New skills for the next generation of journalists Erasmus Project

Project Title

New skills for the next generation of journalists

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The main objective of NEWSREEL project is to improve such skills of a new generation of European journalists that are required in the present media fields to be a credible and stable factor of the European democratic public debate who can benefit from the digital information ecosystem in order to make complex public issues understandable. To achieve this objective, NEWSREEL will make innovative learning materials and teaching programs Europe-wide available. Furthermore the project aims to facilitate the efficient international cooperation between university-based journalists ecosystems to:

a) develop critical understanding of the breadth, depth and scope of credible journalism;
b) help journalists reporting more credible stories, based on the more precise information with the help of computer-assisted reporting or data journalism . Putting data in a visual form may reveal patterns and insights that weren’t identifiable otherwise. In this way, the audience can understand better complex issues;
c) develop new business strategies and models of journalism.The technical and economic development brought significant risks for journalism as well. By the weakening of the traditional forms of the exploitation of media products and services, the stable financial fundamentals of high-quality journalism have more or less disappeared; the weaker the media market of a country is, the higher the risk for financial problems of quality journalism.;
d) establish collaborative journalism. Transnational team-working is a key element in the field of collaborative journalism. European cross-border investigations can improve the transparency of the European political and economic decision making and the expenses of the European public money. Moreover, the increasing complexity of journalism projects makes necessary the cooperation between experts of several fields, such as journalists, data journalists, IT experts and designers;
e) be able to handle ethical challenges of the digital public sphere. Journalists still should provide credible information on the public issues, but they have to compete with a mass of non-professional, often inaccurate information, and fight against aggressive communication against particular social groups or their own performance. To handle these challenges, journalists should embed robust ethical norms into their work.

The methodology used in the project’s implementation phase is based on the following 7 steps process:

1. Mapping the journalism education and the needs of the stakeholders,
2. Developing syllabuses in order to embed the skills and tools concerned into the programs of journalism studies,
3. Developing electronic learning materials and teaching methods to increase the necessary new journalism skills,
4. Having courses at the participating universities as a pilot teaching activity,
5. Publishing a teacher’s guide that summarizes the professional and methodological content of the project,
6. Developing student career profiles,
7. Organizing an international student competition that aims implementing cross-border investigative journalism projects with visualized.

NEWSREEL will be implemented by
– the Department for Communication and Media Studies of the University of Pécs which has a strong focus on the social impact of the journalism in the research and education activity;
– the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication University of Bucharest which has an academic offer, does research and develops activities in all the areas of the project;
– ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon which has several post-graduation offers in the communication/journalism areas, and a specific one in Executive Media Management;
– the Erich Brost Institute for International Journalism, an affiliated institute of TU Dortmund which has participated in several transnational research projects.

In the long run, NEWSREEL will contribute to
– the extending the journalism education to the new fields of the digital public discussion,
– the improving of high-quality journalism,
– the strengthening of the common European democratic public sphere by improving the collaborative and cross-border journalism that is able to elaborate and make tangible the big amount of available data, and that is based on a predictable business strategy and a firm ethical foundation.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 337272 Eur

Project Coordinator

PECSI TUDOMANYEGYETEM – UNIVERSITY OF PECS & Country: HU

Project Partners

• Iscte – Instituto Universitario de Lisboa
• ERICH-BROST INSTITUT FUR JOURNALISMUS IN EUROPA GEMEINNUTZIGE GESELLSCHAFT MIT BESCHRANKTER HAFTUNG EBI GMBH
• UNIVERSITATEA DIN BUCURESTI