With the rise of innovation and entrepreneurship as avenues for journalists to take in their search for journalistic work, we need to critically interrogate how these terms are understood. Various journalism institutions are pushing a particular understanding of journalism, and of what constitutes meaningful and innovative journalism. In this paper, we review the literature on these themes and draw on experimental research done by one of the authors to argue for a more process-oriented approach to journalistic innovation and entrepreneurship. As a researcher-maker, one of the authors created an innovative journalistic project and tried to develop a business model for this project. She participated in an accelerator process organised by one of the main funds aimed at journalism innovation in the Netherlands. We show that one existing, and prevalent, understanding of innovation in journalism is one that is linear, rational and outcome-oriented. We challenge this understanding and draw on process-oriented theories of innovation to introduce the concepts of effectuation, improvisation and becoming as new lenses to reconsider these phenomena. These concepts provide clearer insight into the passionate and improvisational nature of doing innovative journalistic work.
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Although basic features of journalism have remained the same over the last decades, the tasks journalists perform, the skills they need and the position they have within news organizations have changed dramatically. Usually the focus in the discourse on changes in journalism is on skills, especially on technical multi-media skills or research skills. In this paper we focus on changes in professional roles of journalists, arguing that these roles have changed fundamentally, leading to a new generation of journalists. We distinguish between different trends in journalism. Journalism has become more technical, ranging from editing video to programming. At the same time, many journalists are now more ‘harvesters’ and ‘managers’ of information and news instead of producers of news. Thirdly, journalists are expected to gather information from citizens and social media, and edit and moderate user-contributions as well. Lastly, many journalists are no longer employed by media but work as freelancers or independent entrepreneurs. We track these trends and provide a detailed description of developments with examples from job descriptions in the Netherlands.
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There has been limited adoption of Immersive Journalism (IJ) by the audience; simultaneously, the audience’s perspective is rarely considered in the production and research of IJ. At this point, however, it is crucial to incorporate an audience perspective to identify potentially unintended effects of IJ and improve on the innovation of IJ. This study investigates the audience’s experience and evaluation of IJ by qualitatively analyzing their thoughts after viewing two IJ cases. Our results indicate that the audience may pick up on intended effects, such as a sense of presence and an intense emotional experience, but some also express unease towards these effects. Furthermore, the audience struggles to comprehend this study’s two immersive journalistic cases as part of the journalistic genre. These findings provide insight into the gap between the initial hype and the current reality of IJ and provide the basis for propositions for future IJ productions.
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The project proposal focusses on the emerging phenomenon of Virtual Humans (VH) as a Key Enabling Technology (KET) for societal prosperity. The pending VH Research and Development (R&D) agenda (2024-2028) in the Midden-Brabant region addresses the actual and potential benefits of VH for society, as well as the associated risks and problems. This VH R&D agenda recently acquired external funding from the Dutch national government (the so-called Regiodeal Midden Brabant). The R&D work on VH for Broad Prosperity will be done by knowledge partners Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas), Fontys, Tilburg University (TiU) in collaboration with societal partners in areas s.a. journalism, politics, health care and coordinated by MindLabs.With its expertise in game technology, immersive media and applied AI, BUas is one of the leading partners in the regional VH R&D agenda. However, the BUas VH R&D agenda and the MindLabs regional VH R&D agenda are not yet linked to the EU research and innovation agenda. BUas and partners recognize that they are not well connected yet to (potential) VH R&D partners and network organisations in the EU.
A multidisciplinary team of researchers, teachers and students will create and test new concepts around Virtual Humans to reach and engage the young audience with news. They will do this in collaboration with, and on media brands and content from, DPG Media (the largest media company in the Netherlands and Belgium and active in Denmark, owner of more than 80 brands with over 2000 journalists). Dutch students do this based on their knowledge around Media Innovations and Virtual Humans and the students from the USA based on their knowledge around Journalism, Immersive Media and AI. Societal IssueHow to reach and engage youth with news.
