Innovation Journalism is journalism

Journalism

Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...

 covering innovation

Innovation

Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...

. It covers innovation processes and innovation (eco)systems

Innovation system

The concept of the innovation system stresses that the flow of technology and information among people, enterprises and institutions is key to an innovative process...

.

Introduction

Innovation is more than invention. An invention is something new, it can be done by a single person. Innovation is the introduction of something new, it always involves the interaction between several people. It is the process of creating and delivering new value on a market or in a community. Innovation journalism covers how innovation happens.

Traditional newsbeats - like business, technology, science and political journalism - look only at certain aspects of innovation processes and ecosystems. Innovation is treated as a topic within each beat, and the bigger picture is chopped up to fit into a specific news slot, usually technology or business journalism.

The concept of Innovation Journalism (InJo) was coined in 2003 by David Nordfors

David Nordfors

David Nordfors is a Swedish physicist, active in the field of science, innovation and society.As the initial Director of Research Funding of the he created the Swedish research funding system for university colleges which broke down the earlier distinct borders between the universities as...

. For Innovation Journalism the process of innovation itself is the central concept, treating business, technology, politics etc. as nested components of a news story. In terms of traditional newsbeats, InJo is multidisciplinary. It is a 'horizontal' beat, spanning across the old beats, reporting on innovation processes and innovation ecosystems.

InJo identifies and reports on issues in the innovation ecosystems, such as emerging concepts, the interaction between the main actors, or what is happening in innovation value chains. It spans themes such as science and technology trends, intellectual property

Intellectual property

Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...

, finance

Finance

"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...

, standardization

Standardization

Standardization is the process of developing and implementing technical standards.The goals of standardization can be to help with independence of single suppliers , compatibility, interoperability, safety, repeatability, or quality....

, industrial production processes

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...

, marketing of new technologies

Marketing

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...

, business model

Business model

A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value...

s, politics

Politics

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

, cultural trends, social impacts, and more.

InJo can be seen either as a horizontal newsbeat or as a mindset within traditional newsbeats.

One example where innovation journalism is applied is data-driven journalism

Data driven journalism

Data-driven journalism is a journalistic process based on analyzing and filtering large data sets for the purpose of creating a new story. Data-driven journalism deals with open data that is freely available online and analyzed with open source tools...

, where stories are created based on analysis and visualization of data. Using data journalists can create a new viewpoint on issues that are relevant to society.

The Innovation Journalism Program at Stanford

The first innovation journalism program - the Innovation Journalism Program at Stanford http://www.innovationjournalism.org/blog- was started by David Nordfors in 2003 as a Swedish initiative, a collaboration between VINNOVA, the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems, and SCIL, Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning, at Stanford University. The initial activity of the program was the Innovation Journalism Fellowships, where each year a selected number of journalists mix workshops and conferences at Stanford with covering innovation in collaboration with hosting newsrooms. Initially, the program hosted only Swedish journalists. In 2006 an affiliated Finnish national innovation journalism program was spearheaded by Seppo Sisättö, introducing Finnish Fellows into the program at Stanford, with support from SITRA and the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation. In 2007, the Competitiveness Support Fund in Pakistan funded a Pakistan Injo program, which also nominates Fellows to the Stanford program.

The Injo program at Stanford hosts The Conference on Innovation Journalism, which has run yearly since 2004.

Research Projects

At an academic workshop at Stanford University April 2004 a group of researchers suggested Innovation Journalism as a useful theme in scholarly research through which to investigate the interplay of journalism in innovation ecosystems Nordfors, Ventresca et al.. This involves investigating how journalism plays a part in connecting innovation with public interests and how innovation processes and innovation ecosystems interact with public attention, with news media as an actor. The report suggests it may also be of interest to study in which ways journalists cover innovation processes and innovation ecosystems, the incentives that may drive innovation journalism and how news organizations may be organized to perform the task. It outlines examples of research project topics to illustrate how this approach can inform studies of innovation, studies of journalism as practice, and possible scipes for the research theme. A grant was issued by VINNOVA in October 2006 to make a literature study as suggested by the report, intended to form a base for developing innovation journalism as a theme within academic research.

