Media innovation, professional debate and media training - a European analysis European Journalism Centre
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Media innovation, professional debate and media training a European analysis Written by Jan Bierhoff Mark Deuze Claes de Vreese European Journalism Centre Maastricht, December 2000
Contents
x Part I: Conclusions and recommendations
x Austria - ORF
x Denmark - Lifelong learning system
x Part II: Report and analysis of interviews
x the Netherlands - Platforms for journalists online
x Sweden - Digital news channel
x Switzerland - Charta ‘Quality in Journalism’
x Part III: Overview per country
3Preface
It has become permanent, the need for further Science has asked the European Journalism
training of journalists. Today’s media are changing Centre to provide the Dutch media industry with
and developing in a pace that can only be a picture of how the further training of journalists
matched through well-structured continuous looks in a number of European countries. With
training. The demands to the journalists are this report, written by Jan Bierhoff, Mark Deuze
growing, both in quantity and quality, and and Claes de Vreese, the EJC hopes to have put
although new, sometimes hard, divisions of tasks material on the table that can be a starting point
are being introduced in many newsrooms, the for the development of the necessary further
individual journalist stands back with a need for training systems in the Netherlands. The next
professional updating. This goes both for the step will be a conference in Amsterdam in
skills, the methods and for the contents. January 2001, which will give the Dutch
stakeholders the chance to meet with colleagues
In several Western European countries, the from other countries and to discuss what the
employers and journalists have realised that they Dutch models should preferably look like.
have common interests in securing the best
possible qualifications for the journalists. To Maastricht, November 2000
ensure this, they have set up professional training
institutes and build rights - and obligations - for Mogens Schmidt
further training into the labour contracts. In Director, European Journalism Centre
other countries, journalism schools and
universities are offering weekend courses or
evening classes for working journalists, but in
quite a few countries it is basically still up to the
single journalist to make sure that she will be able
to also meet tomorrow’s demands.
The Dutch Ministry for Education, Culture and
5Introduction
Jan Bierhoff
The media are in the focus of attention. Enabling 'weight' of the media market: Austria, Denmark,
digital information and communication The Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland.
technologies force the professional messengers to
reorient themselves from monomedia journalistic Interviews were conducted and materials collected
outlets to multimedia information handling in the period of February - May 2000. The main
companies. Societies are growing more complex, goal of the talks was to identify the role of further
with globalisation and localisation developing training as a catalyst of professional debate on
seemingly hand in hand. Media companies are at media innovation trends. Subgoals were the
the same time converging and concentrating as assessment of the role initial training structures
well as becoming more specialised and play, and an inventory of the contribution of the
differentiated. Such developments challenge the media and their professional bodies themselves.
total of media output, the organisational
structures, workflows, and working conditions of The main research question was operationalised
contemporary journalists. Consequently, the in three interview themes:
(further) training issue comes to the fore as an
important instrument of facilitating and coping • the imminent changeover to digital
with change. multimedia approaches;
• the changing societal role and function of the
This report focuses on the role of training, in mass media; and
particular further training, in this innovation • the enlargement of the media playing field
process. The European Journalism Centre, in through European integration.
cooperation with The Amsterdam School of
Communications Research (ASCoR), undertook In each country three research steps were
a project on describing the state of the art in followed:
further journalistic training and education in a
number of European countries. Five countries • an overview of published materials in order to
were selected, based on their respective size and describe and analyse the existing situation of
7initial, further and in-house journalism 2000. One session will concentrate on the Dutch
training and education (as reported in part III further training situation, and a European
of this report); conference will bring together the interviewees
• a series of in-depth interviews with key and other professional and training
educators and professionals in the media field representatives to assess the role of journalistic
of the five countries on issues directly related education in more general terms.
to the state of play and future developments of
journalism training and education (as
described in part II); Maastricht, June 2000
• an assessment of the structural trends and
developments in the aforementioned countries
leading to a series of conclusions, 'examples of
good practice' and recommendations for
future development.
As this report is mainly intended as a research
and discussion paper, step three is presented in
the first part.
The conclusions and recommendations are based
on the analysis of 8 - 12 interviews in each of the
five countries. ASCoR researcher Claes de Vreese
covered Austria, Denmark and Sweden; his
colleague Mark Deuze monitored the Netherlands
and Jan Bierhoff, EJC, analysed the Swiss media
situation. Where possible and relevant, references
to contemporary other research findings and
literature are made in order to enrich the analyses.
This inventory will be followed by a debate on
the issues raised in the report during autumn
8Part I: Conclusions and recommendations
CONCLUSIONS autonomous training situation and another, more
industry-led model of journalism education.
Based on the joint evaluation of the materials and Again this conclusion follows the stark differences
interviews, we found that much of the debate between countries instead of expected similarities
about journalism training issues takes place between (European) regions and/or media
within the different national contexts. This in cultures. Yet one could summarise similarities to
contrast with the nature of contemporary media some extent in terms of attention for journalistic
innovations and developments which is (further) training as a Scandinavian approach
distinctively international. Intensity and form of (Sweden and Denmark favouring the professional
changes in the training landscape differ in all the school model) and a central European tradition
five countries visited, but the interviewees (Switzerland and Austria with the 'voluntariats'
involved in this study agree to a large extent model). The Dutch situation is closest to the
about the direction of changes in the media in Scandinavian model, with other features however
terms of specifically digitalisation and - a geographical as well as educational 'middle
multimedialisation of newsmedia in general and ground' so to speak (the specifics of national
the need for training to assist newsrooms and particularities which may explain the formation
individual journalists to cope with these of journalism training today are beyond the scope
technological changes in particular. of this paper - or will be discussed as such in parts
II and III of this report).
