Why I Do Not Talk About Computational Thinking in Journalism Classes: Sorry (Not Really Sorry)

Abstract

Paul Bradshaw nailed it a few years ago when he noted that despite calls as early as 2006 for newsrooms and their training grounds to change the way they think, ‘there is very little evidence of this being seriously addressed. Instead computational thinking is being taught earlier, to teenagers and younger children at school’ (Bradshaw, 2017, p. 1). This essay is a confession, a few excuses, but mainly an explanation why I, and other tertiary journalism educators like me, have not leapt at the opportunity to teach computational thinking and why you should not hate us for it. I remember trying to keep a poker face on, sitting around a table of respectable international colleagues, listening to one advocating passionately for teaching computational thinking to all journalism students. My inner monologue was howling, ‘OMG, No! Not more! My course is full to the brim and bursting’. I looked carefully at the faces around the table. Some were nodding. Others, like me, had tight brows and clenched jaws. We were in Paris at the World Journalism Education Congress in July 2019. The breakout group was the syndicate discussing the topic: ‘Teaching Data Journalism and Computational Skills’. Not a lot of love was shown in the discussion that followed for the idea of wheeling in a barrow-load of computational thinking. We broke it down and talked instead about quantitative literacy; we also talked about math aversion and my poker face dissolved. I am genuinely happy to talk to my students about their learnt number-phobia, experimental design and how to report statistics with confidence (Davies, 2019). Computational thinking felt like a bridge too far though, so I have been pondering why ever since.