In a Finnish research project at the University of Tampere, the emphasis has been on innovation journalism as future work of society, suggesting the possibility of using the methodology of future research (e.g. delphi, future scenarios) in properly adjusted "lighter" journalistic versions as tools of innovation journalism. This idea was first introduced by Dr. Uskali (University of Jyväskylä)in a paper presented in the Second Innovation Journalism Conference at Stanford.http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-2-11.pdf The Finnish project proposed a somewhat wider definition of the concept. According to it not only "the social impact" of technology but also "social conditions" of technology and, indeed, social innovation

Social innovation

Social innovation refers to new strategies, concepts, ideas and organizations that meet social needs of all kinds - from working conditions and education to community development and health - and that extend and strengthen civil society....

s are a relevant topics of innovation journalism. That gives issues like technology and citizen society, technology and gender, and technology as a global agent of change, among others, a prominent role in innovation journalism thus understood. http://innovaatiot.fi/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=MyInnovationResearchProject2005-2006.ProjectPublications. The research report of the project Innovation, Journalism and Future is available free in printed form from Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (tekes@tekes.fi). It is also downloadable as pdf. http://www.innovaatiot.fi/pmwiki/pub/texts/IJF.pdf

InJo's History

• 2001-2002. A project for introducing Innovation Journalism as a concept and community is initiated by David Nordfors at VINNOVA, the Swedish Government Agency for Innovation Systems.
• June 2003. The first Innovation Journalism Fellowship program is announced by VINNOVA.
• October 2003. Publication of "The Concept of Innovation Journalism and a Programme for Developing It", the seminal paper coining the expression "innovation journalism", by Nordfors. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-1-1.pdf
• January 2004. The first round of Swedish Innovation Journalism Fellows gets started. Program leader David Nordfors relocates to Stanford University as a visiting scholar with Prof. Stig Hagström at the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning.
• April 2004 the First Conference on Innovation Journalism was held at Stanford University
  Stanford University
  The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
  
   Links: Conference Program http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-1-2.pdf, Conference Papers http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-1-3.pdf, News Release http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=105&STORY=/www/story/04-22-2004/0002158065
• June 2004 VINNOVA launches second round of Swedish InJo Fellowships.
• November 2004, The Swedish-US initiative was followed by the Finnish Innovation Journalism research and education initiative http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/NF-010405.pdf. The first Finnish course of Innovation Journalism began, organized by the Journalism Research and Development Center of the University of Tampere Journalism Research and Development Center.
• January 2005, an Innovation Journalism initiative was created at the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning at Stanford University
  Stanford University
  The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
  
