Teaching Journalism in the Era of Doomscrolling

Abstract

This essay is a meditation on the questions that arose during two years of teaching and my pursuit of understanding the changing world of journalism and finding comfort and solidarity in shared experiences. I am very grateful to my students who took time to share their experiences, long after they completed my course. I am left with the quest: How to continuously create a learning environment that is relevant to our changing times? And such an enquiry cannot be conducted in a silo. Journalism educators and the industry needs to welcome diverse voices and influences to discuss journalistic values and practices, expand the idea of objectivity to include empathy and self-reflection, critically investigate news consumption models and focus on making news a meaningful part of our lives. And I am confident the pandemic can act as a catalyst for growth.