This document provides an introduction to a course on journalism in the digital age. It discusses how journalism has changed with new technologies and platforms, with both challenges and opportunities. The course will examine topics like citizen and social media, news curation, the spread of misinformation, and how journalists and news organizations are adapting. It will involve lectures, readings, and an final exam to assess students' understanding of the material presented throughout the semester.

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Introduction:
What’s So Different about
Journalism Today?
Prof. Axel Bruns
Guest Professor, IKMZ, University of Zürich
a.bruns@qut.edu.au — a.bruns@ikmz.uzh.ch

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Journalism
Then https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/achenblog/post/woodward-and-
bernstein-respond-to-himmelman/2012/04/30/gIQAt9irrT_blog.html

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Journalism
Today @austindistel on

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Journalism
Today @neonbrand on

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Journalism Today
(https://www.theverge.com/2013/1/23/3890674/tweeting-the-news-andy-carvin-test-pilots-twitter-journalism)

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All of the Crises
• (Just some of the) problems for journalism:
• Decline in advertising revenue
• Precarity of employment
• Shift in audience preferences and behaviours
• New platforms, new channels, new formats, new competitors
• Sustained attacks by extremists (‘fake news’, ‘Lügenpresse’, …)
• Continuous, rapid, unpredictable change
 Much of this somehow related to ‘the Internet’, but not just a shift in technology

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Journalism
Today?
@marcusp on Unsplas

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“winter really is coming for many of
the world’s news publishers”
(Thompson 2016: 108)

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“this emerging cultural chaos …
will be exciting, and rich with
possibility” (McNair 2009: 349)

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Master title style
And What about Us?

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(Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism: Digital News Report 2017)

13. (https://twitter.com/laurenthehough/status/1567925670566662145)

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(https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-18/facebook-news-ban-what-just-happened-post-zuckerberg/13166710;
https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2021/02/how-australias-facebook-news-ban-will-impact-you/;
https://twitter.com/MonteBovill/status/1362155485881790465;
https://twitter.com/jason_om/status/1362168118383026178)
18 February 2021

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What News? From Whom?
• Navigating the social media news environment:
• Active access or serendipitous discovery?
• Major news providers or random sources?
• Personal recommendations or algorithmic newsfeeds?
• ‘Real’ news or ‘fake’ news?
• Diverse viewpoints or ideological bias?
• Broad news diet or narrow specialisation?
 If we don’t have a shared informational basis, how can we participate in society?

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INTERMISSION

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This Course

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Axel Bruns. Gatewatching and News
Curation: Journalism, Social Media,
and the Public Sphere. New York:
Peter Lang, 2018.
+ additional readings in weeks 5, 9,
11, 12
Structure

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1. 23.9.: Introduction: What’s So Different about
Journalism Today?
2. 30.9.: From Gatekeeping to Gatewatching: The
First Wave of Citizen Media 📺
3. 7.10.: #BREAKING: Social News Curation
during Acute Events
4. 14.10.: Random Acts of Gatewatching:
Everyday Newssharing Practices 📺
5. 21.10.: Weaponising Newssharing: ‘Fake
News’ and Other Malinformation 📚 📺
6. 28.10.: Meet the Audience: How Journalists
Adapt to Social Media 📺
7. 4.11.: Management and Metrics: The News
Industry and Social Media 📺
8. 11.11.: Hybrid News Coverage: Liveblogs
9. 18.11.: ‘Real’ News and ‘Fake’ News: Fact-
Checking and Media Literacy 📚
10. 25.11.: New(s) Publics in the Public Sphere
11. 2.12.: Echo Chambers? Filter Bubbles?
Reviewing the Evidence 📚
12. 9.12.: Platform Power: How Social Media
Platforms Reshape the News Industry 📚
13. 16.12.: Conclusion: A Social News Media
Network
Structure

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Assessment
• Exam:
• 23 Dec. 2022
• 60 minutes
• Online exam
• Questions based on the lectures, presentation slides, and literature

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About Me

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Major Projects
• Past and present:
• New Media and Public Communication: Mapping Australian User-Created Content in Online
Social Networks (2010)
• Social Media in Times of Crisis: Learning from Recent Natural Disasters to Improve Future
Strategies (2012)
• Understanding Intermedia Information Flows in the Australian Online Public Sphere (2014)
• Journalism beyond the Crisis: Emerging Forms, Practices and Uses (2016)
• Evaluating the Challenge of ‘Fake News’ and Other Malinformation (2020)
• Drivers and Dynamics of Partisanship and Polarisation in Online Public Debate (2022)
• ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (2020)

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Next Time

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Readings
1. 23.9.: Introduction: What’s So Different about Journalism Today?
Bruns, A. (2018). Introduction. Gatewatching and News Curation: Journalism, Social Media, and
the Public Sphere. Ch. 1. Peter Lang.
2. 30.9.: From Gatekeeping to Gatewatching: The First Wave of Citizen Media
Bruns, A. (2018). From Gatekeeping to Gatewatching: The First Wave of Citizen Media.
Gatewatching and News Curation: Journalism, Social Media, and the Public Sphere. Ch. 2. Peter
Lang.

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Lecture
• NOTE:
• Week 2 lecture will be pre-recorded and made available through the OLAT site.

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Any last questions?