Newsroom Management and Economics of Journalism

Course Objectives

Ideally, please list them by means of bullet points:

• To familiarise students with some of the most pressing issues in journalism economics affecting the management of newsrooms and news outlets. These include: the crisis of traditional business models, the raise of new approaches in digital journalism funding and income strategies and the relationships with digital platforms.
• To discuss current issues in journalism, such as information disorder, journalism innovation, automation, surveillance and new professional roles between editorial and management positions.
• To debate strategies of international successful innovative news companies, also with the help of guest lectures from professionals (from last year: Neue Zuercher Zeitung, il Sole 24 Ore and Hearken)

Course Description
Journalism and the mainstream media have become highly commercial activities in Western democracies, many of them struggling for survival and even public TV and radio can hardly escape from the developments on the market place. The past ten years, in particular, have been characterized by a huge economical crisis that has impacted harshly on media companies and newsrooms. Despite this complex and challenging scenario, this period was also a time of innovation and many companies and news outlets experimented new editorial and financial strategies. In parallel, new challenges arose in the relationship between journalism and technology, in particular when it comes to the role of big digital platforms, disinformation and power distribution on the Internet. The course participants will explore strategies to secure and improve journalistic quality and some of the most innovative approaches to the economics of journalism and its future.

Learning Methods
Non-compulsory. When present, it summarizes the course’s distinctive pedagogy.

Attendance
Requested

Examination Information

• Group presentation (30% of final grade)
• Written exam (70% of final grade)

Required Material

Mandatory readings (to be confirmed on iCorsi):

• Anderson, C.W., Bell, E. and Shirky, C. (2014). “Post-Industrial Journalism: Adapting to the Present”. Tow Center for Digital Journalism, pp. 1-18; 4-13; 19-44; 103-122. https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D8N01JS7.
• Brock, G. (2013). “The Business Model Crumbles”. In: Out of Print. Newspapers, Journalism and the Business of News in the Digital Age. London: Kogan Press, pp. 106-125.
• Wardle, C. and Derakhshan, H. (2017). “Information Disorder: Toward an interdisciplinary framework for research and policy making”. Council of Europe, pp. 23-48. https://rm.coe.int/information-disorder-report-november-2017/1680764666.
• Bell, E. (2017). “Silicon Valley and Journalism”. In: Journalism After Snowden. The Future of the Free Press in the Surveillance State. New York: Columbia Journalism Review Books, pp. 231-240.
• Küng, L. (2015). “So why are some digital news organizations more successful?”. In: Innovators in Digital News. London: I.B. Tauris, pp. 91-107.
• Rusbridger, A. (2017). “Journalism After Snowden”. In: Bell, E. and Owen, T. (eds.). Journalism After Snowden: The Future of the Free Press in the Surveillance State. New York: Columbia Journalism Review Books, pp. 21-29.

General principles

• Please, keep your syllabus within 4,500 characters (with spaces).
• For more guidance on the Faculty’s rules in the domain of examinations and evaluations, please refer to Professors vademecum, available at this link.
• Please, invite your students to use the course’s iCorsi platform to receive all teaching materials and for any pedagogical interactions (e.g., by means of forums).