A qualitative analysis on collaborative learning experience of student journalists using Wiki

Abstract

Education in journalism emphasizes internships, apprenticeships, and other opportunities to learn journalism by doing journalism; however, most computer-mediated communication tools do not have such a provision. The fully open structure of Wiki matches the principles of learning journalism while, from a technical point of view, Wiki provides a very easy way for users to report, write and edit. In a case study, a group of undergraduate journalism students were exposed to a student-written Wiki to jointly compose news reporting. Analysis of student journalists’ responses to the open-ended questions revealed revision as the core processing capability of Wiki. The motivational factors to revision include accuracy (fact checking), story enrichment, and personal interest toward the news topic. In addition, learners are also affected by the social interactions among the community users within Wiki. The qualitative data shows students both value the process and face challenges in managing the complexity of shared editing.