Doctor of Journalism

Today, David Schlesinger, Editor-in-Chief of Reuters, spoke at the Institute today on the subject of journalism in an age of innovation. Insights into this level of news organization management are always fascinating - Schlesinger spoke eloquently about the need to for journalism to re-invent itself in the face of new trends like citizen journalism, online community-building and collaboration, easily available digital production technology etc. There is no doubt that Reuters does a lot to adapt to and use new technologies and new resources, often in unexpected ways, as for example the partnership with blog site Global Voices last year.

However, some commentators (myself included) felt that the view of technology as an inevitable, impersonal force (as well as equating “innovation” with “technology” throughout the seminar) that he presented was a bit unproblematic. Technological change in news organisations often go hand-in-hand with rationalization, downsizing, cost-cutting - see this excellent book by Tim Marjoribanks, for example, or this article by Peter Preston highlighting the rise of the production journalist. Restructuring the workplace to adapt to new technology can possibly have negative as well as positive effects on journalistic quality.

Davis Schlesinger also talked about the fact that news organisations have to involve their audiences much more than before, and that blogs, citizen journalism and the like can only enrich journalism, rather than threaten it (thoughts echoed in the Project for Excellence in Journalism 2007 report on online media). This, to be sure, is something that is refreshing to hear from a senior manager in one of the world’s most renowned news organisations.