Quantitative and Digital Skills of International Journalism and Communications Educators

Quantitative and Digital Skills of Quantitative and Digital Skills of International Journalism and International Journalism and Communications EducatorsCommunications Educators

6-10 Junio 20072007 Media Ecology Association Convention

Mexico City

Prof. Tom Johnson, et al.Institute for Analytic Journalism

Santa Fe, New Mexico EEUUt o m @ j t j o h n s o n . c o m

w w w . a n a l y t i c j o u r n a l i s m . c o m

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Media Ecology Association - Junio 2007Mexico City

Credits to Knight and Harvard for financial support

Funding for the research, analysis Funding for the research, analysis and publication of this project and publication of this project

has been has been provided by the provided by the

John S. and James L. Knight John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as part of the Foundation as part of the

Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education.Future of Journalism Education.

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Co-investigators Map

J. T. JohnsonInstitute for Analytic Journalism,

Santa Fe, NM, USA

Louise YarnallCenter for Technology in Learning, SRI International, Palo Alto, CA USA

Maria Isabel NeumanCentro de Investigación de la Comunicación y la Información University de Zulia Maracaibo, Venezuela

Ammar A. Bakkar

American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE

Elias MachadoUniversidade Federal da Bahia Salvador, Bahia, Brasil

Yehiel (Hilik) LimorSchool of Communication, Sapir College, D.N. Chof Ashkelon, Israel

Flemming SvithDanish International Center for Analytical Reporting Danish School of Journalism, Århus, Denmark

Co-investigators

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Journalism is…

“The central purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with accurate and reliable information they need to function in a free society.'‘ —Bill Kovach

Committee of Concerned Journalists

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Objectives:

Proof of concept Use low-cost tools to create online

survey? Respondent Driven Sampling

(“Snowball” sampling) Est. baseline for digital skills and

their inclusion in curriculum Est. baseline for quantitative skills

and their inclusion in curriculum

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Theoretical platform

Datasphere: that conceptual place where all data exists to feed the species living in that conceptual environment.

RRAW-P process Changes in Datasphere drive – or should

be driving – changes in both professional and academic journalism. Sweeping changes not just in how we

deliver the content, but first – and foremost – the process of how, why and what:

Data In Analysis Info Out

Media Ecology Association - Junio 2007Mexico City 7

Species in the Infosphere

Lawyer

Economist

Insurance

adjuster

Driver of garbage truck

Journalist

The Datasphere:

that conceptual environment where all information-information-processing processing speciesspecies reside

Teacher

Historian

Cop

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Journalists, et al., in Datasphere

Changing Datasphere:

DataIn Analysis Info

Out

MetabolismLatent EnergyIn

EnergyOut

Species in Biosphere:

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RRAW-P Process

Research

Reporting

Analysis

Writing

Publish-Produce-Package-

And all the stuff that’s ever written is pumped out and continues to fill the DATASPHERE with more and more stuff. It just keeps coming, the stuff does. And it gets used, Oh YES! Used, I tell you, by ….

Journalists!

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Path to quality, responsible journalism

Qualitative

•Who

•What

•When

•Why

•Where

•How

Quantitative

•How much/many

•What acategories

•Of what kind and degree

•What change

•What timeline

100% of

The STORY

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Methodology Recruited multi-lingual colleagues

Translation of survey Promotion/recruitment

Harvested U.S. e-mail addresses from accredited depts.

Personal contacts and listservs Offered chance to win MP3 or iPod Used www.formsite.com as survey

tool “Cleaned” and analyzed quant.

and qual. response data

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Responses by language

N = 228

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Response by nation (n=228)

Eng Hebrew Portug. Spanish # Responses 121 16 34 57 # Nations 15 1 3 12

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Level of instruction

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Departmental Expectations/Reqs?

EQ7) Does your academic unit require that faculty members make their syllabi and course calendars available online each semester?

Table TK: EQ7) Faculty required to post syllabi

Lang Total No Yes % Yes

Eng 121 79 42 35%

Hebrew 16 3 13 81%

Portug. 34 14 20 59%

Span 57 34 23 40% Grand Total 228 130 98 43%

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EQ11) Does your journalism program have any published standards of quantitative analytic skills students are expected to meet?

Table TK: EQ11) Does journalism program have published standards of quantitative analytic skills students are expected to meet?