A comparable size, cultural climate and
development level turns out to be no good One thing can be said of all the five countries we
indicator for the position of the media and the visited: a heightened awareness and range of
way training needs are countered; we found initiatives regarding journalism (further) training
different set-ups in all five countries, even in and education. We found many recent changes
neighbouring countries such as Austria and and new (last year and a half ) initiatives. Most
Switzerland. If a more general, basic choice needs initiatives are taken by new training players; there
to be emphasised it is the one between a more is compared to this little change in the established
9Box I: Austria / ORF
Austrian public broadcaster ORF ('Handwerk') to improve ORF analysed. The needs and wishes for
is, like many west European public products; further training was divided into
broadcasters, going through a large 2. to enhance personal needs for fulfilling an employee's
scale reorganisation. An integrated development of all employees (or as current position and wishes that
news department is to be launched stated by the BAF: "to make all may enable persons to make career
in 2002. Integral to this process of contributors to ORF programming changes by improving general
change is a revamp of the ORF a lit bit happier"). employability. In implementing the
Educational Department, the BAF result of this 'human resource
(Berufsaus- und fortbildung). In One interesting initiative carried inventory', the organisational
the spring 2000 BAF course out by BAF was a large 'human structure of the BAF and the
overview, the two, newly defined resource inventory' in which policies regarding training were
goals of BAF are stated: qualities, skills, and future wishes simplified, made more transparent
for education for all 5000 and largely decentralised.
1. to enhance professional skills employees were systematically
training outlets, although most institutional media tend to rely on external professional
players were in the process of critical self- training, broadcasters on internal (in-house)
evaluation, evaluation by external parties and solutions and new media/multimedia on ad hoc
working on corresponding new plans for change arrangements and co-operation models.
and expansion over the coming years. Although Innovations take place within this pattern of
one could argue that this attitude is characteristic preferences. We found little or no direct
for specifically professional training organisations, partnerships, collaborations or other structural
the sense of urgency or even immediacy we found relationships between media categories, which can
more or less everywhere seemed to be a sign of be understood in terms of market considerations
the times indeed. and the competitive nature of media markets, but
is strange when one considers the predictions of a
Spread over the main media categories, print digital multimedia future for these markets.
10The media world is not very active and certainly aim at the training of multiskilled content
not consistent in the formulation of training production professionals. Creative programme
needs. There are mixed forms of institutional points are mixed with IT components and
involvement, with per country different roles for marketing / commercial skills. The definition of
employers organisations and journalists unions. what journalism is or should be seems to be less
of an issue here.
There are two consistent training developments.
One takes place at the academic level; more In terms of further training the attention for
universities start J-courses, both initial training thematic societal issues is waning and there is a
and postgraduate programmes. The media strong preference for (technical) skills-oriented
industry by and large reacts positively; sometimes training offers, especially related to Internet
via partnerships, but most of the times without solutions. The readiness to adopt further training
becoming involved directly. The other programmes for this aspect is growing. Although
development is the emergence of multimedia media organisations express the need for in-depth
training facilities which are unconventional in set- quality reporting and analysis - which would call
up, have a multipurpose curriculum, varying in for a more thematic and reflexive approach to
length and intensity, with partnerships in the education - they do not seem to financially
hardware and software sector and not so much in support external training facilitators offering such
the media. In both cases the core of the thematic courses. Media and schools alike have
programme is practical training. Especially prioritised skill-based training instead of
university programmes pay much attention to a knowledge-based learning, which seemingly
niche market of classical journalism, focus on contradicts the trend in news reporting (as
what is called 'quality journalism', emphasising suggested by contemporary research and
proper analysis and traditional news values. These literature) towards longer items and stories with a
elements also influence their new media more in-depth focus and explicitly aiming for
approach, which is based on the assumption that analysis and interpretation of events.
the basics (the 'ABC') of journalism do not
change because of new media developments. The RECOMMENDATIONS
multimedia programmes have little in common
with the standard definition of journalism and We noted during our survey a certain lack of
11Box II: Denmark - Lifelong learning system
The Centre for Journalism and analysis". While CFJE has a variety of core
Further Education [CFJE] is a activities ranging from developing
recently launched (1998) Danish CFJE is not structurally engaged in courses, organising seminars to
institute. The Centre is located in carrying out training activities but conducting research on journalism,
Aarhus, as an independent unit of is designed as: one other important task is to
the Danish School of Journalism. a centre for generating and maintain an interactive web-page
CFJE represents a new design in disseminating knowledge about (www.cfje.dk). This site functions
the field of journalism training. journalism and journalistic practice as an online database about
The Centre is the result of the in Denmark and beyond; journalism, including information
work of a governmentally initiated a centre for developing and pre- about opportunities for further
Commission reviewing the market testing new concepts and methods education in Denmark and abroad,
for further education for for journalism training a multimedia database with
professional journalists. The Media programmes and courses; information about journalism and
Commission, in its final a centre for providing a link editorial processes, and an
recommendations, supported the between media educators and interactive meeting place for
launch of CFJE. businesses in the field; discussion of issues relating to
a centre for encouraging journalism.
