1. Mentoring in journalism: its
importance, its challenges
and its outlook
Dr Janet Fulton
PhD (Media and Communication)
Lecturer
Faculty of Science and IT
School of Design, Communication and IT
27 June 2013

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INTRODUCTION
Mentoring is one of the ways that journalists learn how to produce, or
create, within the system of journalism
Mentors communicate:
• Work ethics
• Professional values
• Work strategies and philosophies
A lack of experienced staff in an organisation, or overwhelming
demands on experienced staff, means that there is less traditional
mentoring occurring in workplaces (Mockros, 1996).

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INTRODUCTION
Australian journalism:
• Broadcast sector
• Channel 10 (FTA) – 100 news journalists laid off
• Channel 9 (FTA) – cost-cutting measured announced
• Print sector
• News Limited – redundancies (unknown number)
• Fairfax Media – 1900 jobs
What will happen to mentoring in journalism, a part of learning that is
an important part of a journalist’s early and ongoing development?
June 27, 2013

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Systems model of creativity developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2003, p. 315)
Journalist
E.g. rules, procedures,
conventions, guides,
previous works
E.g. sub-editors,
other journalists,
editors, media
owners, chiefs-of-
staff, the audience
SYSTEMS MODEL OF CREATIVITY: SYSTEM OF
JOURNALISM
June 27, 2013

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SYSTEMS MODEL OF CREATIVITY:
SYSTEM OF JOURNALISM
Journalists produce their work within a dynamic of cultural, individual
and social influences
Mentors are members of the field, typically senior members, and most
of the journalists in the study discussed the importance of mentoring in
their development as a journalist

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RESEARCH PROJECT
Making the news: print journalism and the creative process
• Thirty-six journalists (coded as ‘J’) and editors (coded as ‘E’)
• Newspapers (24), magazines (10), freelance (2)
• 22 x journalists
• Journalists (18), cadet journalists (3), student (1)
• 14 x management positions
• Editor, deputy editor, owner
• 17 x females, 19 males
• Aged 20 - 62
• Three newsrooms
• NR1: community, regional, tri-weekly
• NR2: metropolitan, weekly
• NR3: community, regional, weekly

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MENTORING IN JOURNALISM
Interview question:
‘Have you had a mentor and how did this relationship help you in your
work?’
• Overwhelmingly yes
• Throughout the interview process and during observations in the
chosen newsrooms, mentorship, both formal and informal, was
discussed and observed
Less senior staff for mentoring is an emerging problem that could
affect journalism practice.

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MENTORING IN JOURNALISM
Mentors :
• Helped in learning how to negotiate the field and domain
• Majority of respondents had informal mentoring relationships
“I think it’s a really important thing within the profession; I think we
could do a lot more of that … And journalists kind of mentor each
other because we do talk a lot about stories and stuff. I think it’s a
valuable thing and would like to see it done more formally and done
better” (J17, i/v, 2008).

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SYSTEM OF JOURNALISM: DOMAIN
Mentors communicate domain knowledge:
• Domain knowledge: work ethics, professional values, work
strategies and philosophies (Mockros, 1996)
• Domain knowledge: ethics, best practices and style (WFSJ)
“He was absolutely inspirational. I mean, just watching how he worked,
watching how he conducted interviews and every so often he’d sit
down and he’d give me a mentoring session and watching the,
picking up the responsibility with which he conducted his work, how
he approached it culturally was inspiring” (J2, i/v, 2007).

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SYSTEM OF JOURNALISM: FIELD
Mentors communicate:
• Preferences of the field
• How to increase social capital
• Help to socialise new journalists into a newsroom
• How to “be a journalist” (Oakham, 2006, p. 183)
“I have had several mentors over the year, my editors and trainers
within the organisation. Even today I have several senior people I
regard as mentors as I learn the job of editor” (E3, i/v, 2007).

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MENTORING: A WORD FROM THE MENTORS
“I have [mentored] because we get quite a few, every year we get work
experience people who are doing communications courses at
University of New South Wales and UTS, etc. So having been
mentored myself I feel as though I’d like to give something back so I do
my best to help them and assist them and encourage them, etc.” (E14,
i/v, 2008).
“I mentor most of my students; anyone who shows promise, willingness
and enthusiasm gets my time as a teacher” (E13, i/v, 2008).

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John Trevorrow: “you can’t replace the learning that you do on the job
and that comes from the collective experience and wisdom of the
people in your newsrooms” (in Press Club Online, 2003).
“It’s an interesting situation we’re moving to where we have less and
less senior staff; people are staying less and less. I wonder whether if
you’ll ever see journalists staying anywhere more than twenty years”
(J5, i/v, 2007).
MENTORING: A WORD FROM THE MENTORS

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FUTURE OF MENTORING
•With the increase in fluidity in journalism’s workforce, mentoring
needs to be done outside the workplace rather than the traditional
in-house style
•Society of Professional Journalists: Facebook mentor page
•World Federation of Science journalists, Society of Environmental
Journalists have set up mentoring services

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CONCLUSION
• Journalism jobs in traditional media are not going to increase in
the near future
• Do less journalists mean mentoring is unnecessary?
• BUT journalism is not dying … delivery platform is changing
• In a different work environment, with different rules and
procedures to be learnt, mentoring would still be a valuable
process
• Therefore, in a different work environment, with different rules
and procedures to be learnt, mentoring would still be a valuable
process

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CRICOS Provider 00109J | www.newcastle.edu.au
DISCUSSION
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