Forced change: Pandemic pedagogy and journalism education

Abstract

“Forced Change: Pandemic Pedagogy and Journalism Education” is a special multimedia issue of Facts and Frictions that examines how journalism educators in Canada have reimagined course content and delivery since the COVID-19 pandemic prompted stay-at-home orders across North America in March 2020, and since journalism’s lack of diversity was widely spotlighted after George Floyd’s murder in May 2020. In this introductory essay we review journalism studies and journalism education literature published since 2020 and reflect on our own efforts as special issue editors to facilitate the participation of precarious, part-time or emerging educators in this collection and in broader peer-reviewed and institutional discussions of journalism education. These efforts are contextualized by a survey of cultural studies, feminist, and critical race literature that addresses uneven challenges continuously faced by potentially marginalized educators and academics that were crystallized through the pandemic. We put this research in conversation with the insights, experiences and critical questions shared by contributors to this issue, and argue for strengthened networks of support, recognition and resource sharing across post-secondary journalism programs in Canada.

Keywords

• covid-19
• reckoning
• journalism education
• crisis
• academic labour
• professional training