L’Ecole de journalisme de Sciences Po accélère sur la création de projets de startup de l’information
Actualité Sciences Po
COMMUNIQUE, Paris, le 21 juillet 2020 - Alors que près de 5% des diplômés de l’Ecole de journalisme de Sciences Po se lancent dans la création d’une entreprise de média à l’issue de leurs études, les aptitudes entrepreneuriales apparaissent désormais parmi les compétences clés des journalistes à leur entrée sur le marché du travail.
Pour répondre à ces défis auprès des élèves au semestre d’automne 2020, des enseignants qui ont baigné dans l'univers des startups et de l'innovation médiatique partageront leurs expériences. Le cours de Marie Mawad, enseigné en anglais, intitulé "The Media Startup challenge", et celui de Célia Mériguet et Adriano Farano, enseigné en français, "Créer un projet de A à Z", s’adressent aux étudiants de M2 du Master joint Journalism and International Affairs et ceux du Master Journalisme.
Leurs objectifs? Armer les journalistes de demain avec les connaissances et la méthodologie nécessaires pour couronner leur projet de succès, que cela soit en fondateur de startup, entrepreneur ou intrapreneur au sein d’un entreprise de presse.
Au fil des semaines, ils développent leurs capacités de persuasion par l’exposition d’un pitch, la création de business plan, et surtout apprennent à fonctionner par itérations continues au niveau du produit en suivant la méthodologie du design thinking mise au point à l’Université de Stanford, aux Etats-Unis.
“C’est en réalité un défi à deux têtes que les médias posent aux entrepreneurs, exigeant au même rang stratégie éditoriale pertinente et business plan prometteur.
Pour y répondre, il faut une boîte à outils variée, empruntant à la fois au journaliste et au chef d’entreprise", estime Marie Mawad, la correspondante en France du site Sifted. Spécialisée en technologie, économie, business et finance, elle est professeur associée à l'Ecole de journalisme de Sciences Po où elle enseigne depuis 2017.
Itérations et business plan
"Alors que trop de porteurs de projet veulent tout déterminer tout de suite, nous enseignons une approche itérative. Commencer par un produit éditorial minimum viable, cela veut dire cerner un manque d’information spécifique et une première façon de répondre à ce besoin.
Ce ne sera que par des itérations continues que sera trouvé le Graal du product market fit, à savoir l’adhérence entre un produit et son marché. C’est un défi culturel que les nouvelles générations de journalistes devront relever. Car le journalisme de demain sera entrepreneurial ou ne sera pas", continue Adriano Farano, le fondateur du magazine Café Babel.
Parti à Stanford pour la John S. Knight Fellowship, il fonde ensuite Watchup qui lève 4 millions de dollars de CNN, Microsoft et d’autres investisseurs US pour ensuite être racheté. Aujourd’hui, il accompagne à Paris des médias et des sociétés technologiques dans leur quête d’un modèle économique profitable.
Tester, développer, échouer, refaire
“De quoi les utilisateurs ont-ils besoin? De quel type de sujet? Sur quel type de support? Plutôt que de se lancer dans un projet avec un ‘a priori’ fort, nous mettons les apprentis journalistes dans la posture de l’entrepreneur qui va tester, développer, échouer, refaire”, souligne Célia Mériguet, directrice des rédactions numériques du groupe France TV et directrice numérique de franceinfo, enseignante à l'Ecole de journalisme de Sciences Po depuis 2013.
Innovation pédagogique
Depuis 2012, l’Ecole de journalisme de Sciences Po a mis la création de start-up de l'information au coeur de son projet pédagogique, via des cours sur les nouveaux business modèles de l’information, des ateliers pour des projets de futurs journalistes entrepreneurs, des liens avec l’incubateur de Sciences Po, des master class dédiées à la présentation d’entreprises journalistiques innovantes.
"The J-School was small enough to engage everyone as people with their own names"
Maile Cannon, graduated in 2010
Pouvez-vous décrire votre parcours académique et professionnel? May you describe your academic and professional background?
For the past 8 years, I have been the only English dialogue coach based in China. My job is to help actors who must deliver film, TV or voice over performances in English.) I have worked with most of the A-list Chinese movie stars, as well as film directors I studied as an undergraduate. At the same time, I work as a voice actress, dubbing director, and post-production consultant. My subtitles have gone to Toronto and Venice. It's very behind the scenes and something no one thinks about but it's rewarding to see international film critics quote my translations and subtitles when writing about the films I've worked on. It is through my work that they are able to enter the story, and while my contribution is small, I feel this work is important.
Also, I recently started my own company here in Beijing, China. I work with foreign-language voice talent. I am partnered with a French-run company and together we produce the voice over/dubbing aspect of films, television shows, animation, video games, mobile apps and educational materials. I am presently contracted to produce voice work for the Universal Studios Theme Park in Beijing (not yet open).
Quel poste occupez-vous aujourd'hui? A quoi ressemble votre travail au quotidien? What is your job title today? How is your daily routine?
I am a freelancer, and now, more frequently, I'm the boss. I work when there is work, and these days I'm terribly busy. A large part of my day is listening to people, finding people, communicating between people, solving problems and resolving conflicts between people. What it looks like is me sitting in my flat wearing sweatpants, playing with my phone. However, in my head, there is so much happening. I spend only a small part of my time in the studio recording these days. When I'm in the studio, I am behind the soundboard directing actors, translating a lot of stuff, and convincing teams from different countries that really, everything is OK. Also, I still have to have a lot of coffees with a lot of people because I'm always looking for new talent and new jobs.
