Written evidence to the House or Lords Select Committee on the Future of Journalism (FOJ0057)

Abstract

Background context: besides unpublished and original data, this evidence also builds on already published material on media labs. With a focus on innovation processes and practices, the study and new research work is relevant to Committee’s enquiry into how collaboration can drive innovation within the industry. Published by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers and the World Editors’ Forum Trends in Newsrooms series, our report1 explored ‘media labs’ as a way legacy journalism publishers, academic institutions, accelerators and incubators were being adopted across the globe to catalyse innovation. Its key findings included that

- Media labs are rapidly increasing as a tool for innovation
- Labs are open and collaborative in terms of the skills they harness, position
they take within their organisation and ecosystem and how they look
outwards for solutions to the challenges they face
- They primarily deploy small and interdisciplinary teams that have the space,
time, facilities and mindset to prototype, iterate and deploy new processes,
products and services
- They allow experimentation, and therefore create the potential for attitudinal
change within their organisation and beyond it: creating new ways of working
and problem-solving
- Media labs horizon scan future innovation structures and trends, absorbing
technologies and processes into their organisation
- Focus on rapid prototyping rather than formative research