Journalism: Production and Consumption across the Globe

Our 2016 four-day intensive summer workshop focused on the production and consumption of journalism world-wide. Journalism, now more than ever, is a field and a concept characterized by continuity and change. In recognition of the larger tensions and questions raised by its dynamic nature, this workshop will ask participants to explore the field from perspectives as teachers whose students encounter journalism in school and life, as scholars of journalism, as consumers of journalism, and as producers of journalism.

Geared toward middle school, high school, and community college educators in the humanities and social sciences this workshop featured presentations by scholars, experts, and journalists on the production and consumption of journalism and media throughout the world, explored pedagogy and skill-building techniques to help educators and students become better consumers and producers of journalism, and provided an introduction to relevant classroom resources.

Educators explored the intersection of journalism and global studies from two major vantage points of the ways journalism is produced in US contexts and from US perspectives, and the ways journalism differs and remains the same in diverse global contexts.

The following questions will guided our participants’ exploration:

• How do the stories we tell, the forms and methods we use to tell them, and the contexts in which we tell them influence our worldview and the worldview of others?
• What understandings of the purpose of journalism, if any, are shared worldwide? How do the purposes, methods, knowledge, and forms associated with journalism vary from place to place globally?
• How does journalism empower and disempower people in different contexts, both global and local? As consumers and producers of journalism, how do we understand our potentialities, responsibilities, and vulnerabilities?  
• As teachers, how can we better prepare our students to engage with journalism as the “literature of civic life”?

Additional details and speaker bios are available in the program booklet.

Questions about the workshop?  Email us at globalstudiesoutreach@harvard.edu.
 
Sponsored by the Asia Center, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Center for African Studies, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and Harvard’s Global Health Education & Learning Incubator; developed in collaboration with Project Zero, all of Harvard University.