Humanising Information for Contemporary Literacy
Originally published on Medium
Why should journalists care about design?
As digital tools continue to shape and reform news media, journalists will need to adapt to the dynamic mediascape. Universities are tackling this challenge in their journalism department — how to communicate information through new media while captivating a new genre of readers in today’s contemporary media ecosystem — by integrating new disciplines with traditional journalism.
One such university is The New School in New York City. They recently launched a new degree called Journalism + Design, which combines the “rigorous critical thinking” of Eugene Lang College with the “creative thinking” of Parsons The New School for Design. There was doubt, confusion and tension between the two communities, and one question remained unanswered:
“Why should journalists care about design?”
As a dual-degree student with an interdisciplinary background in design and media studies, I was asked to write about why design is important to journalism. Having attended the IxDA Interaction 15 conference this month, I make my attempt to explain why in this article, and my simple response: “Design provides a cognitive framework for inquiry and understanding.” The rest of this article will explain further…
