Journalism 3G (or computation and journalism)
Not the fanciest of names – some of the NICAR crew are calling it COJO.
There’s also an interesting article on the conference by Rich Gordonn over at MediaShift Idea Lab which quotes Aaron Bobick, chair of the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech (and I think the big clue is in the name of the Aaron’s school here).
Aaron wants to know “What is the future of story, and how does that affect the future of journalism?”
Think we all do – CAR, COJO, MOJO/RGC, UGC, et al are fascinating and give journalism educators and students massive grounds for exploration.
The most interesting thing is that the traditional business models are under threat from what was once the product – the news itself.
Newspaper sales are down, TV and radio are losing audience too. Paul Bradshaw has a great article about new business models for the 21st century newsroom which makes for interesting reading if this is your field.
So, how do you train journalists when the very landscape is constantly moving under everyone’s feet?
With good core journalistic skills and an open mind – train an inquisitive mind and hone new skills.
With the advent of the journalism technology labs – and all the top UK J-schools including Cardiff University are doing this – this is just set to become a technophile’s playground. I’m having fun already!
All makes for very exciting times for journalists – if only the bloody process would stop long enough for us to get it pinned down properly 