For many years, scholars have accepted the pedagogic, practical, and theoretical universalization of journalism standards. Benchmarks on what journalists, teachers, or researchers should do in their day-to-day activities were set in the West. While a small group of scholars questioned or openly challenged this philosophy, many acquiesced. However, the era of sustained Western discourse dominance seems over if unremitting calls for re-theorization are anything to go by (Glück, 2018;Mitchelstein & Boczkowski, 2021;Mohammed, 2021).The purpose of this Invited Forum is to add to the growing calls for reconceptualization of the field and to recognize the importance of context in defining, directing, and determining journalism's role in society (
From diplomatic spats between Qatar and Saudi Arabia to ubiquitous deceptive “news” updates purportedly sent by the Eritrean government urging all men to marry two wives or risk imprisonment, the future of fact-based reporting appears uncertain as mass media recipients world over become accustomed to consuming “fake news.” Despite the exponential expansion of journalism educators in the Middle East and Africa, several curriculums in these regions have been struggling to cope with the rising dominance of the “fake news” movement. Both regions have a well-documented appetite for conspiracy theories and indeed the power of disinformation and propaganda, which seem to have gathered steam in the wake of deliberate dissemination of hoaxes or sensationalist stories predominantly distributed via social media platforms, potentially posing a threat to the credibility of journalism. This article provides an updated state of affairs on the expansion of “fake news” in the Middle East and Africa arguing after an explorative examination of 10 journalism curriculums that educators need to focus on local contexts when preparing journalism modules. Although it is important to discuss global trends, developments, controversies, debates, and discussions involving the “fake news” movement, we think future journalists from both regions would benefit from media literacy courses that identify the difference between fact and fiction in relation to their own contexts. This is relevant because current pedagogical approaches appear influenced by developments abroad especially in these countries’ past colonial masters.
This chapter evaluates the extent to which Facebook could be used as a training and learning tool for investigative journalism students. This study is based on the deployment of Facebook as a pedagogical tool for an “Investigative Journalism” unit at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. This chapter, accordingly, outlines the challenges, issues, and benefits of using Social Networking Services (SNS) as pedagogical tools for the training of future investigative journalists, which could in turn assist other instructors to make use of such online social platforms for media training. By conducting an observation of student usage of Facebook and interviewing students and tutors on their experiences from this activity, this chapter concludes that Facebook can serve as a useful online collaborative platform for investigative journalism students and as a progress monitoring tool for their instructors.
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