Innovating how innovation is covered
Typewriter by Mohylek
Tradition and innovation—not usually thought of as the best of friends. According to some, for innovation to be properly covered within the media, a new and itself innovative style of reporting is required.
So how do you take a journalist, used to working within a traditional “beat” structure, and expect him or her to adequately cover an all-encompassing subject as innovation? Journalists are stuck in areas of expertise like technology, science, crime or politics. But when it comes time to cover innovation, traditional journalists are limited and only able to look at certain aspects because of those categorizations.
Innovation often spans those beats. New technology can have economic, technological and political implications, to name just a few. But, trapped within a beat, the big picture is often lost—innovation becomes merely a sub-topic. Reporting on innovation suffers, along with the innovation process itself.
Innovation Journalism, or InJo, aims to solve the problem. Within InJo, the process of innovation itself becomes the central concept. Journalists gain freedom, enabled to treat areas like business, technology or politics as components of the fuller picture. InJo spans the old beats, and in so doing brings the whole story into focus.
Currently, without this style of innovation reporting, those within the innovation system are forced to make decisions with incomplete information. That limitation results in a loss of efficiency due to duplicated work, pursuit of goals that have already failed, and other surprises that would have been made evident had innovations been given proper coverage.
But when mainstream media adopt innovation journalism, the benefits are felt throughout the innovation community. It’s not just about having a particular story covered. It’s about adding to the overall innovation knowledge base, increasing competitiveness and potentially aiding in commercialization by properly bringing news of innovation to the consumer.
Further reading/viewing:
- InnovationJournalism.org blog
- Video: The Future of Innovation Journalism - A roundtable discussion about the future of journalism
- Shifting Gears: New Directions in Science Writing from the Northern California Science Writers Association
- MaRS event: Translating science for the media
James Koole is interning with MaRS while he finishes post graduate journalism studies at Humber College. When not onsite at MaRS, or on campus at Humber, he gathers endless amounts of information from wherever he can find it... much to the chagrin of his wife and two kids.