Fairfax partners with journalism schools to encourage digital innovation
Fairfax Media will run a trial program with two universities, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and RMIT University, which is aimed at getting students and journalists to collaborate on newsroom innovation and digital story telling.
The program, called “Innovation in Modern Journalism”, has been created by editor-in-chief of the Brisbane Times Simon Holt and will see more than 60 Fairfax staff involved in the unit, which if successful will become a permanent fixture of the journalism curriculum of the two schools from 2016.
It signals a move back to investing in career development for budding journalists by news providers, with News Corp also re-opening its cadet program, as they seek to train up students for the day-to-day rigours of the newsroom.
“Data experts, designers, product managers, app specialists, social media editors and others from the Fairfax Media network in Australia and New Zealand were approached to help share their expertise and provide modern newsroom insights,” said Holt.
“We went right through the newsroom to ensure all corners of innovation were covered. Given the right scope, we hope this course is a licence for students to think creatively when it comes to telling important news stories.”
According to Fairfax the new curriculum unit links students with day-to-day newsroom challenges and encourages journalism students to “find new ways to engage with large audiences who are migrating to modern – in particular, digital – platforms.”
Fairfax Media’s group director, news and business media Sean Aylmer said:“Newsrooms are changing rapidly to meet audience demand. New roles are emerging to effectively manage the daily news cycle, and each specialist has their own set of challenges.
“We feel it is important for journalism students to be aware of these challenges so they feel comfortable with the innovation process, modern story-telling techniques, and emerging news platforms.
“We realise that young journalists in many cases will be the drivers of technology. Their ideas are critical to the success of our business.”
QUT head of discipline, journalism, media and communication, Jason Sternberg said the initiative with Fairfax was more than about journalists coming to speak at the university.
“The collaboration goes way beyond the traditional guest lecture from a working journalist. It’s the start of an ongoing experiment in new ways of story-telling,” said Sternberg.
“This initiative enables experienced journalists and the next generation of media professionals to collaborate on projects that may help shape the future of journalism.”
RMIT University deputy dean of media associate professor Lisa French said the collaboration was a significant for the university’s journalism program.
“RMIT journalism has had a long-held relationship with Fairfax and this initiative more formally extends the association into the teaching and learning space. It means that RMIT journalism students will have a direct line to industry and will be highly visible to this significant employer,” said French.
“It is likely that the outcome will also be a significant source of knowledge for journalism educators,” she said.
News Corp has also recently reinstated its cadet program for the Daily Telegraph with the newspaper advertising for a trainee journalist position.
The position, which closes on January 23, requires candidates who “want to tell stories in words and pictures — both in print and online.” It also emphasises the need to “know Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and… monitor news sites and blogs.”
Nic Christensen
Why on earth didn’t they do this years ago? As always with Fairfax, too little too late.
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Now the Press are talking, even better, investing! Totally out of the blue, the media has finally risen to the challenge and embraced it as my one time boss, and mentor, Andrew Baxter (CEO, Publicis) suggests in his excellent new book Embracing the ever-evolving world of marketing’ (Googleto connect with him and obtain a copy). Back to Fairfax, when giants invest in the future, they can really makr it sing. Suggest, if Fairfax sticks to its srrategy, they could get right what the New York Times failed to- going beyobd as well!
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No Sydney universities? I’d have thought UTS’s J-School would also be perfect for this sort of program?
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