Reflective Practice Blog: Literature Review

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.