Abstract
This summer, I was privileged to represent Journalism & Mass Communication Educator (JMCE) at the World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC), which was held in Paris, France, July 8 to 12. For those of you unfamiliar with WJEC, it convenes every 3 years (2019 was the fifth Congress) and focuses exclusively on journalism education. This year, 600 journalism educators from 70 countries came together to share best teaching practices, present research, and create international professional connections. The 2019 theme, “Teaching Journalism During a Disruptive Age” focused on the unprecedented upheavals in journalism and journalism education that currently define the backdrop against which we teach, including Ethics such as “Fake News,” Conflicts such as coverage of refugee crises and climate change, and Diversity in the classroom and beyond.
In addition to attending the excellent paper sessions and keynote events, I participated in my first-ever syndicate session. In the syndicates, conference attendees meet in small group sessions over 2 days to discuss a specific topic. The goal of the syndicate is to make recommendations related to the topic that will improve journalism education worldwide. My syndicate focused on international collaborations and discussed ways to bring our journalism students together across geographic boundaries and time zones to work on global projects. Other syndicates discussed other journalism education–related issues, including “Ethics Without Borders,” “Teaching Data Journalism and Computational Skills,” and “Entrepreneurial Journalism.” Each team was led by an expert scholar and chair, who supplied the group with a white paper in advance and facilitated online introductions before the group gathered at the conference. A pre-assigned rapporteur summarized the syndicate’s recommendations and presented a topline version at the closing session. I hope to share some of the WJEC syndicate summaries in future issues of JMCE.
The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) is a major sponsoring organization of WJEC and was well represented by our membership. On the final day, AEJMC past-president Jennifer Greer organized a panel on “How to Be Published” featuring the editors of AEJMC association-wide journals. Louisa Ha (Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly), Linda Steiner (Journalism Monographs), and I made up the panel. The session was well attended, mostly by junior and international scholars who were interested in submitting their work to JMCE and the other venues. As we move forward to make JMCE more internationalized, I hope to receive quality manuscripts from some of the non-U.S. scholars in attendance.
The next Congress will convene in 2022 in Beijing, China. I highly recommend you put it on your list of conferences to attend in coming years. It was an excellent experience and valuable learning opportunity for anyone involved in journalism education today and for those preparing to teach journalism in the future. To find out more about this year’s Congress, read syndicate reports and view selected sessions (see https://www.wjec.paris/).