  in the United States, in co-operation with the Swedish program.
• April 2005, The Second Conference on Innovation Journalism is held at Stanford, organized by the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning and The Swedish Innovation Journalism Initiative run by VINNOVA, the Swedish Government Agency for Innovation Systems. The conference is co-sponsored by The Finnish Innovation Journalism Initiative and The Stanford Graduate Program in Journalism. Documentation: Conference Program http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-2-3.pdf, Conference Papers http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-2-4.pdf. News releases: Innovation Journalism news release http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/NF-041505.pdf and Stanford news release http://scil.stanford.edu/news/inovJournal.html.
• June 2005, VINNOVA launches the third round of Swedish InJo fellowships.
• September 2005, The second course of Innovation journalism organized by the Journalism Research and Development Center of the University of Tampere began.
• September 2005, The University of Jyväskylä in Finland launches the first Innovation Journalism course for university students http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/NF-091205.pdf
• October 2005, A National Innovation Journalism Fellowship program is launched in Finland, nominating fellows to the program at Stanford http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/NF-102805.pdf
• November 2005. Session dedicated to Innovation Journalism at the Global Conference of TCI, The Competitiveness Institute, in Hong Kong.
• November 2005. Announcement of a National Innovation Journalism Fellowship program for Pakistan, nominating fellows to the program at Stanford. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/NF-111105.pdf
• April 5–7, 2006. The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism, Stanford University. Program:http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-3-3.pdf, Proceedings:http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-3-4/index.htm
• April 20, 2006: An international group of researchers meeting at Stanford suggest Innovation Journalism as a useful theme within academic research: Innovation Journalism: Towards Research on the Interplay of Journalism in Innovation Ecosystems (Nordfors, Ventresca et al.)http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-3-2.pdf. VINNOVA grants funding to the literature study in September. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/blog/2006/10/innovation-journalism-gets-academic.html
• April 20, 2006: The 1st conference on innovation journalism "Stanford after Stanford 2006" took place in Slovenia at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana. The purpose of the conference was to reinforce the need for innovation journalism as one of the most powerful tools for the development and growth of innovation society. The conference was the crucial point for the development of InJo concept in Slovenia and Slovenia is today one of the early stage participants in the deployment of InJo concept in practice: in local communities, business environments and the local media sector.http://www.innovationjournalism.si/page.php?2
• August 2006: Swedish innovation policy implicitly recognizes journalism as a key actor in innovation systems: VINNOVA DG Per Eriksson decides to transfer Innovation Journalism initiative from pilot program status to regular program status, sorts it under the Innovation Actors Division.http://www.innovationjournalism.org/blog/2006/08/swedish-innovation-journalism-program.html
• September 2006: Dr Marta Svetina, Director General of national Slovenian Technology Agency TIA, announces Innovation Journalism as part of the Slovenian innovation policy and supports three pilot projects organized by Vibacom. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/blog/2006/08/slovenias-first-injo-projects-press.html
• September 2006: European Journalism Centre EJC organizes InJo workshop. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/blog/2006/10/european-journalism-centre-injo.html
• Oct 9-13, 2006: The Global Conference of TCI, this year in Lyon, France, dedicates a plenary + breakout session to InJo. In the plenary session, the founding director generals from VINNOVA (Dr. Per Eriksson, Sweden) and TIA (Dr. Marta Svetina, Slovenia), the founding director of the Competitiveness Support Fund (Arthur Bayhan, Pakistan) and the secretary of the Finnish National Innovation Journalism Fellowship Program (Dr Seppo Sisättö) explain why they include InJo in the national innovation policy of their respective countries.
• October 18, 2006: 1st European Workshop on Innovation Journalism took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Participants from Slovenia and wider region shared the experience and aims of Innovation Journalism and exchange views between the experts and opinion makers on this topic.http://www.innovationjournalism.si/page.php?20
• February 2007: The IIIJ - the International Institute of Innovation Journalism is formally registered as a non-profit foundation in the US. The IIIJ is created for the Innovation Journalism Program at Stanford, and starts in an embryonic phase. Founder/Director is David Nordfors.
• February 2, 2007: The Finnish Society for Innovation Journalism was founded.http://innovaatiot.fi/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Finjo.Finjo
• February 21, 2007: The publication of the first major academic study on innovation journalism, Kauhanen & Noppari (2007): Innovation, Journalism and Future (Tekes, Technology review 200/2007). http://www.innovaatiot.fi/pmwiki/pub/texts/IJF.pdf
• February 26-March 2, 2007: Kickoff workshop for the fourth round of Innovation Journalism Fellowships, including fellows from Sweden, Finland and Pakistan.
• March 22, 2007: The Confederation of Indian Industry and the US National Academy of Sciences includes Innovation Journalism as a theme at the 1st Global Innovation Summit in India, New Delhi, with Nordfors as invited speaker.
• March 28, 2007: Enterprise Estonia arranges in cooperation with IIIJ the first workshops in Estonia on Innovation Journalism - one for journalists, one for policy makers. The workshops are organized by David Nordfors, IIIJ and Madis Vööras/Ene Kull at Enterprise Estonia. Speakers are apart from Nordfors, Jan Sandred, Thomas Frostberg and Jyrki Alkio - all previous InJo fellows.
• April 13, 2007, The Finnish Society for Innovation Journalism Finjo http://www.finjo.fi granted the first Finnish Award for excellence in innovation journalism, Innovation Crystal 2007, to journalist Sami Suojanen, of the newspaper Aamulehti. http://innovaatiot.fi/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Main.HomePage
• May 21–23, 2007, The Fourth Conference on Innovation Journalism http://www.innovationjournalism.org/ij4, Stanford University.

External links

• Innovaatiot.fi : The Finnish netsite of Innovation Journalism by Erkki Kauhanen
• Innovation Journalism The Internet Journal
• Innovation Journalism - A blog on journalism, information, public affairs, public relations, media and how it affects us.
• Innovation Journalism at Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning
• Innovation Journalism in Slovenia - A website of Innovation Journalism's projects and events in Slovenia coordinated by Violeta Bulc and Vibacom team.
• Innovation Journalism: Towards Research on the Interplay of Journalism in Innovation Ecosystems by Nordfors, Ventresca et al. (May 2006).
• Kauhanen & Noppari (2007): Innovation, Journalism and Future (Tekes, Technology review 200/2007)
• Northern California Science Writers Association on Innovation Journalism
• The Concept of Innovation Journalism and a Programme for Developing it by David Nordfors (Oct 2003)