Mobile Social Media and the News: Where Heutagogy Enables Journalism Education

Abstract

Journalism schools are under pressure to look beyond traditional teaching methods to prepare students for the post-Internet, rapidly evolving news landscape. Heutagogy is a net-centric teaching method in which learners are highly autonomous and self-determined. In this article, Participatory Action Research theory was applied within a heutagogical framework to the redevelopment of a social media course for journalism students at AUT University, New Zealand. The findings form the basis of recommendations across the wider journalism curriculum, and there are also implications for other areas of communication studies, public relations, and online or broadcast media.