To Scandinavia was an eye-opening experience on how to cooperate across the Atlantic on the medias of the future.
On a packed six-day overtime program, 13 journalist students from all over Scandinavia recently got the chance to meet with assistant professor of journalism, Heather Chaplin, from the New York university New School. It was due to an invitation from the Jewish scholarship organization Thanks To Scandinavia that the students got the opportunity to influence the debate on how to shape the journalists of tomorrow.
Teaching in a country where most media workplaces are suffering hard in a tough economic climate, Chaplin is working in a dry spell that we as journalists in Denmark has only experienced to a certain extend. So keeping up good appearances on the precious journalistic virtues, this student figured, must seem harder than ever before.
Certainly there is an immense pressure on news media and Chaplin was very frank, stating that quality methods are often forsaken in order to keep up the incredible pace of the news flow.
Slow down
So how to respond to this pressure? Anyone, who is concerned about the life of one media or ones ability to make a living of it, considers new business models.
But journalists also have to redefine themselves, and to that respect Chaplin made a valuable point: Rather than finding fast few facts in little information, journalist’s jobs are now to make sense in a huge pile of information.
And in that it is crucial to maintain the old virtues, trying as hard as ever not to be overwhelmed by media-consumer’s capability to publish news faster than most medias.
Perhaps this is the time for medias, which until recently made a living of publishing news, to slow down, it was suggested. Chaplin embraced the proposal, stating that there is indeed an opportunity now for journalists to emphasize quality methods in analysis, narrative journalism, background articles, investigative journalism and more.
Enlightened the students proceeded to the next meeting on their out-of-breath-busy schedule. And this student at least felt encouraged to take deeper breaths and lower the pace in the future.
The invitation
The Jewish scholarship organization Thanks To Scandinavia had invited the 13 journalist students from Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark to Washington, DC and New York from 6. – 12. November.
There were great opportunities to exchange experiences with American journalists including meetings with Disney-owned ABC-studios, foreign affairs deputy editorial, page editor Bret Stephens and assistant professor of journalism, Heather Chaplin.
Updated 02-12-2011
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