Preparing for Journalism in a data-driven future

“Journalism is changing. These days a reporter can get a story from interrogating a dataset as well as interviewing a person. Or they may produce a radio or TV-quality package on their mobile phone” says Jane Suiter, Associate Professor at the School of Communications in DCU.

Of course, there are some core skills in journalism that have not changed in more than a century. You need to communicate clearly, to be reasonably impartial, to cultivate your interviewing and people skills, to keep an eye to accuracy, to think critically and to have an inquiring mind. They are still at the heart of good journalism.

But those of us involved in delivering DCU’s BA in Journalism know that plenty of other skills and approaches are needed to find and tell stories in the 21st century.

They include being familiar with the online world of search engines and ads, using data as a primary source for a story, verifying information, designing and producing packages for radio and podcasts and using your phone to shoot and edit footage of high enough quality for TV.

At FuJo (Future of Media and Journalism) Institute in DCU, we are also focusing research on key issues such as how algorithms impact on the stories we see on social media, how the rise of these platforms impacts on journalism business and how trust can be built in this fast-changing world.

Platforms and skills will undoubtedly change again in coming years and decades, yet now and into the future, the world needs high quality, authentic and considered journalism, communication and research. Having the foundation of an open mind with a willingness to listen and learn new approaches and skills will enable a new generation of journalists to tackle challenges, and that is what we seek to instil.

Jane Suiter is the Director of the Institute for Future Media and Journalism (FuJo), which is an innovative and experimental space for journalism and media research, with its aim to facilitate the collaboration between journalism, technology and data.

Possible careers in journalism include Editor, Presenter, Producer, Reporter, Researcher and Sub-editor.

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Article brought to you by "A World of Opportunities: How Science, Technology and Engineering are Transforming the Careers of the Future" published by Dublin City University. 

Jane Suiter, Associate Professor, DCU