QEP-Real World Problem Solving

Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 2016,71(2): 189–202.
This article looks at journalism students’ experiences in a course that simulates an online newsroom. On the basis of a quantitative survey and more qualitative reflections from the students, we explore the dilemmas that students experience “working” as online journalists and how these are related to broader issues of journalistic ethics. Some of these experienced problems are, combined with the technological mechanisms, much embodied in online journalism and in journalistic practice in general. The survey indicates that the problems amplify the discrepancy between the students’ expectation of good journalism and the perceived practice of online journalism. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of providing a course that simulates a real newsroom.
___________________________________

Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 2015, 70(2): 125–140.
This case study examines a creative approach by two journalism professors to enhance experiential learning in separate skills-based newswriting and editing courses by collaborating to produce a live online news report from campus each week on a four-hour deadline. The study builds on previous research into how innovative classroom structures that engage students in practical, published journalistic work affect learning and students’ response to their experiences.
____________________________________

Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 2015, 70(3): 307–323.
The project-based learning (PBL) approach closely reflects the tenets of journalism and provides a potential pedagogical guide for transforming traditional journalism education. This study operationalizes and applies a PBL framework in digitizing a print journalism course. The findings illustrate how the presence of seven key elements of PBL enhanced the quality and experience of student learning, and increased multimedia consciousness and competencies. Providing choices minimized cultural resistance and cultivated ownership and accountability to the student projects, fostering collaboration and critical thinking. Weaker students expressed greater need for a more structured pedagogy.
____________________________________

Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 2016, 71(3): 297–308.
Influenced by the practices of social scientists, data journalists seek to create stories that frame social reality through quantitative data analysis. While the use of statistics by journalists is not new, exponential growth in available data and a desire for source material unmediated by political and public-relations framings have seen data journalism increasingly embraced—to varying degrees—by newsrooms, and editors increasingly seek reporters who can think in computational ways. Journalism programs keen to incorporate data journalism in curricula face a unique set of issues, including a lack of scholarship on data journalism education and how to teach it. This article reports on both the pilot of an international postgraduate collaboration in data journalism education in 2015, in which postgraduate students at two universities investigated state-run gambling in Aotearoa–New Zealand, and the introduction of an undergraduate semester-long paper in data journalism at one of the universities. A visiting Fulbright specialist supported both initiatives, helping to develop staff and student data skills, kick-start a joint investigation by students, and lay the groundwork for future international collaborations. Thanks to his visit, New Zealand educators and students were able to seek support from, a global community of journalists and journalism educators working in data journalism. Set against a literature that predicts an increasing role for computational journalism, this article explores the successes and challenges of these cases of experiential journalism education. It explores the complex but not fatal issues of data competency among both instructors and students, collaboration between geographically distinct programs, access to sensitive datasets, and publication of student work.
____________________________________

Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 2015, 70(2): 187–196.
Traditionally, journalism majors gain professional experience before graduation through internships, part-time or summer jobs, and campus media. Those avenues are often insufficient to adequately prepare them for the professional workplace and professional standards. This essay explores two of a journalism school's practice-based programs that provide such preparation: Capital News Service, covering state government, politics, and public policy, and Great Lakes Echo, covering environmental news in eight states and two provinces.
____________________________________

Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 2017, 72(4): 410–424.
While several studies have examined the learning outcomes of student-run communications agencies, these studies have mostly been from the perspective of faculty advisors. Through in-depth interviews with student agency graduates, this study examined how current industry professionals perceive the benefits of their student agency experiences and how they applied those experiences to their professional careers. Graduates placed a high value on the real-world experience gained from student agencies, learning how a professional agency functions, and working with a diverse set of clients and people in team-based settings. Graduates also reported that their student agency involvement set them apart in job interviews and made them better prepared than their peers for entry-level positions.
___________________________________

Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 2014, 69(3): 314–324.
Increasingly, top-tier journalism and media schools are entering into partnerships with mainstream media organizations to create and distribute student-produced content. While internships have long been a sanctioned way students learn professional practices, downturns in the economy have led to reductions in paid internship programs. On the rise are digital era practicums, which often challenge students to produce content that is on par with professional work. This investigates how students and educators at three universities experience and compare internships with practicums. It looks at benefits, costs, and concerns.
___________________________________