Tina Bettels-Schwabbauer, Nadia Leihs Gábor Polyák, Annamária Torbó Ana Pinto Martinho, Miguel Crespo Raluca Radu & FJSC team NEWSREEL New Skills for the Next Generation of Journalists ◊ Research Report ◊ NEWSREEL – NEW SKILLS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF JOURNALISTS ABOUT THE PROJECT Journalists have an essential role in the new media landscape as a pillar of credible and contextualized information. Being in competition with several alternative forms of news, non-professional or even deliberately manipulated news, professional jour- nalism should be empowered by new competencies and skills. Opportunities enabled by digital technologies, such as processing, analysing and visualising large amounts of data, as well as multi-sectoral and digital cross-border co-operations, open new fields of journalistic activities, and new ways to speak about public issues. However, this environment also entails technical and economic risks, and demands expertise in IT security, as well as the development of business models and strategies from journalists and media companies. Journalists face several ethical challenges that should be handled to meet their social responsibilities. Fake news and hate speech have become major issues in the public sphere, as have whistleblowing and activism. By improving skills of a new generation of European journalists, NEWSREEL will con- tribute to the strengthening of the common European democratic public sphere. It will do so by improving collaborative and cross-border journalism that is able to elaborate and make tangible the huge amount of available data, and which is based on a predict- able business strategy and a firm ethical foundation. The main goal of the project is developing e-learning materials connected to four fields: data journalism, new business models, collaborative journalism and ethical challenges. All educational materials pro- duced by the project will be made openly and freely accessible through open licenses via the project’s website. Contact Annamária Torbó +36 72 501 561 [email protected] http://newsreel.pte.hu NEWSREEL – NEW SKILLS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF JOURNALISTS Project Partners: Erich Brost Institute for International Journalism (EBI), TU Dortmund, Germany University of Pécs (PTE), Institute for Communication and Media Studies, Hungary ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL), Portugal University of Bucharest (UB), Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies (FJSC), Romania Disclaimer Responsible according to press law: Prof Dr Susanne Fengler Language editing: Derettens OÜ; derettens-english-language-editing.com Layout: Christiane Reinert Title photo: Judith Wiesrecker The following authors contributed to this report: Tina Bettels-Schwabbauer, Nadia Leihs, Susanne Fengler (EBI), Gábor Polyák, Annamária Torbó, Éva Varga (PTE), Ana Pinto Martinho, Miguel Crespo, Gustavo Cardoso (ISCTE-IUL), Raluca Radu, Antonia Matei, Anamaria Nicola, Marian Popovici, Manuela Preoteasa, Emilia Șercan, Oscar Stănciulescu (FJSC/UB). NEWSREEL – NEW SKILLS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF JOURNALISTS TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................................. 06 STATUS QUO ....................................................................... 08 NATIONAL CONTEXTS ..................................................... 08 Romania ............................................................................... 08 Hungary .............................................................................. 11 Germany ............................................................................. 13 Portugal ............................................................................... 15 DATA JOURNALISM .......................................................... 16 Romania .............................................................................. 19 Hungary .............................................................................. 20 Germany ............................................................................. 21 Portugal ............................................................................... 21 COLLABORATIVE JOURNALISM .................................... 22 Romania ............................................................................... 24 Hungary ............................................................................... 24 Germany ............................................................................. 25 Portugal ............................................................................... 26 INNOVATIVE BUSINESS MODELS .................................. 26 Romania .............................................................................. 29 Hungary .............................................................................. 31 Germany ............................................................................. 31 Portugal ............................................................................... 32 ETHICAL CHALLENGES ..................................................... 33 Romania .............................................................................. 36 Hungary .............................................................................. 37 Germany ............................................................................. 38 Portugal ............................................................................... 38 4 NEWSREEL – NEW SKILLS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF JOURNALISTS TABLE OF CONTENTS RESEARCH RESULTS ......................................................... 39 General information on the curricula under study ...................... 40 Romania .............................................................................. 44 Competences for future journalists ...................................... 44 Analysis of selected curricula .............................................. 46 Innovation in journalism education and the media ................. 49 Hungary .............................................................................. 53 Competences for future journalists ...................................... 53 Analysis of selected curricula .............................................. 55 Innovation in journalism education and the media ................. 59 Germany ............................................................................. 66 Competences for future journalists ...................................... 66 Analysis of selected curricula .............................................. 68 Innovation in journalism education and the media ................. 74 Portugal ............................................................................... 80 Competences for future journalists ...................................... 80 Analysis of selected curricula .............................................. 82 Innovation in journalism education and the media ................. 86 LESSONS LEARNED, INSIGHTS GAINED ..................... 90 INTERVIEW PARTNERS ....................................................93 MEDIA VENTURES AND ORGANISATIONS ...................96 LITERATURE ......................................................................100 5 NEWSREEL – NEW SKILLS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF JOURNALISTS INTRODUCTION The journalism profession has, in the last few decades, changed radically because digitalization required journalists to gain new knowledge and skills. Journalism will continue to be exposed to innovation, there will be no resting phases, and they will have to readjust constantly. Thus, the education of journalists will have to continually make progress and adapt to the new de- velopments in the media industry. In recent years, journalism educators have been particularly challenged by the growing importance of technical competences, including data journalism, as well as new media business concepts. Splendore et al. (2016, 147) consider that “current de- velopments in data journalism prompt an increasing need among journalists – and their teach- ers – for new knowledge and skills”. Gillmor (2016, 816) states that it “is vital for journalists to know how to communicate with programmers”. He also stresses the importance of teaching students to understand media business concepts, as “today’s students will be among the people who develop tomorrow’s journalism business models” (Gillmor 2016, 816). The need of new skills is also reflected in the demands of journalism students: For example, a survey of 227 German future journalists1 showed that journalism education and training in Germany could be improved, particularly regarding technical and entrepreneurial competences (Gossel 2015). Similarly, a study of journalism students’ satisfaction from Romania indicates that students want more vocational courses, related to the current developments in the field, and want to work more with technical equipment (Ionescu 2016, 132). Against this back- ground, this report was set up to gain insight into the status quo of innovation in journalism and academic journalism education in four European countries with a focus on data journalism, collaborative journalism, innovative business models and ethical challenges of the digital pub- lic sphere. The project team consists of journalism and media scholars from the University of Pécs (Hungary), the Erich Brost Institute for International Journalism (Germany), the ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon (Portugal) and the University of Bucharest (Romania). Interviews with 25 journalism educators and 21 leading journalists working in at least