Lang Total No Yes % Yes

Eng 121 98 23 19%

Hebrew 16 9 7 44%

Portug. 34 32 2 6%

Span 57 41 16 28% Grand Total 228 180 48 21%

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EQ12) Does your journalism program have any published standards of computer skills students are expected to meet?

Table TK: EQ12) Does your journalism program have any published standards of computer skills students are expected to meet?

Lang Total No Yes % Yes Eng 121 80 41 34% Hebrew 16 11 5 31% Portug. 34 32 2 6% Span 57 44 13 23% Grand Total 228 167 61 27%

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Major Findings: Little use of advanced analytic tools

QE23) EQ23) Please check off all the competencies that your colleague(s) teach in your academic units journalism course(s).

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Basic

Stats

Inte

rp of

Quan

t. Dat

a

Stat C

oncpts

Specia

l. Sta

t Prg

ms

Inte

rp of

VizS

tats

Inte

rp of

GIS

GIS cr

eation

Graphi

c Im

age E

dtg

Publicat

ion

Sftwr

% b

y re

spo

nse

lan

gu

age Eng %

Hebrew %

Port. %

Span. %

Total %

“Zone of suspicion”

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Major Findings: Little use of advanced analytic tools


0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

% b

y re

spo

nse

lan

gu

age Eng %

Hebrew %

Port. %

Span. %

Total %

Poly. (Total %)


0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

Basic

Sta

ts

Inte

rp o

f Quan

t. Dat

a

Stat C

oncpts

Specia

l. Sta

t Prg

ms

Inte

rp o

f Viz

Stats

Inte

rp o

f GIS

GIS

cre

atio

n

Gra

phic Im

age

Edtg

Publicat

ion S

ftwr

% b

y re

spo

nse

lan

gu

age

Eng %

Hebrew %

Port. %

Span. %

Total %

Poly. (Eng%)

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Major findings: Minimal use of digital communications & course tools

EQ14) Average use of digital course mgmt tools by language

01234567

Eng

Hebrew

Portug.

Spanish

7=Daily 6 5

4=Occasly3 2

1=Never

* Avg. of scaled responses by language group

Using e-mail; little else to gather data; communicate*

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Major findings: “It’s all about story.”

Emphasis on writing, not analysis.

We teach people how to write, but they don’t have anything to say.

IF students learn quantitative skills for journalism, it’s largely through their own resourcefulness. (i.e. Faculty aren’t much help.)

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Major findings

Journalism students learn quantitative skills primarily in quick-hit classes; no integrated curricular approach.U.S. journalism programs offer more options for students to take courses outside journalism departments than non-U.S.

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Major findings

Non-U.S. programs require students to pass quantitative and digital skills proficiency tests to graduate

Non-U.S. faculties engage in more hands-on digital activities in their classes and as part of their work.

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Conclusions

Educators lagging behind the changes in the datasphere in all aspects of the RRAW-P process

This does not seem to be because of a lack of money or technology; A failure to invest in their own

learning A failure to engage in applied

research (theoryexperimentation) to advance the profession

A failure to look for data and methods in other disciplines

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Conclusions

While definition of journalism changes, journalism educators focus more on teaching only “journalistic writing” and, perhaps, photojournalism.

Journalism education must recognize a much broader definition of the field; evolve the curriculum to reflect the changing datasphere.

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Possible causes; possible consequences Continuing negative symbiosis

between professional journalism and journalism education

Journalism – and journalism graduates – becoming increasingly superficial. Ergo

Irrelevant Ultimately, democracy pays the

price

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Demo Formsite and display of results

Use screen shots for speed.

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URL of where to see survey’s results

http://www.iajjoursurvey.shorturl.com/






Quantitative and Digital Quantitative and Digital Skills of International Skills of International

Journalism and Journalism and Communications EducatorsCommunications Educators

Prof. Tom Johnson, et al.Institute for Analytic Journalism

Santa Fe, New Mexico EEUUt o m @ j t j o h n s o n . c o m

w w w . a n a l y t i c j o u r n a l i s m . c o m

Quantitative and Digital Skills of International Journalism and Communications Educators

Education

journalism programs

academic journalism

analytic journalism

quantitative skills

future of journalism

central purpose of journalism

major findings non

j t j o h n s o n