Journalists as Media Educators: Journalistic Media Education as Inclusive Boundary Work
Publication details
| Year: | 2020 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/17512786.2020.1844040 |
| Issued: | 2020 |
| Language: | English |
| Start Page: | 1 |
| End Page: | 21 |
| Editors: | |
| Authors: | Jaakkola M. |
| Type: | Journal article |
| Journal: | Journalism Practice |
| Publisher: | Informa UK Limited |
| Topics: | Literacy and skills |
| Sample: | In the theoretical section, the paper discusses the activities under the frameworks of non-formal education and strategic audience development as part of media organisations’ work. In the empirical section, the activities of journalistic media educators in a single country, Finland, are identified: (1) actors mentioned by the national media literacy authority, the National Audiovisual Archive KAVI, in the media literacy policies (Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland 2013, 2019), online publications on media literacy week 2010–2020 and reports summarising the media literacy week activities (Palsa et al. 2014); (2) lists of projects financed by the Ministry of Education and Culture 2015–2020 (Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland 2020); (3) the annual reports of the public broadcasting company YLE and the industry unions the Finnish Newspapers Association, the Finnish Periodical Publishers’ Association (Aikakausmedia), the Finnish Media Federation (Finnmedia) and the Union of Journalists in Finland; (4) searching on Google with relevant Finnish terms (mediakasvatushanke, mediakasvatusprojekti). Particular attention is paid to journalism media education targeting children and young people. |
| Implications For Parents About: | Parenting guidance / support ; Other |
| Other Parent Implication: | Media education of children at home |
| Implications For Educators About: | Digital citizenship |
| Implications For Policy Makers About: | Other |
| Other PolicyMaker Implication: | Media education of children in society |
| Implications For Stakeholders About: | Other |
| Other Stakeholder Implication: | Journalistic media education of children at the limits of the formal learning environment and extramurally |
Abstract
This article locates media literacy both theoretically and empirically in the public practices carried out by journalists and journalistic actors in the case of Finland. In the theoretical section, the paper discusses the activities under the frameworks of non-formal education and strategic audience development as part of media organisations’ work. In the empirical section, central journalistic actors and their typical best practices are identified. These activities are grouped into three categories: media education on, in and via journalism. It is found that the initiatives aimed at promoting journalistic media education can be seen as focusing on a specific form of journalism literacy in which drawing the boundaries of journalism and non-journalism is a distinguished feature. The paper concludes by suggesting that demarcating journalistic media education as a separate field within the media literacy framework helps to identify media education as more incorporated in media organisations’ functions and promotes the development of this field in its own right.
Outcome
"Being included in a specific intended group of receivers, the targets of JME—mostly school children and their teachers—are provided with a particular type of information and experience, even if there are no formalised goals for these measures of inclusion.... Generally, however, the macrostructures of inclusion outlined in this article pave ways for inquiring into the innovative and transformative potential of JME products and microprocesses. Identifying and acknowledging JME as clearer as a designated part of journalism organisations’ performance may fruitfully advance the development of the presentation of how the post-industrialist newsroom might work. Newsrooms are entering into distributed production modes that include more than the reported stories but also live journalism and other new forms and processes of audience engagement including the pedagogical practice dimension." (Author, 9. 15)