Crossborder Journalism Campus
The Crossborder Journalism Campus or CJC is a pioneering journalism education model, where we allow students from three journalism schools to collaborate across borders. We thus simulate a real life crossborder investigative process from idea to publication, accompanied by experienced practitioners and journalism lecturers in the field. The goal is to prepare an investigative journalism production ready for publication at the end of the programme.
Crossborder collaborative journalism is a new way for journalists from multiple countries to join forces. This way of working is now well beyond the experimental stage: The wider public knows about major publications such as the Panama Papers on tax avoidance, and media outlets begin to demand journalists with the necessary competences. Now the Department of Journalism, Media and Communication (JMG), along with five European partners, develops a networked education model to provide students with these competences.
Who are the partners?
The Crossborder Journalism Campus is a partnership of five universities and one journalism organisation. The CJC has three groups of partners:
Journalism educations bringing in students:
University (with journalism educations) bringing in academic expertise: OsloMet, professor Maria Konow-Lund
An organisation ensuring the connection to the professional community and contributing to the education
What does it mean for a student enrolled at MIJ?
The Crossborder Journalism Campus is integrated into the MIJ programme and allows you to practice the MIJ specialisation in a close-to-reality set-up when you develop your collaborative investigative journalism production with students from Leipzig and Paris/Lyon. It is integrated into the Master Investigative Journalism 2023-24.
In the autumn of 2023, 19-24 November, 70+ students from the three journalism schools will gather in Brussels to visit the European institutions and – first and foremost – to meet each other and to shape work groups with students from all three countries.
During the week in Brussels students lay the foundation and prepare the work plan for the investigation that they will pursue over the coming months. As a participant, you will get excellent insights into working with European affairs – how the EU institutions and policy making works, but also the effect of EU laws in the member states. There will be opportunities for classic investigative stories such as following money or document trails, open and hidden political influences and the like.
Crossborder collaborative journalism being a rather new way of working, as a student participating in this pioneering journalism education you get a unique chance to exercise crossborder collaborative journalism and to establish your first contacts to journalism colleagues in other countries.
Who pays?
The Crossborder Journalism Campus is a supplement to enrich the Master Investigative Journalism and the courses at the partner universities. It is supported by the EU’s Erasmus+ Programme. A large part of the funding covers the travel and accomodation for the students from three partner universities to meet. Further, the funding allows the lecturers and partner academics to meet, plan, evaluate and develop the programme. Further, the funding covers knowledge sharing in the journalism and media sector.
For the students this means, that most costs for their trip to Brussels are covered, the Erasmus+ programme pays for travel, hotel and breakfast. Students have to consider costs to cover their other meals while travelling.
The educational and editorial decision making is not influenced by the funding, it lies in the responsibility of the project partners entirely.
The overall purpose of the Crossborder Journalism Campus
The Master Investigative Journalism at Gothenburg University was among the first journalism educations to integrate not only investigative and data journalism but also the – more recently developed – competences of crossborder collaboration. But how do you teach remote collaboration to students sitting in one and the same classroom?
This led to setting up the Crossborder Journalism Campus starting in 2022. The Erasmus+ supported programme allows us to develop a genuinely networked education programme with two pilot classes, one in 2022-23 and a second one in 2023-24.
During and after the pilot classes we evaluate, including carefully feedback from the students. Teaching material, teaching results, lecturers’ competence sharing and other aspects will be documented and shared online. The purpose is, of course, to inspire other journalism educations to learn and further develop the concept of networked, practice oriented journalism educations.
For any questions, please contact Crossborder Journalism Campus lead Brigitte Alfter.
The Crossborder Journalism Campus is a three year Erasmus+ project involving two pilot classes, the first in the academic year 2022/23, the second in the academic year 2023/24.
