The Use of Facebook as a Pedagogical Platform for Developing Investigative Journalism Skills

Abstract

This chapter evaluates the extent to which Facebook could be used as a training and learning tool for investigative journalism students. This study is based on the deployment of Facebook as a pedagogical tool for an “Investigative Journalism” unit at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. This chapter, accordingly, outlines the challenges, issues, and benefits of using Social Networking Services (SNS) as pedagogical tools for the training of future investigative journalists, which could in turn assist other instructors to make use of such online social platforms for media training. By conducting an observation of student usage of Facebook and interviewing students and tutors on their experiences from this activity, this chapter concludes that Facebook can serve as a useful online collaborative platform for investigative journalism students and as a progress monitoring tool for their instructors.