Cross cultural student journalism exchange - Covering the 2016 U.S. conventions and election
Authors: Fowler-Watt, K. and Jukes, S.
Conference: Media Education Summit 2017
Dates: 15-17 June 2017
Abstract:The U.S. election campaign and subsequent victory of Donald Trump has led many journalists on both sides of the Atlantic to question their coverage of a story marked by populist rhetoric, distortion and fake news. But how did the next generation of journalists experience the campaign? This paper examines the progress of two teams of university journalism students, one British, one American, who joined forces to cover the highly charged Republican and Democrat conventions and election night. Through interviews with the students and their tutors, it explores the cross-cultural exchange and the students’ learning experience working for a real-time U.S. newswire and publishing to a multimedia website. Did the students from Britain and America, when brought together and working under pressure on one of the biggest news stories of the year, share the same professional values, normative practices and unwritten rules of journalism? Were they able to learn from each other and will these lived experiences influence their approach to journalism in the future?
Source: Manual