Lab techniques: editorial remixes

Today, the study of broadcast journalism brings with it inevitable discussions and considerations around notions concerning the meaning and stability of representations of truth; the feasibility of objectivity; and the usefulness of some of the rigid, persisting formal conventions of journalism.

In my teaching lab at Queen’s University Belfast—a lab designed to resemble and operate like a newsroom—I aim to train my students in the core skills that will make them the journalists of tomorrow. I also seek to teach them to be critically aware, so that they can think through their practice, critically analyse their profession and thereby be innovators and levers of change in the journalism sector as it continues to evolve and adapt.

It is for this latter part—the triggering and cultivating of criticality among my students—that I have developed a technique I call “Editorial Remix” and integrated it into my teaching lab environment.


This article is a post-publication online contribution to The Lab Book: Situated Practices in Media Studies, ed. by Darren Wershler, Lori Emerson and Jussi Parikka, Minnesota University Press, 2022.