Is anyone else tired of all this ‘future of journalism’ talk? We are. All these conferences on social media as if it’s the latest invention and debates about how long it will be before the print industry dies out. We think that the aspiring journalists out there are crying out for an event where they can get together and talk about the challenges we all face and what the industry really needs to do to move forward. These days it’s all about making yourself stand out by being creative and doing something off your own back.
So, with that in mind we at Wannabe Hacks together with hyperlocal editor Joseph Stashko are thinking about holding a conference. Except, this one will be different from all the others.
Unlike traditional, stuffy conferences, you, the attendees, get to decide what’s on the agenda. So, if you want to talk about innovating within student media, we can do that. If you care about creating your own hyperlocal site, you just have to say. Fancy debating models for making journalism sustainable in the future? We can even have a go at that. And, rather than being talked at for hours on end, we’ll have small break-out groups to discuss these ideas among ourselves. We hope that it’s going to be unlike anything you’ve been to before.
We assure you this is not some vague, naive idea but before we got too carried away we wanted to ask you lot what you think. So here is a very basic plan, which we’d like some feedback on:
What will it be? A daylong conference on a Saturday in London around November time.
Who should attend? Anybody who classes themselves as an aspiring journalist – students of all kinds (especially those involved in student media at university), those in their first job and people generally who have an interest in journalism and who want to talk about it.
What would it involve? A mixture of guest speakers and break out groups with an emphasis on the latter. We want to take the ‘unconference’ format and add in a strong element practical learning. This would allow us to really tackle some of the key issues facing young journalists and come up with ideas to solve them collectively. The key idea is that you come away with with some new skills or an idea you want to implement – something tangible.
But for now it’s over to you lot…
Aspiring journalists, is this the kind of event you feel is lacking from your calendar? What kind of topics would you like us to tackle? Send us your thoughts on Twitter @wannabehacks and using the hashtag #jconf or comment below, we really want to hear what you have to say.
[...] why we started #jconf. It’s going to be a practical event that emphasises the importance of learning new skills or [...]
[...] journalism By 8conf On August 8, 2011 · Leave a Comment Some of you may remember a discussion we had about hosting a conference - it had the informal spontaneous #tag of #jconf and resulted in some good [...]