Making one or two more calls: teaching journalism students the value of news

With journalism in a perpetual state of flux, journalism educators are understandably concerned with teaching students about new and emerging technologies, platforms, investigative tools and storytelling techniques. However, while accepting the importance of updating and renewing the curriculum in this way, we ought not lose focus on fundamentals such as the social value of news and of ethical journalism conducted for the public good. This article argues that news is vital for a society’s citizens and that we should not feel embarrassed about emphasising this fact to our students. It will also argue that journalists, journalism educators and indeed journalism students have not always been sufficiently questioning about how news is selected, sourced and produced, nor about the concept of “news values”. To explore these issues, the article draws on research conducted for the monograph What’s the Point of News? A study in Ethical Journalism (Harcup, 2020) and considers how different stories and voices can be included in the news, including more perspectives from below. The article emphasises the importance of allowing journalism students to question industry norms as well as encouraging them to challenge us as journalism educators.