CFJE defines its main objective as: development projects and in-house
"playing a key role in the training programmes in the media One example of the research on
development of a system of lifelong industry; journalism initiated by CFJE is the
learning for journalists and other a centre for creating a network and book 'New News'. This is an
professional media workers by establishing a framework for analysis of the development of the
developing new forms of further dialogue and reflection about the concept of news in Denmark in the
education and by increasing the profession; 1990s, discussing the development
levels of knowledge and insight a centre for conducting and of news values; the production of
into journalism and editorial publishing research in the area of print, TV, radio and online news;
processes through research and journalism. changes in the relationship between
12journalists and their sources; the editorial choices in the area of day residential periods of
importance of the Internet for international journalism at nine instruction and feedback with the
journalistic research and Danish newspapers and seven intervening time spent on
dissemination; and important different broadcast news preparation, reading and
trends affecting modern news programmes. assignments. They are concluded
production such as media with an official examination.
convergence and the expectations CFJE annually develops a number Examples of diploma courses are:
on journalists to take on new roles of diploma courses for professional editorial management, online
in society. Another project journalists. Diploma courses are journalism, storytelling, local
addresses 'international journalism' aimed at full-time journalists and journalism.
in which current trends and are organised around four 2 or 3-
focus, even confusion concerning the overall become apparent during this project that the fast-
pattern of media change, and little systematic paced developments in terms of new media
response to media innovation in the professional technologies, restructuring of the marketplace and
(training) world. Interviewees emphasised the changing news values because of various social,
fundamental character and high pace of ongoing cultural and political-economical reasons are
developments, and the practical difficulty of troubling and confusing today's professionals and
assessing all the implications of the current educators. This may be due to the almost
transition to digital media production conditions. exclusive 'traditional' view on what journalism is -
At the same time, there seems to be a lack of and therefore how it should be taught - of the
vision, of strategies to master the current training institutes. The scholarly literature has
situation, and work out a sustainable change already called for a redefinition of journalism,
model. which in a sense would mean a wider definition
(a more inclusive, 'catholic' definition, as British
The need for vision scholar Colin Sparks has coined it) of journalism.
Beyond a new model for journalism education Recent surveys among Austrian, Swiss and Dutch
lies the concept of what future holds in store for journalists - conducted by Stefan Weber, Mirko
journalism, the media and its professionals. It has Marr and Mark Deuze - reveal a tremendous
13functional differentiation within the workforce; training world, research world and government,
for example more than 200 different job and that these players can better take their
descriptions were found. This calls for a critical responsibility if they have a service institution at
look at both the traditional curricula as well as hand which has as a main task to work out
the role journalism education and further training strategies and a sense of direction, that can test
as such have on today's marketplace. Is a single training models and commission further research
curriculum able to address the wants and needs of where needed. It would be worthwhile to explore
such a functionally differentiated workforce? And if such a provision could be implemented in other
if so, can it be done through initiatives and countries as well. Interviewees in this study,
programmes not based on any coherent vision or notably in the Netherlands, noted the need for a
philosophy on what contemporary and near- national institute of some kind to facilitate
future journalism is and could be? We research, further education and national
recommend at least more interplay, exchange and journalism platforms for discussion and exchange.
critical discussion between the various players in It seems that the marketplace is willing to
the (national) field, financial support from all embrace some form of thematic/reflective
areas in society and in particular joint research education model for journalism, but cannot find
and education projects between institutions, space nor time within the structural limitations of
media organisations and the academia - now that the media organisations to individually develop
competition for students or jobs is not so much such an initiative. This suggests that a national
an issue anymore in today's overcrowded media institute which does not necessarily compete with
and communications marketplace. existing training platforms, can find fertile
ground in all of the countries we have visited, as
it has in Denmark. Funding might come from
The need for dialogue national government and media organisations,
In Denmark, the government together with the staff might be provided by both existing
industry has taken an interesting initiative to educational organisations and the media on a
further a prompt and adequate response (see box temporary project-oriented basis.
II). It departs from the assumption that the
development of a coherent action programme The need for adequate training models
requires involvement of all partners: industry, The classical model of a two- to four-year
14vocational training school to prepare for a
journalistic career receives momentarily serious
competition from a number of other training
approaches. These can range from evening classes
for amateur writers (often becoming local
journalists) to multimedia packages to university-
based training facilities. More access routes to the
media open up, and the media are sometimes
actively involved in the development of these
routes. The dynamics lie at two fronts: pragmatic
initiatives by the industry to fill present new
media launches, and a more structural transfer of
the centre of gravity from the vocational school to
the university as most appropriate training
location.
It would be worth while to explore if for the
future these pushes could be combined in a new
mainstream training model for journalistic
training, which takes an academic education as a
basis, situates the journalistic (practical) training
component towards the end of this study route
(specialisation, postgraduate masters etc.) and
continues with regular, integrated further training
offers during the first years of professional work,
to assure both industry relevance and necessary
reflection during the start-up years. This of course
within the context of a varied training landscape,
in which different models and approaches co-
exist.
15Part II: Report and Analysis of Interviews
During the months of March and April (2000) a The issues related to the impact and effects of the
number of in-depth interviews were held with a Internet, the digitalisation of news production
selection of key representatives of journalism and the convergence of media formats are
education institutes and courses, media presented first. The development of digital
organisations and co-ordinators of in-house technologies and media convergence as such are
(further) training programs and curricula. The crucial factors affecting the agenda of both
analysis of these interviews is structured along newsmedia, institutes and organisations engaged
four themes: in the business of (further) journalism training.
