Worldwide, journalists set the international agenda with networked research and coordinated publications on topics that cross borders such as tax avoidance, the environment, labour or trade. At the Master’s Programme in Investigative Journalism (MIJ) at JMG, University of Gothenburg, students are prepared for such an international professional reality. Yet, currently, crossborder collaborative journalism is only taught at few journalism schools. And while professional journalists collaborate with colleagues in other countries, the students typically sit in the same classroom when they learn about collaboration.
The funding from Erasmus+
This can change now. JMG and five partners across Europe have received a SEK 3.4 million / $340,000 bid for Erasmus+ support with the purpose to develop a model for a networked crossborder collaborative journalism education in a consortium model.
”Together we want to develop a pilot collaboration model to teach crossborder journalism. To our best knowledge there is no other European partnership offering a model like this”, says Brigitte Alfter, the project coordinator and lecturer at JMG, as well as director for Arena for Journalism in Europe.
For many years, JMG has profiled its education towards investigative journalism.
“Now we have the opportunity to further develop the methods and equip tomorrow's journalists even better in an international collaboration. Crossborder collaborative journalism is a competence that journalism educations need to provide their students with”, states Ulla Sätereie, coordinator of the master’s programme at JMG.
“The major challenges we face in society today all transcend national borders – be that the climate, the pandemic or the inequality and an informed public is essential in democracies”.
Distinguished scholars and experienced practitioners
The collaborative education project has been dubbed the Crossborder Journalism Campus. Five universities/journalism schools and one professional organisation join forces. Students will have a chance of collaborating across borders under the guidance of their lecturers from the MIJ Programme in Gothenburg, the Centre de Formation des Journalistes in Paris and the Master Journalism at the University of Leipzig.
Over three years, the project partners will prepare, run and evaluate two pilot collaborations for the students, each lasting one academic year. The students will get together in Amsterdam and Brussels in the beginning of their academic year to meet in person and agree on story ideas; they will then return to their respective universities and remotely collaborate with their peers in the partner universities. At the end of the academic year, they will prepare publications for their respective audiences.
Distinguished scholars in the field will accompany the project, Maria Konow-Lund from OsloMet is specialising in crossborder collaborative journalism, and Mark Deuze from the University of Amsterdam has in recent years looked into both innovation in journalism and journalism education. The journalism practice will be accompanied by Arena for Journalism in Europe, the non-profit organization providing the annual European Dataharvest – Investigative Journalism Conference and specialising in journalism network infrastructures.
Facts
Erasmus+ is the EU's programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe.
Brigitte Alfter, lecturer, Master Investigative Journalism at the University of Gothenburg and project coordinator Crossborder Journalism Campus.
E-post: brigitte.alfter@jmg.gu.se, phone: +45 40 82 21 68.
Ulla Sätereie, programme coordinator Master Investigative Journalism at the University of Gothenburg and co-coordinator Crossborder Journalism Campus.
E-post: ulla.satereie@jmg.gu.se, phone: +46 707 95 20 66
