Innovation Journalism is a new concept in journalism. It's also a new concept in innovation research. There has not been any systematic work done on the role of journalism in innovation systems. This is needed.
Last week a group of innovation researchers gathered at a workshop that I organized here at Wallenberg Hall@Stanford together with Marc Ventresca (Saeid Business School@Oxford) and Antti Ainamo (SCANCOR@Stanford + Helsinki University). The other participants: Stine Grodal, Stanford; Andrew Hargadon, UC Davis; Stefan Jonsson, SCANCOR@Stanford + Stockholm School of Economics; Turo Uskali,InJo@Stanford + University of Jyväskylä; and Alisa Weinstein, InnovationJournalism.
We discussed Innovation Journalism and the Role of Journalism in Innovation (Eco)Systems as themes for scholarly research. The opinion was positive! We are writing up a workshop report that will present the case.
I believe that innovation researchers need to introduce journalism into their models. Journalism is a powerful actor. Also, academic research offers tools for looking into best practices of innovation journalism, which is good for journalists.
Research can analyze interdependencies between journalists and other actors in the innovation systems, sorting out situations where journalists run into conflicts of interest, or where journalists may be tempted to be loyal to other parties than the readership or the publication. Reserach can uncover hidden dependencies that journalists may not even be aware of that they are influenced by. All of this should be potentially useful for practitioners.
The Innovation Journalism Program network of practitioners that has been built up so far should offer attractive possibilities for the researchers to partner with practitioners. If both practitioners and researchers will enjoy meeting each other through the program, then it will happen.
Posts
2 comments:
Hi
I read with pleasure both the blog and the paper just issued.
As an innovation management consultant I think that:
1-Innovation Journalist have a strategic role in the development of 'industry-led' and 'organic' innovation within any organisation.
2-Innovation Journalists can propagate 'quantum' innovation to the masses or selected audiences.
3-Innovation Journalist work within organisations is highly essential. Intra-organisaltional journalism is a crucial comms medium.
4-Finally I think that the role of innovation journalist is crucial in the perceptionof new technologies by people and specialists alike.
Care should be taken to differentiate between journalism and press release re-hashing which is pervasive in certain media.
To all the participants in the blog a big WELL DONE for your research and contribution to the industry.
Joe
Joe MEILAK
President
Innovaxini Consulting
Interesting concept that of "Innovation Journalism". But isn't it just a derivation of innovation applied to media?
Post a Comment