Two issues emerged from the survey as particular
• issues related to (the convergence of ) media pertinent: [1] a transition in both journalistic self-
formats - essentially regarding Internet and perception and newsroom organisation patterns
multimedia developments and training; from specialised monomedia production towards
• factors influencing media content - regarding more or less integrated and digitalised
reflection on and training in topics like 'multimedia' outlets where image meets moving
Europe and the EU, the multicultural society, picture and written text, and [2] an emerging
the increased importance of financial news clash of views related to the relative weight
and the inroads of commercialism on attributed to either skills sets, knowledge and
journalism production; communications between especially institutes for
• issues of journalism quality - featuring "what's further training of journalists and the newsmedia
hot and what's not" in contemporary themselves.
journalism, assessments of the relative weight
of factual, practical and theoretical Hereafter the interviews and materials obtained
contributions; and are considered in a cross-national comparative
• journalism training - featuring an overview perspective, essentially laying bare both the
of what's been and being done to address the common ground and particular differences of the
issues mentioned before. participating countries: Austria, Denmark, The
Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland.
17MEDIA FORMATS broadcasting news programs ('Aktuellt' and
'Rapport'). SVT24 in many ways serves as an
Broadcast Media experiment. The SVT mother organisation is
In terms of digital media formats the radio currently going through a major re-organisation.
stations in especially The Netherlands, Sweden A new department, integrating news, current
and Denmark have gone through the process of affairs, culture and sports is created. The set-up
digitalisation. The television departments are for this new central newsdesk will be heavily
following suit. Particularly in terms of digital influenced by SVT24. It will draw on the same
television a number of pan-European initiatives digital advantages, most notably utilising a central
have been undertaken between media producers news server carrying all audio and visual material,
in Scandinavian, southern European and Benelux ensuring simultaneous access.
countries (like for example Dutch Cameo Media).
The main interests here lie with establishing a The Netherlands are lagging behind a bit,
standard for digital interactive television. Other although the main publishing houses (Wegener,
initiatives focus explicitly on the convergence of PCM, VNU) have all announced heavy
existing digitalised media formats. investments in Internet initiatives and recently
started so-called portal sites for their respective
The Danish radio news department will merge media outlets, with which they cooperate with
with TV news and the web department and other media such as radiostation Radio 538 - very
together form an integrated 'News Department' popular among young people - and relatively
which is to be located in new buildings currently small Internet start-up companies. The executives
being built at the outskirts of Copenhagen. In of these organisations explain in the Dutch media
Sweden the new 'enabling' digital technologies that their goal ultimately is to be prepared for a
have had wide impact on news formats and the perceived near-future integration of the
amount of available news. Public broadcaster household television set with the Internet. The
(SVT Sveriges Television) launched a 24-hour Dutch State Secretary for the Media, Rick van der
news channel, SVT24 (see details in box IV). Ploeg, has also called upon the public
This channel is fully digitalised and is operation broadcasters to cooperate with non-broadcast
by a limited number of staff. The staff : output media to create a more compelling Internet
ratio is much lower than at the 'traditional' public presence, which at the moment is a fragmented
18portal, although several media are exploring the situation is quite comparable. Esther
multimedia options for themselves such as Roethlisberger, training responsible for SRG SSR
particularly the evangelistic EO and left- (Swiss broadcasting):
progressive VPRO. Inge Brakman, co-ordinator at
the Commissariaat voor de Media - the main "We have recently revamped our entire training
organisation responsible for licensing and programme into a demand-driven system in
overseeing public broadcasters in The Netherlands which radio and television programme leaders
- feels that such initiatives can only be fully basically decide about the training priorities. This
supported and flourish when a new media law furthers the relevance of the in-house training
will be drawn up. scheme for present production modes, but it also
has a down-side. The focus is almost entirely on
"We should have a media law which is medium- the existing situation and accepted broadcasting
independent. Right now all the rules and formats and values. Innovation and
regulations are specific for radio and television, experimentation is limited to individual initiatives
whilst the Internet still has no context in terms of within the given course frame. Young people are
legislation. This will have to change before we can eager to do so, but a more concentrated effort to
move on." innovate wouldn't harm."
On the other hand, Austria and Switzerland seem These transitions are expected to have large
to be less on the 'cutting edge' on a number of impact on the organisation of news production.
these points. The de facto monopoly in Austrian An important trend in this respect is the
broadcasting of the ORF implies that all changes disappearance of former professional distinctions.
in this area must derive from within this rather Technicians are increasingly fulfilling journalistic
closed organisation. Some on-going initiatives tasks and journalists are increasingly affected by
may contribute to opening up this system (see for changes in technology. Specifically, 220 members
example box I). ORF is moving towards an of an technological/ industrial branch recently
integrated newsroom and it is negotiating with shifted to become fully-fledged members of the
the European Journalism Academy in Krems to Danish Union of Journalists. In The Netherlands
provide courses in re-schooling a group of staff to this trend was mirrored by the establishment of a
produce for the web particularly. In Switzerland, specific branch for Internet media professionals
19within the Dutch Vereniging voor Journalisten in journalistic roles. Lars Kabel:
March 2000 (NVJ; Union of Journalists). These
shifts are an acknowledgement of an on-going "Media convergence is an important field. Issues
process. TV2, the second Danish national such as the qualifications one must possess, role
television network, has completed a process where definitions and perceptions are at the core. Our
the first 'cohort' of ex-technicians and cameramen role will not be to conduct and facilitate this
received introductory courses in journalism to training but, as a centre for development, to test
prepare them for a broader job function in the and develop new formats and new courses. These
past which includes a number of choices within may then later be exploited by others. We have
the field of journalism. One could say that the already produced the first arch-types which have
webmasters of yesterday are becoming the online been taken over by others […] one example being
reporters of tomorrow. Sylvia Egli von Matt, the education of technical staff. They are highly
director of the MAZ training centre (Luzern): threatened by processes of convergence, more so
than journalists. Only technical staff with
"The blurring lines are not only between the additional education can stay in the business. It is
different job profiles. A similar process is taking our task to develop and find a form to provide
place between institutions. Companies, this education."
