The World Journalism Education Congress held at the end of June in Singapore issued a declaration of principles laying out a framework for the teaching of journalism.

Some 27 associations across the world signed up to the document (PDF link). It seeks to position journalism education “a balance of conceptual, philosophical and skills-based content” and as “an academic field in its own right with a distinctive body of knowledge and theory”.

Journalism schools are different from other departments at universities due to this combination of conceptual and skills teaching. The declaration acknowledges this, adding that it is important that educators have experience of working as a journalist. The faculty at the School of Journalism at the University of British Columbia where I teach are all former journalists.

The statement also recognises the impact of information communication technologies on journalism. It states that:

Journalism is a technologically intensive field. Practitioners will need to master a variety of computer-based tools. Where practical, journalism education provides an orientation to these tools.

This is an area much debated by journalism educators. How far should we be teaching software skills? Should journalism students learn to code, to program?

Journalists are not coders. These are two distinct skillsets. But journalism students should learn a basic knowledge of HTML and web design. They should be able to, for example, set up a blog on WordPress or Blogger, and personalise the template.

There are now an increasing number of tools available to produce features like Flash slideshows (eg Soundslides), which require a minimum amount of technical knowledge.

What is more important for journalist students is to learn how to use these technologies to tell stories. But it is also about learning how to use these tools. It is also about learning about using the appropriate tool for the appropriate story.

Does the story lend itself to a photo gallery, a slideshow or maybe just text? New technologies offer powerful story-telling tools. The challenge for journalism educators is to explore how to use these to enhance journalism and help make sense of the world.

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