We are not educators, and we long for the past
Two comments from the audience of science journalists (at the Future of Science Journalism Symposium, at MIT Tuesday and Wednesday) surprised me a bit. Let’s see what you think.
First, after Henry Jenkins (author of the first-rate book Convergence Culture) 
No one was less than civil, but the journalists appeared united in their resistance toward the idea that what they do serves an educational function, and that perhaps they should consider how to do that better. “We explain science,” one of them told Jenkins. (Is that not educational? It doesn’t make you “an educator.”)
I kept my mouth shut, but I was thinking that the role of journalism is to help people understand the world. Okay, explaining science seems to fit comfortably with that. But what do people do with that understanding? In other words, what use is that understanding? We always says it make the citizens of a democracy fit to govern themselves — because they are not ignorant if they understand the world. I thought this as well: By understanding the world, you can understand how to live in the world. Education has basically the same end, doesn’t it?
Second, after an informational talk about E Ink by David Jackson, director of marketing at the company that holds the patent, one journalist stood up and asked when we will see the E Ink screens or display devices replicate the size and shape of a broadsheet newspaper.
I was stunned. I know my jaw fell open.
I had been sitting there thinking that what I want to see in the displays (now only black and white) is color. The journalist was thinking about imitating a dead format that most people find awkward and inconvenient.
I’m sure some people in Europe in the late 1500s longed for hand-copied manuscript books. I would suspect that most of those pining for the old format were the monks in monasteries who used to do the copying and illumination — not the newly literate public that could now afford to buy and own books printed on presses with movable type.
A few weeks ago I talked with a print designer who was blasting news websites. I asked what would make news websites good for them, and they replied that news sites should look like the newspaper! huh? How does this make sense? Sure a good portion of paper readers also visit the site, but the bulk of the audiences is different and they expect different things. What really interests me is how many people want to depend on the past, especially when the ‘proven’ model is sinking.
February 21, 2008 at 8:36 amYou know what’s missing from the eReader world? A broadsheet-sized device. It’s perfect for that crammed train commute!
Wow.
As for the resistance to the educational function of journalism — I don’t understand where this comes from at all. If people can be informed *and* learn from a single article, isn’t that a good thing? It doesn’t sound like anyone suggested that education supplant journalism (right?), so where’s the harm in adding a learning component to the content mix? I must be missing something here.
February 21, 2008 at 1:45 pm[...] is another excellent example of how you cannot teach culture in a post from Mindy McAdams about the Future of Science Journalism Symposium: Second, after an informational talk about E Ink [...]
February 21, 2008 at 2:21 pmMindy, I know this wasn’t the main point of your post, but I couldn’t get past the E Ink comment. That’s why I made a whole post about the comment: http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/?p=183
I’m also confused by the whole we’re not educators angle. I learn all the time from reading news articles. Many journalism articles educate me.
I thought that was the point.
February 21, 2008 at 2:29 pmIndeed, the resistance to being labeled “educationals” seems baffling. There’s a category of Pulitzer Prizes devoted to “Explanatory Journalism.” One of the best things that the most talented reporters do is take terrifically complex topics and process them in a way that someone without a Ph.D can understand them, whether it’s science or economics. In fact, as more reporting becomes a commodity, this is a skill that argues for the need for reporters who bring authority to their job.
As for the, E-Ink thing, the mental image of someone hauling around an electronic device the size of 2 flat panel PC screens is, well, hilarious.
February 21, 2008 at 4:56 pmHie thee back to Marshall McLuhan’s The Media is a Message. Galloping forward into the past. Hi Ho Silver and away!
February 21, 2008 at 9:24 pmI’m baffled by the reaction to being labeled as “educational.” In an era where so much reporting can be a commodity, one of the greatest skills and services a journalist can provide is to take a very complex subject and break it down and talk about it in a way an average person can understand. There’s a whole category of Pulitzer Prizes dedicated to “Explanatory Journalism” for this very reason.
As for the broadsheet comment: The image of someone walking around with an electronic gadget the size of 2 flat-screen computer monitors is, well, hilarious.
February 22, 2008 at 1:31 am[...] seeing in the blogs and that I see again today over at two of my faves as Pat Thornton expounds on a post by Mindy McAdams. I find myself wishing that my fellow aspiring journos would catch my passion for Web technologies [...]
February 22, 2008 at 11:06 am[...] Mindy McAdams, who was also speaking at the conference, put it: The journalist was thinking about imitating a dead format that most people find awkward and [...]
February 22, 2008 at 11:52 amHi Mindy, I’m looking forward to meeting you non-virtually, but anyway. The education point is good.
Of course good journalism is about education – telling people about the world so that they can navigate a way through all the B***LS###T.
I go even further and suggest the point of educating people is so that they can intervene and actually change the world.
A good scientific example is Global Warming. By educating the public and exposing the hypocrisy of the denial crowd perhaps there will be pressure to change how things are done.
Of course, I take it to an extreme that frightens most conservatives – the point is to change the whole world. That’s one reason why Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine is so refreshing — a radical and thinking journalistic account of American history that compels you towards change.
The alternative is barbarism — and keeping people in the dark about that is a surefire way to ensure it comes about.
Journalism has to be about freedom – of expression and action.
M
February 22, 2008 at 5:22 pm@Chris O’Brien: I had the sense that the journalists who objected to Jenkins’s remarks felt as if he was trying to encourage them to act as educators, hence change their roles. What I heard him saying was: Explain better, and try some new things, and we readers will get more out of your journalism. But because he is an academic, he didn’t say it like that (so I didn’t use quotation marks), and the journalists took him for an ivory tower guy who doesn’t get that journalism has a special place in the world that shall not be assailed by the likes of him — a member of the public.
February 22, 2008 at 5:39 pm[...] We are not educators, and we long for the past. Mindy McAdams is puzzled by a couple of recent comments from journalists and I’m not sure which is worse: the journalists who insist educating the public is not their job or the journalist who wondered when e-paper would be available in broadsheet size. [...]
February 23, 2008 at 1:34 am[...] her what a traditional broadsheet newspaper does, enable her to scan through its content? Clearly, many have missed her point in asking such a question. Surely this woman does not suggest that commuters [...]
February 26, 2008 at 9:30 am[...] my reaction, I’d like to take the equally inemitable Mindy McAdams out of context from one of her life-affirming “Oh crap, journalists are dinosaurs” posts. … one journalist stood up and asked when we will see the E Ink screens or display devices [...]
May 2, 2008 at 2:33 am[...] As others have pointed out, newspapers need to move beyond “imitating a dead format that most people find awkward and inconvenient”. [...]
September 19, 2008 at 1:01 pm