organisations formerly left information transfer to
the media, but this is changing rapidly: they want In Sweden Leif Hedman, Information manager at
to keep the that role more and more to the new News and Sports Department and one of
themselves. This confuses the established media; the key figures in the creation of SVT24, makes
they will try to stop this process but I fear they some recommendations for the transition towards
are going to lose out. In Switzerland there are no an integrated, digitalised newsroom:
clear strategies on the part of the media to
counter this development." "The most important thing is creating enthusiasm
for change. Information is the basis of succeeding
The newly established Danish Centre for Further in this. You need to explicate the reasons for
Education (CfJE) plays a central role in fulfilling changes, and don't focus only on issues such as
the needs for further education emerging as a efficiency and money, but also the obvious
result of media convergence and redefinition of advantages. What we did was, at a very early
20stage, organising a number of seminars, internal their web editions. At both papers, the web staff
meetings, with all groups in the organisation. is differentiated from the normal staff. At one
This enabled us to address all and answer the newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, this division is
questions of different groups. We have had a deliberate. The paper version and the web version
good experience with working in smaller groups of the paper each has a content and a business
and following the principle of 'rings in the water'. unit. The latter deals with investments and
This means that we let some journalists be advertising. In terms of the content in the web
trained in editing and some editors in editions, this primarily comes from material
journalism." provided by the regular DN staff. As Christina
Zaar, Educational Co-ordinator at DN, says:
Also the main competitor on television news in
Sweden, TV4, is moving towards an integrated "Our web staff is made of people with special
newsroom. Output has already increased over the skills and interest, coming from both in- and
past years, and today included 13 bulletins outside DN. It is more than journalism because
running daily from six in the morning until ten they also need to provide a context and a range of
at night. AnnaKarin Runestad, Project Manager services. It is not easy to take 'old' reporters and
and Head of Education, stresses the need that has place them in this situation. We are uncertain in
been addressed to teach journalists to package which direction we will go in the future: to keep
news for very short formats. A distinction is made the web as a separate business or to have it
at TV4 between the almost hourly short and brief integrated".
news updates and the longer evening news
bulletins that must have a "recognisable TV4 The observations made at DN are echoed at the
profile". TV4 is also launching a video-journalist other Swedish newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet.
experiment. According to Runestad, this project Currently the two outlets are separated in the
will be carried out based on a voluntary basis and production, but there are signs pointing towards
will, in the first round, include 2-3 journalists integration, as Marianne Falk, Head of Education
and 2-3 technical staff. says:
Printed Media "Sometimes our reporters write specifically for the
The Swedish press is fairly advanced in terms of web. And we have a 'changing position' on the
21web edition where we swap staff every six months hand, Broertjes evaluates 'traditional' media
so that we can have more people acquainted with thinking as something that should not be thrown
writing for the web." away all too easily:
Almost all Dutch newspapers now have a Web "The added value of old media beyond
presence, but only one of them - De Telegraaf - craftsmanship, reliability and integrity is mainly is
runs a 24 hours newsservice and none of them its in-depth look; what it adds to the quicksilver-
offer multimedia options or interactivity other like image of the world that people can get
than the occasional poll or opinion mailbox. everywhere else."
Wegener Arcade, the biggest publisher of regional
newspapers, recently announced plans to In May (2000) the Dutch town of Enschede was
collaborate with other regional media outlets to faced by a disaster: a fireworks factory exploded
create regional portals, including Wegener-owned an left hundreds of people wounded and
radio and tv stations. Shortly thereafter De homeless and cost many lives. The explosion
Telegraaf followed suit, collaborating with occurred on a Saturday afternoon and relief
regional media companies to create a portal as carried on throughout the weekend; strangely
well on a local level. Leo Enthoven, at Wegener only De Volkskrant and the Algemeen Dagblad
responsible for the in-house training projects of (of the 7 national newspapers) carried the news
the publisher, admits that sending all journalists online throughout the night both in text and
off for a two day Internet-course is not enough to pictures; the Telegraaf did not pick up on the
cope with these developments. Also Dutch news. In a recent survey of Dutch online
national newspaper De Volkskrant considers journalists less than 25% said they produced
making more of their Web presence. Editor-in- original content, but those journalists were
chief Pieter Broertjes even stated at a recent working for online-only (or: Net-native) news
conference that he thinks in a number of years his services or for broadcast organisations without
paper will only appear in a digital format. He sees specific online newsdesks.
the lack of fundamental Internet training at the
existing education institutes and the low number In the Austrian newspaper industry, newspapers
of young journalists in his newsroom as the main engaged in the web editions are in great haste and
problems for these aspirations. On the other in fear of not 'losing out'. As Stefan Schwarz from
22The Netherlands - platforms for journalists online
Although very few formal School for Journalism in Tilburg "Journalism Education: New
platforms for discussion and and counts 70 members at the time Ideas?" (June 1999) and the start of
exchange exist in the Dutch of writing. Listmembers regularly a related monthly newsletter (since
journalism (further) training meet at one of Holland's four March 2000).
