Computer-Assisted Reporting in Classrooms: A Decade of Diffusion and a Comparison to Newsrooms

Abstract

A decade ago, DeFleur and Davenport compared computerassisted reporting in newsrooms and classrooms and concluded that journalism faculties seemed content to follow in the footsteps of a more innovating industrythe newspaper industry.The pattern by which an innovation (such as a new technology, idea or practice) spreads through a social system has been welldocumented and follows a classic Sshaped curve of adoption over time. Five distinct categories of adopters and also the "approximate percentage" of individuals included in each category have been described, based on the degree of their "innovativeness" (innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards). These classifications can be used to understand the process by which computer-assisted journalism has become part of newsroom practice and classroom instruction.* In the early 199os, newsrooms were in the "late majority" stage of implementing some computer-assisted reporting techniques such as online database searching and in the "early majority" stage of implementing the analysis of government records. Meanwhile, classrooms were in the "innovator" stage of working with public records and in the "early adopter" phase of using online sources. The academic adoption curve represented a clear case of innovation lag in comparison to newsroom usage.3 Some of the problems impeding the adoption of computer-assisted reporting in the classroom were lack of finances, equipment, instructors and interest. Indeed, 70% of journalism program directors across the country

Waiting for Data Journalism

“…Along that line, the role of journalism education has been underlined as significant: the fact that a number of institutions active in journalism education have started to offer programs in data journalism is pointed by several authors as a significant sign that data journalism is gaining momentum (Anderson 2012, Lewis and User 2013, Trédan 2014)-and has been documented in the past to show how comparable trends, such as computerassisted reporting, have been adopted both in newsrooms and in classrooms (Davenport, Fico, and DeFleur 2002).…”

Educational strategies in data journalism: A comparative study of six European countries

“…Among journalists, there is a need to train their statistics and calculation skills as well as their ability to play a leading role in teamwork with programmers and designers. However, except for a few contributions (see Davenport et al, 2002;Yarnall et al, 2008), even the most complete review of data journalism literature lacks a systematic analysis of educational strategies in the field.…”

S(t)imulating Journalism in the Classroom: A Structured Comparison of the Design of Pedagogical Newsrooms in Nordic Academic Journalism Training

“…In higher education professional training, there is less literature on the PNs as such, as their design and functions are intermingled with teaching models, pedagogical goals, didactics of teaching, and the outcomes of classroom learning. Studies have typically focused on the design and implementation of learning environments by using new technologies (Boud & Prosser, 2002; Davenport, Fico, & DeFleur, 2002; Osguthorpe & Graham, 2003; Wall, 2015), on organizing work to achieve certain pedagogical goals (Clark, 2015; Collins, 2017; Eberholst, Hartley, & Olsen, 2015; Harrison, Hirst, & de Wall, 2004; Parks, 2015), or on rethinking the model of journalism education within the frame of innovation and curriculum renewal (Tulloch & Mas Manchón, 2017).…”