Spring 2012 - Indiana University School of Journalism

featurestoryTo be successful, Chung said, professors will have to domore than teach students to use a smartphone to shootvideo or use Twitter to share news. They’ll have to changetheir mindsets.“We need to see this more as an opportunity, as a positivechallenge,” she said, “so we can move journalism forward.”Chung, Boeyink and two other journalism professors withties to the IU School of Journalism offered their ideas onhow to train students to be flexible and innovative so theycan advance the profession in the decades to come.Using new technology is important,but so is sticking to the basicsDeborah Chung spent the fall on sabbatical in South Korea,studying a news website authored by citizen journalists. Shereturned to the University of Kentucky this semester with amessage of hope for her students: Journalists are important,even in an era when anyone can share news and blogs drawreaders’ attention away from traditional news sites.Chung discovered that, even on a site that’s filled withcontent from citizens who aren’t necessarily trained in journalism,content is thoroughly edited, fact-checked and oftenturned away.“It’s not just anything goes,” she said. “They have a highstandard.”Accuracy and credibility are even more important nowbecause there are so many sources for information, Chungsaid, and people want a source they can trust. So in theever-changing field of journalism, the basics are stillimportant. Journalists just need to add technology totheir repertoire.Students and teachers need to learn not only how to usetechnology, but when to use it. Digital extras have to bemeaningful, she said; otherwise, they end up cluttering thestory and the message.The University of Kentucky is trying to hire faculty memberswith multimedia experience, not only to teach the students,but to teach the other faculty members, Chung said.She teaches classes that focus on production, design andvisual communication, and has taken seminars on how to usevarious types of technology. She encourages other teachersto do the same.Students must learn to produce video and online content,Chung said, so classes that teach those skills should berequired. They also need to learn how to do research onlineand how to interact with readers and sources using socialmedia.Chung has studied Twitter and she said it’s a good wayto communicate breaking news. She said she’s still trying todetermine the best way for journalists to use Facebook, butshe thinks it helps them develop relationships with readers.Those sites also help citizens participate in the journalisticprocess by sharing their own photos and updates from newsevents, which Chung said can help improve journalism. Forexample, many news outlets benefitted from people whoshared photos and news from recent protests in Egypt andthe London subway bombings in 2005 because those peoplewere in places that journalists couldn’t reach. Adding contentfrom people who are actually experiencing the news canmake stories seem more authentic, she said.“We need to seethis more as anopportunity, as apositive challenge,so we can movejournalism forward.”Deborah Chung, PhD’04Assistant professor in theSchool of Journalism andTelecommunications at theUniversity of KentuckyCourtesySpring 2012 / newswire < 19 >