environment, the advantages of journalism schools to discuss their
new media technologies such as the education plans regarding Other existing fora in Holland
Internet have resulted in a number journalism and the Internet. The include Deining (started 6 March
of more or less successful initiatives list serves as a platform to exchange 1999, 179 members) intended for
online. Six fora where journalists curricula, ideas for training 'all media professionals' in The
and media professionals in general programs, and notes of joint Netherlands, Digital Journalism
exchange comments, information, meetings, which texts are posted in (from 25 August 1999, 33
leads and so on can be the 'Files' section on the Website of members) for students and
distinguished in The Netherlands, the list (see educators of the Utrecht School for
all located at the free mailing list http://www.egroups.com/group/i-j- Journalism's digital journalism
service of eGroups ned) programme, Journaille (of 31
(http://www.egroups.com). Of December 1999, 22 members)
these six only one is dedicated to Another education-related intended for freelance journalists
the exchange of views and journalism forum is English- only and finally JourNL, which
information on journalism language NewsViews (from 19 was established 28 July 2000 at a
education and training October 1998, 181 members) national conference on journalism
programmes between journalists which has an international focus. culture in The Netherlands
and educators: I-J-Ned. This Examples of discussion are threads (http://www.egroups.com/group/Jo
Dutch-language list was started on like "The Web: Democracy in urNL).
20 November 1999 by Wiel Action or the Death of
Schmetz, head R&D of the Fontys Journalism?" (September 1999),
23Die Presse says: "My staff is only writing for the paper. We have
special staff doing Kurier Online. Most of these
"Our web edition is work in progress. First it was are young journalists that went from the paper to
simply a matter of getting out on the Net. Simple the Online. They repackage work written for the
cut and paste from the newspaper. Now we have paper. They are mostly getting the content from
a small online journalist staff that takes articles paper, but they also provide a lot of services on
from the paper and develop them further, our Net edition."
package them and make them fit into the
'architecture'. The current situation is not All Danish dailies are present on the Web, some
satisfying. We need a special, autonomous staff with more elaborate versions than others.
working only for the Net. But we must watch our Politiken's web edition is accessible free of charge
own; media developments go in different while the JyllandsPosten's service has a fee and/or
directions and this must not lead to us not being subscription requirement. The editors at both
good in either field." papers agree that the future added value of
newspapers on the web are twofold: to compete
In terms of preparing staff to deal with rolling with other media about being 'first with the
deadlines and a need for more output, but latest', but, and perhaps more importantly, to
Schwarz and Kabel from Kurier stress that web provide comprehensible and professional
editions are still in their initial stage. Young and background information and analyses. Ulrik
technically skilled people carry out most work at Haagreup, JP (Denmark):
the moment. Schwarz:
"We are going to survive on our competence as
"This is not ideal, but we are in the beginning news producers. We need our staff to think of
phase. Other papers are much further in this being employed in a news organisation rather
development. We are still working with the paper than on a newspaper. At the core we produce
as our basis then adding some colour and stuff. news and then we have a smaller staff skilled in
Only now are we developing a whole new re-versioning the material. Our credibility,
product and a strategy." however, is changing as a competitive element.
We must provide quality news but we must also
At Kurier, Editor-in-Chief Peter Rabl says: be there faster and faster. If we have customers
24clicking on to www.jp.dk, we need to give them interesting examples of migration to the Net.
the latest updates. If they find news elsewhere on Quality papers such as the NZZ, with a strong
the web that we don't have, then our credibility personal involvement of editors and drive towards
for all of JyllandsPosten, not only the web, but opinion and analysis, move cautiously towards
also the paper edition, is damaged. We are, I electronic editions, and still favour the 1:1 model
think, moving towards more often breaking a of copying print material onto the Internet.
story on the web rather than 'saving' it for the Andreas Doepfner, editor of the Neue Zuricher
paper version, unless we are certain we have a Zeitung:
'scoop', then we might save it for the paper
edition, where, after all, we have more and the "For internet, we only have a small team in place,
most paying customers". but that will grow. We will attract people from
outside the newspaper and also are planning to let
Bo Maltesen, Politiken, emphasises the need for them produce original Net content. Also with
newspapers to provide background and thinking television, we are not in a hurry, because first of
about more modes of production simultaneously: all we aim at quality information. We now have a
good solution in the partnership for a Sunday
"I believe we must maintain a daily rhythm at the evening news show on the second national
paper. We must provide journalism, otherwise we channel."
are reduced to Ritzau [largest Danish news
agency]. I foresee a several needs for speed and Some Swiss local papers however, smaller and
update working next to each other; some will stay more flexible in their approach, demonstrate a
in the old daily rhythm, some will provide the surprising open-mindedness towards multimedia
short news bites for the Net. My vision of our journalism, and not only take the Internet on
Net edition is: short, comprehensible and with board, but also video and explore a role beyond
lots of opportunities to click onwards if you their journalistic mandate. The 'Zofinger
require more information. Our 'art' is delivering Tagblatt' is a good example of multimedia
the background and the longer reports." entrepreneurism, as well as the 'Hasli Zeitung/
Der Brienzer', the core of in the mean time a
Switzerland, with its decentralised political multimedia company. Stefan Regez, director of
structure (and public debate) shows some the further training branch of the group:
25"We combine individual capacities of a small These courses have typically been aimed at
team in a range of products, regional journalism, increasing knowledge about economic and
but also software development, information-based political structures as well as the historical
project work and further training. This way we development / context.
