Call for papers – Transitions and Transformations in Journalism

Call for papers for the Association for Journalism Education (AJE) 2024
Summer Conference: Transitions and Transformations in Journalism
June 27-28, 2024
Hosted by the Journalism Department at Liverpool John Moores University, Mount Pleasant Campus,

Change and evolution – two words which have always been at the heart of journalistic practice.
Whether responding to or embracing new technologies, developing their skills amid social turmoil or getting to grips with storytelling in new cultural and ethical landscapes, journalists of any era have always been required to adapt to the changing world around them.

While change in journalism can be daunting for many, it can also be an exciting time full of opportunity and promise – particularly for those entering the profession. Students making their first steps into their journalistic careers, however, do not just have to wait for change to happen around them. They can play a crucial role in how journalism transforms itself over the coming years – and even shape what that transformation looks like.

At a time when change is a constant, not least in the world of technology with the growth of AI, our summer conference is an opportunity for educators, scholars and practitioners to share ideas and experiences about how students and early-career journalists can respond to, cope with, embrace and prompt transformations and transitions – and how journalism education can be designed, delivered and assessed to support these challenges and opportunities.

We welcome ideas for 15-minute presentations on a wide range of topics related to the themes of transition and transformation in connection with journalism education. Potential approaches include, but are not limited to:

1. Transitioning into journalism education: Strategies and best practices for helping students
   and learners find their way when embarking on journalism courses or at various stages of their learning journey.
2. Making the transition from the classroom to the real world: Exploring the ways students and learners can be helped and supported in making those first steps from the academic environment into new careers and opportunities.
3. Working with industry to support the transition: How educators and practitioners are working together to scaffold students and learners as they move between their journalism courses and their opportunities to practise or work in real-world environments.
4. Understanding transformation within journalism practice: How critical thinking, media literacy and journalism skills are taught and assessed to help students and learners make sense of change and transformation, either historically or in the world around them today.
5. Envisioning transformation: Strategies and best practices for helping students and learners become innovators and embrace or promote change, either during their learning journey or in their early stages as practitioners.
6. Transformation in journalism education: Exploring ways educators have changed their own methods of working or transformed their own practice in relation to their journalism courses either in response to change around them or to prompt transformation in journalism education.

Submission Guidelines:
Presentation abstracts will be peer-reviewed. Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words and a cover sheet with a brief biographical note, your institutional affiliation (where relevant) and your contact details (including your email address). Abstracts should be sent to:  assjrned@gmail.com
Closing date for abstracts – Friday, April 19.