Career paths for news nerds. Or lack of them

The “interactive journalism” field has matured considerably in the last few years. Which now leads to new questionings and struggles, including career development. These teams remain perceived by both traditional editors and technology departments alike as outsiders. For their managers, such career and personal development aspirations are new.

Are specialist technical skills becoming a burden for interactive journalists wanting to move to more editorial positions? If so, should they abandon these hard-won skills in dataviz, graphics, and data analysis or limit their career opportunities? Which skills should we teach (data) journalism students, having this conflict in mind?

The panelists, coming from different backgrounds, newsrooms and academia, will discuss ways of understanding these issues, for interactive journalists and their managers, and draw on the lessons from the SRCCON: Work and the OpenNews News Nerd survey.

One lead is to look at the relationship between these teams: whether they are seen as true partners, or simply service desks to others. Some interesting career choices are also emerging, such as the move to audience engagement and product-oriented roles.