can swiftly adjust to new developments, and that Internally, in the news organisations 'Europe' is
is picked up by our clients: various governments, often addressed in inter-disciplinary and inter-
companies, NGO's." medium working groups. At Politiken, one
national newspaper, a 'rotating correspondent'
Media Content system has been introduced at the Brussels bureau
Economic, political, social, and cultural changes of the paper. On top of the two employed
have all contributed to developments in the need correspondents, the newspaper holds an
of journalists for further education. The need for apartment in Brussels which is used by journalists
training to ensure quality in content seems to be from the Copenhagen home office. During six
located in at least three domains: technical skills, month periods they spend time in Brussels,
basic journalistic skills, and (contextual) getting to know the structure and decision
knowledge. In addressing specific issue areas, all making procedures of the Union and also writing
countries report this to be a rather peripheral line stories on the EU with the perspective of an
of activities. Most of these issues are, ideally, 'outsider' in Brussels. At DR, the public
integrated into processes in the daily news broadcaster, a special Europe Unit has been
production and in the general curriculum created with member from both the radio and
available in journalism schools. television newsroom. The Unit consists of both
Editors, political reporters, and generalist
In Denmark, the DjE, the centre for further journalists.
education of journalists, has offered some courses
on for example European issues. The demand for Sweden shares with Denmark that public opinion
these courses follows the general economic and is highly divided over issues of advanced
political developments of the European Union. European integration. This in effect means that
Course have for example been offered after the there is a higher demand for information about
signing of the Treaty of Amsterdam and prior to 'Europe' than in pro-European countries such as
the first-step introduction of the Euro in 1999. the Netherlands, where only very few Europe-
26related issues can generate public debate. a need for skills of languages, and knowledge
about law, politics, economy in European
In the news organisation the demand has been countries and in Europe as a whole."
met by assigning specific EU reporters covering
all aspects of the Union politics and economics. Returning to the issue of Europe within training
This development dovetails with a general institutions it may be concluded that 'Europe' has
increase on economic and financial aspects of been addressed in several courses but not in a
news which has been a prominent trend in recent general and structural manner. As stated by
years. At SVT, all EU reporters have been offered Annelie Ewers, Head of the FOJO mid-career
courses, had work visits to Brussels and taken training centre:
other relevant course to increase the level of
'expertise'. Bi-annual seminars on various topics "We are not very Europe conscious yet, neither in
on the EU have been organised internally. Similar training nor in practice. 'Europe' is often left to
arrangements are found at TV4 news, although the political reporters, or perhaps even the news
on a more modest scale. Two developments in agencies, or a shared 'stringer'. It is often not an
this area seem particularly relevant. First, news issue for the in-house domestic journalists."
organisations have, due to simple necessity, been
forced to create ways to meet the demand for a Initial training institutions such as MKV, JMG,
more specialised knowledge. 'Europe' has not yet and JMK do not have specific courses devoted to
found its way into journalism education curricula European affairs. The European level of
as a structural component. Second, as pointed out governance and the relevant regulatory rules are
by Leif Hedman at SVT, there is a growing need sought integrated into existing course modules.
for knowledge about the EU. Not only specialist All agree that the role as journalists as a navigator
reporters but also generalists need some basic level in the information 'overload' coming from
of knowledge. The newspapers agree on the need Brussels is essential. That said, all also agree that
for an increased level of knowledge in this field. before addressing issues of covering and how to
Domestic Editor of Svenska Dagbladet, Henrik report Europe, there is a need for a basic level of
Ennart, addressed this need: knowledge which is currently not being
addressing specifically in their programs.
"Sweden is a new member of the Union. There is
27In The Netherlands the Dutch national public and awareness about a need for education.
broadcasting news programme 'NOS Journaal' is Austria, with Sweden, are late entrants in the
now making inroads into a more systematic European Union (both entered in 1995). The
coverage of EU affairs. The plan is to set up a Federal Press Office (BPD) in 1992, when Austria
Europe desk with specialised knowledge and applied for membership, conducted a survey
present additional training options to all its amongst journalists. At that stage, according to
editors. Experimentation with TV-Internet the Head of Section at the BPD, EU was tucked
combinations are also taken into consideration. away under Foreign News in the quality
The (further) training institutes are not too keen newspapers. A strong need for increased
to offer specific programmes related to EU knowledge and information distribution
coverage. Theo van Stegeren, co-ordinator of infrastructure emerged. Today, EU is more often
further training organisation Forum at the than not part of the 'Austrian pages' in the
Utrecht School for Journalism, strongly feels that newspapers. This also counts for the strong
such a course belongs to university-level regional press in Austria.
programmes, not at a professional education
institute. The co-ordinators of Wegener Both newspapers reported having sent staff for
Publisher's in-house training program agree. Hans shorter seminars to for example Brussels.
Renders, lecturer at the Groningen University However, there is recognition of the fact that the
journalism programme: EU is not only the 'Brussels beat' but also
domestic politics. Peter Rabl at Kurier emphasised
"I don't call it as such, but in terms of that they have pulled back their EU
agendasetting the press coverage of EU affairs correspondent from Brussels to Vienna and that
does get substantial attention in my classes. We this person goes to Brussels or any European city
also participate in a project run by the European where important meetings may be held.
