Literature Review

Steve Hill, a University lecturer in the UK writes on his blog that reflective practice in journalism is under increased pressure due to the nature in which journalists work to time deadlines and are constantly jumping from one story to the next without sufficient time to reflect on their work. This is mostly true as many journalists once one story is done they will immediately forget about it and move on to the next relevant story. His solution to this is that all journalists should employ an online private blog of sorts to use to record reflective thoughts whether they are from contacts they chose to use and why or contacts they chose to omit and why as he argues few journalists take the time to really consider their roles and the purpose of journalism. (Hill, 2005)

Donald Schön is one such advocator of having reflective practices in journalism. Two months prior to Samoa’s highest profile criminal trial he conducted a seven-day intensive training session with several reporters who would be covering the case in which would prepare the journalists to “reflect in action” so they would be equipped to adapt their journalistic behaviour to the challenges which presented during the trial. The large reason in part they chose to have this reflection was due to the fact that throughout the 1990s in Samoa there had been an increase of defamation actions brought on by political figures against local media outlets. These difficulties highlighted the importance of the training program demonstrating the media’s concern in reporting responsibly on the nation’s most significant criminal case. (Pearson, 2008)

Looking further into this one could argue that Dennis Wilkins opinion could be related to the reason why there have been so many defamation claims amongst the Samoan media in the 90s due to the fact that according to him journalists are guilty of doing rather than thinking. The Samoan media outlets during the 90’s could may well have benefited from this outlook of thinking about the potential newsworthiness versus the impact it could have on individuals, much like we have discussed about whether or not it was ethical to be reporting on suicides seeing as sometimes the news can cause more harm and backlash than its worth.

According to Tony Harcup this is true and should stem further as journalism is not simply fact-gathering. It involves dealing with sources, selecting information and opinion, and telling stories – all within the framework of the constraints, routines, principles and practices. if people look past just the fact gathering into more important areas higher quality journalism will be achieved through this reflective practice. (Harcup, 2004, P12)

Stephen Lamble notes that reflective practice is increasingly more important now days due to the influx in news dissemination through online blogs and social media and with this there has come an increased need to rethink the way journalists view their work as many can easily post on twitter or upload blogs that may not have gone through a heavily edited process that normally they would be more likely to follow in the old days where it was mainly just print media.(Lamble, 2011)

Reflective practice in journalism is an important area that most scholars agree upon to be taken seriously by many journalists especially because of the ever changing media platform undertaken by the social media movement.

References;

Hill, S. (2005) New Journalism Review: Reflective Practice for Journalists http://newjournalismreview.com/2007/05/05/reflective-practice-for-journalists/

Pearson, M. (2008) Reflective practice in action: preparing Samoan journalists to cover court cases http://epublications.bond.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1260&context=hss_pubs

Wilkins, D. (1998) Recommendations for Curricula That Stress Reflective Thinking

Harcup, T. (2009) Journalism: Principles and Practice 2^nd Edition Sage Publications

Lamble, S. (2011) News As it Happens: An Introduction to Journalism, Oxford University Press.