Pasado, presente y futuro de la enseñanza universitaria del ciberperiodismo: métodos y tendencias

Teaching of digital journalism, or cyberjournalism, in Spanish universities is here to stay. Its long development since the first courses in this discipline were added to college curricula in the mid-1990s until the beginning of the 2020s, when the number of such courses exceeds 100, has led to the consolidation of this specialty. Based on a review of the syllabi of all courses related to cyberjournalism (n = 119) published online by Spanish universities, as well as a survey of their teachers (n = 51), the results of this study depicts the profile of teaching about digital journalism in Spain. The results confirm the relevance and academic strength of this discipline, albeit also revealing the difficulties faced by teachers in keeping their courses up to date in a context of rapid and continuous change in the journalistic profession. Resumen La enseñanza universitaria en España del periodismo digital, o ciberperiodismo, ha llegado para quedarse. Desde que, a mediados de los años 1990, se incorporaron las primeras materias sobre esta disciplina en los planes de estudios, hasta el comienzo de la década de 2020, cuando el número de asignaturas supera el centenar, se ha recorrido un largo camino, que ha conducido a la consolidación de esta especialidad. A partir de una revisión documental de los programas docentes de todas las asignaturas vinculadas al ciberperiodismo (n = 119) publicados online por las universidades españolas, así como de una encuesta a sus docentes (n = 51), este estudio revela el perfil de la enseñanza en torno al periodismo digital en España. Los resultados confirman la relevancia y el fortalecimiento académico de la disciplina, aunque ponen de manifiesto asimismo las dificultades de los docentes para mantener sus asignaturas actualizadas, en un contexto de rápidos y continuos cambios en la profesión periodística.

Interactive documentary and the reinvention of digital journalism, 2015–2020

Interactive documentary (i-docs), an innovative hybrid form at the intersection of film, journalism, and digital games, has matured beyond its first wave of experimentation, gaining distinction among the most highly evolved immersive media of the twenty-first century. The latest generation of i-docs is currently winning accolades at both major film festivals and game design summits. This study charts the evolutionary trajectory of North America’s most recent and influential wave of i-docs in works mostly appearing since 2015. It culturally situates i-docs as immersive media that extend experimentation with narrative journalism into the realm of fine art and social activism. Building on the foundation of activist, highly empathic news experiences established in the early 2010s, the most recent advances in i-docs range from live action VR to animated digital games. Such works include the Canadian National Film Board’s 2018 AR (augmented reality) experience East of the Rockies, Occupied’s 2019 Cannes entry The Holy City VR, Roger Ross Williams’ 2019 Tribeca debut Traveling While Black, and iNK Stories Verité VR Series’ 2017 Blindfold and Hero, winner of the prestigious Storyscapes Award at Tribeca in 2018. The vanguard of i-docs has expanded collaboration between film, news, and digital game industries to provide new forms of citizen engagement through advocacy journalism aimed at social and political change. Through the use of John Pavlik’s (2019) critical framework for understanding immersive journalism, this article examines the texts, producers, and industrial contexts of the most recent and influential North American i-docs, as one branch of the form defined by Gaudenzi, Aston, and Rose. Principles of transparency, social responsibility, and a commitment to veracity in i-docs epitomize the esthetic and political potential of digital journalism as an empathic alternative to traditional news coverage.

Examining the digital renewal of news communication: A categorization of presentation modes in digital journalism

Our daily dealings with media products are shaped by the use of generic designations such as journalistic presentation modes, for example, news, commentary, and Instagram-story. Yet, scholarship has examined presentation modes only selectively and lacks empirical investigations in this domain. Based on literature and a quantitative content analysis of jury protocols of the German online journalism award “Grimme Online Award,” this article explores how presentation modes are constructed and further develops a framework for a categorization of presentation modes with eight dimensions: Content and Function, Author, Sources, Periodicity, Material Substrate, Structure, Media, and Interactive-Engagement Elements. This study is the first to empirically assess journalistic presentation mode dimensions and manifestations.

Sosiaalisen median kommenttien analyysi multimodaalisesta näkökulmasta digitaalisen journalismin ja poliittisen viestinnän tutkimuksessa

Societal discussions flow on social media platforms that are studied by researchers in multiple ways and through various kinds of data sets that are extracted from them. In the studies of these discussions, multimodality unravels the semiotic modes that are communication resources through which meanings are socially and culturally created and expressed. In addition, the viewpoint of affordances can be used for viewing the functions of social media platforms and their discussions. Furthermore, this review was conducted to better understand how social media comments are researched from the perspective of multimodality in the context of digital journalism and political communication. A systematic literature review and qualitative content analysis were used as methods. The review discovered that the studies under review were not that high in multimodality and that text as an individual mode was the most common one. Furthermore, Twitter was the most researched platform and the one where the use of modes was more thoroughly explained.

Not on air, but Online: The Labor Conditions of the Digital Journalist in U.S. Local Television Newsrooms

As American news preferences shift from broadcast to digital platforms, corporate-owned local television stations have hired digital teams to keep a growing array of mobile, social, web, and over-the-top platforms updated with revenue-generating and audience-friendly information. Yet, these workers are currently missing from the labor literature. Therefore, this exploratory study uses a political economy framework with a labor focus to begin to understand the day-to-day working conditions of these employees. Interviews outline workload issues including long hours of multitasking and nearly-constant connectivity even when off the clock, sped-up production expectations with a commodified information focus, and limited worker protections. The findings here aim to provide a starting point for digital journalism labor studies moving forward.

Music Theory and Mainstream Digital Journalism

The tools of music theory and analysis have appeared in articles published in popular press venues for the last decade. Many of these articles, however, are written by non-experts and often stir controversy among academic writers due to assumptions or inaccuracies. Instead of passively arguing about this form of public music theory, this chapter encourages academic theorists to write stories for digital journalism outlets by explaining the role and context of this type of journalism, then outlining the process of pitching, writing, and editing a story. This chapter closes with a discussion of the specific responsibilities of music theorists who write for these venues, and the role of the academic in digital journalism.