Journalism Centre, which allows our students to
spend two days in Brussels every year." Typically further education in specific fields such
as Europe is to a large degree an enterprise of the
Experiences from Austria reinforce the news organisations themselves. Given the absence
observations from Sweden that major European of a standardised initial journalism training, this
events trigger both attention from the audiences need is not met by all new entrants in the
28Sweden - Digital news channel
Swedish public broadcaster technologies and an integrated succeeding in this. You need to
'Sveriges Television' has launched a news/ current affairs / sports desk. explicate the reasons for changes,
fully digital 24 hours news channel and don't focus only on issues such
SVT24 The advances in the as efficiency and money, but also
(http://www.svt.se/nyheter/svt24/in communication market and its the obvious advantages. What we
dex.html). SVT24 is a fully implications for public broadcasters did was, at a very early stage,
integrated newsroom operated by a are at the core of the policies at organising a number of seminars,
small number of staff consisting of SVT24. In the official policies internal meetings, with all groups
both technically skilled younger attention is devoted not only to the in the organisation. This enabled
journalists as well as experienced service function to the Swedish us to address all and answer the
journalists. people of SVT24, but also to the questions of different groups. We
importance of SVT24 being on the have had a good experience with
The official aims of SVT24 are to: cutting edge, providing an example working in smaller groups and
create a modern news service for for the rest of the institution to following the principle of 'rings in
the Swedish population, shift to a digital mode of the water'. This means that we let
create a technical platform for production. some journalists be trained in
digital news production, editing and some editors in
create a model exploring role and In Sweden Leif Hedman, journalism."
work methods. Information manager at the new
News and Sports Department and SVT24 is not all about
SVT24 was created in small, one of the key figures in the technologies. Much effort has also
dynamic units with editors being creation of SVT24, makes some been put into ensuring the
trained in journalism and recommendations for the transition integrity of SVT24 employees in
journalists receiving training in towards an integrated, digitalised terms of living up to journalistic
digital production and editing newsroom: standards despite the increased
modes. SVT24 will function as a pace of production. One official
focus of training and experience "The most important thing is policy of SVT24 states that
centre when the SVT 'mother creating enthusiasm for change. "SVT24 does not publish material
institution' shifts towards digital Information is the basis of without thinking
29profession. However, some persons with a value. Such input may increase the reflection on
background in International Relations and/or daily work routines and also lead to better
Political Science that are trained in journalism coverage in the end.
internally, may possess the required level of
knowledge. The situation in Switzerland is not comparable
with the other four countries. The Swiss so far
The Kuratorium in Salzburg has offered courses have shown no interest in joining the Union. In
on the EU since 1988. Director of the May 2000 however they voted in favour of a set
Kuratorium, Meinrad Rahofer, mentions one of of bilateral agreements with the EU in a number
the great dilemmas for journalists doing a story of policy areas such as culture, education and
with a European dimension: science, and for a facilitation of cross-border
traffic. This will certainly raise the interest in
"It seems to many that there is so much they European affairs. Sylvia Egli von Matt, leader of
need to know about to start on an issue that they the MAZ training centre:
decide that the EU is a topic they need not spend
time on". "The interest from the profession in thematic
issues is in general rather low, and certainly a
After some initial co-operation with institutions foreign entity such as the EU is not a thing
in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, the people want to invest time and money in. But
Kuratorium now offers courses with a range in when it becomes a source of events, news,
depth and scope. Some very basic such as political disputes, that might change."
acquiring knowledge and getting information
about EU affairs to specialised courses on for Journalism quality
example the 'transit traffic issue' which is an In times of change, discussions of quality enter
important Austria/European issue. Meinrad the agenda. That is ideally at least. In the midst of
Rahofer, in a comment on how to improve the far reaching technological changes with
quality of reporting on specific issues, suggested implications for formats, modes of production,
that research on the production processes and and content, a range of issues regarding the
coverage of issue over time tailored for feedback quality of journalistic products is raised. But the
to journalists in the newsroom would be of great notion of quality may not always be at the
30forefront of the discussion, especially not the bulletins during the day and the main evening
considering the economic constraints of media news bulletin. The continuous update news has a
organisations in an increasingly competitive certain degree of standardisation (resembling
market and the constraints on especially publicly CNN and SVT24), but in the evening 'flagship'
funded education institutions. Leif Hedman, at bulletin a more identifiable profile is sought and
SVT24, coins some of the considerations in this own stories are generated:
process:
"The short news outputs are very similar, similar
"When taking decisions and implementing you to each other and similar to the radio and SVT24
find yourself very caught up in details of the news. But in our News Hour we try to do our
technique and organisation. But for us, especially own thing. We get all the stories that the rest has
as a public broadcaster, we have to maintain and too, but we also provide our own."
safeguard quality. Production will not be
quickened by is having to do make more output. The same issue was addressed by Kim Minke,
If a story is not ready at 12.30, well then we will Head of the Danish Journalism School in Aarhus:
carry it at 13.15. The rolling deadline of a 24
hour news channel must not be seen as threat to "Update journalism is intrinsically uninteresting.
quality but as a contribution. Our anchor can It is non-analytic, uninteresting. It is mechanics
announce that a story has broken and that we will more than reporting, analysing, summarising. We
be back with film and more information soon. must educate people to master both, and to know
We have a rapid and continuous update, but we the choice between the two."
must have the highest of standards. In a
competition, where commercial stations have a While an increasing number of news outlets and
lot of money, we have a special task and continuous output is in many ways an asset, the
dedication: to provide the best information and pitfalls of this development are also apparent.
the best service." One interesting case has emerged from the
introduction of Net publications. Recently the
At TV4 the awareness of the implications of more medical file of the former Swedish PM Oluf
output for quality was also addressed. A Palme and his family was released. While Dagens
distinction is made between 'up-date news' filling Nyheter carried a front page story on the medical
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