Natalino Fenech
Speaker
Dr Natalino Fenech helped set up The Malta Independent in 1992 and was its first news editor. He then worked for several years as a journalist at Allied Newspapers, publishers of The Times and The Sunday Times, and later became the registered editor and head of news at Malta’s National TV and Radio stations. Dr Fenech is also an award-winning writer. Two of his books won National Book Awards. Apart from writing 9 books, he wrote several chapters in books as well as academic papers and popular articles.
Apart from journalism, Dr Fenech is very interested in social history, ornithology, and environmental issues. Before becoming a journalist, he was one of the leading activists in environmental NGOs. Dr Fenech studied at the University of Malta and later read for a PhD at Durham University. He taught media in secondary schools, has lectured at university and is now a senior lecturer at MCAST’s Institute for the Creative Arts.
Conference Contribution
What Skills Do Tomorrow’s Journalists Need?
Watch Natalino’s talk here and download his presentation here.
The foundations of producing news and the core competencies that a journalist needs: proficiency, fact verification, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, holding power to account, etc, will remain the same. But what will the purpose of journalism be? Will it remain to empower people? To provide people with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives? Will people still have faith in journalists? Do people want to be empowered or do they prefer to be just led? Students need to be given skill sets with which they can work today, and the knowledge of how to adapt to be able to work tomorrow.
