Journalism Students’ Newsgathering Practice: Experimental Testing of Methodologies and Instructional Techniques

The authors address newsworthiness as a critical concept in media studies and newsgathering skills as a core journalistic competency.The latest research in media studies and information behavior suggests that journalism students have difficulty finding newsworthy topics: their search is aimed either at specific topics drawn from their personal experiences or the global media coverage.They tend to overlook minor issues, daily challenges of the 'average level' of importance linked to specific social contexts and regions.The authors designed and successfully tested an educational methodology to enhance journalism students' newsgathering and writing ability as a basis for the development of their information literacy competencies.The methodology consisted of a number of techniques and writing exercises aimed at 'landing' the global agenda on the regional ground and raising awareness of local stories.Two approaches of working with information were tested: "from particular to specific" and "from general to specific".The method of expanding the range of the search "from particular to general" proved effective.The quality of students' search for newsworthy events and their ability to analyze such events from the point of view of their global and regional significance have improved.