Resources to learn more
about Sustainable Journalism

This is the first book that discusses and examines the economic, social and environmental challenges of professional journalism simultaneously. This unique book and fresh contribution to the discussion of the future of journalism assembles international expertise in all three fields, arguing for the necessity of integral research perspectives and for sustainable journalism as the key to long-term survival of professional journalism. The book is relevant for scholars and master’s students in media economy, media and communication, and environmental communication.

Article written by Lars Tallert in an attempt to describe how the academic concept of sustainable journalism could be turned into practice. The article is the stepping stone of the Sustainable Journalism Partnership, that was founded one year later.

This Policy Brief is mainly written by scholars in Sub-Saharan Africa but is indeed universal for how journalism can be both researched and put to practice. Its point of departure is that sustainable journalism addresses two intertwined challenges of our time:

•  The sustainability crisis of society, e.g. environmental crises, democratic crises, poverty, financial crises, armed conflicts, etc. Obviously, journalism has a crucial role to play here since it contributes greatly to the public agenda, as well as people’s understanding – and hence the handling – of such challenges.
• The sustainability crisis of journalism itself, which stems from lower advertising, decreasing subsidies for public service media, falling consumption, lack of trust in media among citizens, and fierce competition from online information brokers and advertising.

The Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications organised the Sustainable Journalism in Practice Conference. It brought together 150 stakeholders to discuss new ways of doing journalism, that is constructive, sustainable and grounded in an African context and based on the core values of independent, public interest journalism. You will find a lot of valuable information here on sustainable journalism.

This comprehensive online course explores environmental, social, and economic sustainability within the context of journalism. It is tailored for educators, undergraduate and master’s students in journalism, communication, and social sciences, as well as media managers, editors, and reporters eager to integrate sustainability into their work. Developed in cooperation with the Guardian, Schibsted, Politiken and Sanoma.

The publishing company Routledge is about to publish their special issue on “Sustainable Journalism in the Global South” to a book. In this book, one of the articles is written by some of the founders of the Sustainable Journalism Partnership, “Putting Forward Sustainability as a Model for Journalism Education and Training”. Africa, like other regions of the Global South, has several journalism training institutions that provide an opportunity to challenge “hegemonic epistemologies and ontologies of Western-centric journalism studies”. This article investigates the current state of sustainable journalism in Africa, appraising what role sustainable journalism education and training could play in Africa. Findings show that efforts are already in place across select learning and training institutions but also point to profound gaps in the curriculum, pedagogy and resources needed to prepare journalists for sustainable journalism