Reflective practice in journalism is a tool in which a student or journalist thinks about how they can improve or change it a news story. It is not a widely used tool, but is very useful in training, learning and improving journalistic practices as it helps develop critical thinking skills.
Many believe that reflective practice
for journalists is a great tool for learning and improving
journalistic techniques. Gary M. Stiler and Thomas Philleo believe
that online blogging in a reflective manner is an effective tool for
increasing student enthusiasm towards journalism writing (Stiler, G
et al., 2003).
Reflective practice forces the writer
to analyse and make judgments on what has happened, which in turn is
good for critical thinking (Spyridou, P. et al. 2008). It is also a
good way to evaluate previous knowledge and apply it to the real
world in real situations (Spyridou, P. et al. 2008).
Reflective practice is also a good way
for journalists to stop and think. Then gather their thoughts and
ideas and apply it to their situation (Pearson, M. 2000).
In a study conducted by Mark Pearson
(2000, p. 8) in which he helped to prepare and train Samoan
journalists to cover a future important court case, he and the
journalists he had worked with went back and reflected on previous
stories they had written. In doing this they discovered how they
could have improved and a few new stronger ways to write the story.
They also discovered mistakes within the news articles and discussed
how they could have fixed the mistakes. This not only incorporated
self reflection but also verbal reflection with a mentor.
It is important that journalists have
the ability to reflect on what what they know about media law when it
comes to writing in law based situations. This is essentially a way
to detect and prevent problems with the article they are writing and
should a problem occur they can discover ways of fixing it (Pearson,
M. 2000).
Although reflective journalism can be
an extremely handy tool, it is not always practical when it comes to
the work force. Journalists are generally always in the restraints of
making deadlines which means they do not always have time to take
time time out and reflect on what they have done (Pearson, M. 2000).
Professional journalists were not the
only ones which believed that a reflective process is time consuming,
students that were involved in the study with Chike Anyaegbunam
(2003, p. 5) believed that while it was a usual tool in learning, it
was too time consuming to be applied practically in real life.
While reflective practice in journalism
is an extremely handy tool to use both in training and the work force
with its problem prevention and improvement in future news
situations, it is not always a practical tool to use when in the
constrictions of fast advancing news deadlines as it is a time
consuming tool to use. Perhaps journalists and their editors should
make the time to use this tool for stronger impacting stories.
References
Stiler, GM & Philleo, T 2003,
'Blogging and Blogspots: An Alternative Format for Encouraging
Reflective Practice among Preservice Teachers', Education, vol.
123, pp. 1-3.
Anyaegbunam,
C 2003, 'Students as citizens: Experiential approaches to reflective
thinking on community journalism', Journalism & Mass
Communication Educator, vol. 58,
pp. 1-7.
Pearson,
M 2000, 'Reflective practice in action: preparing Samoan journalists
to cover court cases', Humanities & Social Science
papers, pp. 1-9.
Spyridou,
PL & Veglis, A 2007, 'The contribution of online news consumption
to critical-reflective journalism professionals: Likelihood patterns
among Greek journalism students', Journalism,
vol. 9, pp. 52-75.
