Newsrooms rely on scholars for research on industry trends but they are often reluctant to work with academia. In the end, everybody misses out. But it does not have to be that way
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One recent story which sparked a reaction from our community was a piece on the frictions between the worlds of journalism and academia. The bottom line is that while scholars have the power to prompt journalists to face uncomfortable professional truths, change is not always welcome in the news industry.
But these industries often rely on each other: journalists need academics to help them look for solutions to so many problems in the media industry, like sustainability, diversity, or trust. But then the academics need newsrooms to open up about their work and give them access to data if they are to produce meaningful research. That does not always pan out though, as we discussed this week at our digital journalism conference Newsrewired.
In this week's podcast, we bring you the main talking points from a panel of experts with a foot in both worlds. We hear from Valérie Bélair-Gagnon, who co-authored the book Journalism Research that Matters, which, amongst the findings, talks about blind spots in the way that researchers and journalists do their work, especially around race, diversity, and inequality. Chris Waiting, the CEO of The Conversation shares his perspective, overseeing a news website featuring stories from the academic community. Nic Newman brings his two decades of experience with the BBC and 15 years in academia mostly with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. He is known widely as the lead author of its annual Digital News Report.
Tune in to find out how to foster a better relationship between the two like-minded sectors with frequently competing interests.
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