Quelles ont été les contributions de votre formation à la fonction que vous occupez aujourd'hui? What were the main takeaways from your degree?
Journalists in the dual degree are well trained to find things efficiently, write well, edit well, think of many ways to say one thing (limited by a word count, or style or audience) and they are taught not to be shy - they must go out into the world, ask questions and get the answers. They are also trained with the notion that their work is constantly evolving, so they must keep up with trends and constantly update their skills. All of these skills, as well as a kind of journalist spirit, informs my work today. Frankly, any freelancer or business owner can use all of these skills.
Quels souvenirs gardez-vous de votre école, de votre promotion, de vos enseignants? What memories did you keep from your school, your cohort, your teachers?
I loved Sciences Po, I loved Paris and I loved being in the intellectual, serious environment the school offered me. My strongest memories were interacting with my classmates, especially other international students, as well as the very accessible Sciences Po J-School faculty who treated us as individuals. I loved that the school was small enough to engage everyone as people with their own names.
Quels conseils donneriez-vous à un étudiant qui souhaiterait devenir journaliste aujourd'hui? What advice could you give to a student who would like to become a journalist?
Be a journalist if you must, but it's not a failure if you find - even during journalism school - that this work is not right for you. Being a journalist can be incredible, or it can be really lousy. It doesn't actually matter. The skills of the journalist are extremely transferable and if you think a bit outside of the box, you can take yourself in a lot of directions with these skills.
"Journalism is a field where any experience is good experience"
Aurélien Breeden
Pouvez-vous décrire votre parcours académique et professionnel? May you describe your academic and professional background?
I spent five years at Sciences Po in Paris - three for the bachelor program followed by two in the joint Journalism School / PSIA masters degree, with a focus on international security. I graduated in 2013 and freelanced for a little over a year, mostly doing video editing and production work at France 24 and iTélé. I was hired as a reporter at the New York Times Paris bureau in the summer of 2014, and have been there ever since.
Quel poste occupez-vous aujourd'hui? A quoi ressemble votre travail au quotidien? What is your job title today? How is your daily routine?
I am still a reporter at the New York Times Paris bureau, covering France and all things related. I do not have a specific beat, and the job involves a mix of general news, features and analytical stories, as well as newer formats like explainers or live briefings. The Paris office is bigger than many foreign bureaus but still small compared to a regular newsroom, and the job involves monitoring French news, identifying and reporting out stories that are relevant for us, and coordinating with other desks or correspondents on international coverage. In-depth analysis and rich feature reporting are still staples of the bureau, but the pace of our international coverage has increased tremendously, and we have to respond quickly to big breaking news stories. I have also become increasingly involved in the translation of select NYT stories from English to French.
Quelles ont été les contributions de votre formation à la fonction que vous occupez aujourd'hui? What were the main takeaways from your degree?
As a reporter who juggles between covering France and helping reporters in the U.S. or elsewhere work on big, international stories, the joint degree Journalism and International Affairs was particularly well-suited. It combined practical, hands-on journalism experience with a more analytical training in the histories, ideas and frameworks that govern international relations - a combination of micro and macro, never letting the particulars of a situation obscure the bigger picture, and vice-versa. Journalism is different from many other professions because much of it is learned on the job, where writing and reporting skills are quickly put to the test. But the joint degree helped lay the foundations that made that process easier.
Quels souvenirs gardez-vous de votre école, de votre promotion, de vos enseignants? What memories did you keep from your school, your cohort, your teachers?
I was part of the very first batch of dual degree students, and I have good memories of working with a small, tight-knit group of students from very different backgrounds. The number of students has since increased, but I know that spirit still exists. Having teachers who were professional journalists or writers was one of the school's most important aspects. It gave us precious insight into the inner-workings of the media industry, and it also gave us a leg up when looking for internships. In my case, that proved instrumental: the connections I made interning at the New York Times bureau during my time at Sciences Po are what helped me secure the reporting job further down the road.
Quels conseils donneriez-vous à un étudiant qui souhaiterait devenir journaliste aujourd'hui? What advice could you give to a student who would like to become a journalist?
Journalism is a field where any experience is good experience - regardless of the medium or the location. The fundamentals of good reporting are the same in broadcast and in print; the skills in forming a network and identifying the right sources are the same in France and in the United States. It is, of course, important to hone the skills that are most applicable to your goals - if you want to work in print, write as much as you can, read the works of journalists you admire, and get as many clips as possible under your belt. But my point is that there is no single path towards that goal, and sometimes that path zigs and zags. So don't hesitate to apply to the internships that seem interesting but different from what you are looking for, don't be afraid to look out of your comfort zone, and don't worry about immediately getting that dream job. The pay-off might be further down the road, but as long as you are "doing" journalism, it will be there.
Alice Brogat et Zoé Pallier récompensées pour des reportages sur l'environnement
Alice Brogat et Zoé Pallier
Alice Brogat, diplômée 2020 de l'Ecole de journalisme de Sciences Po, gagne le 2e prix du concours général des Jeunes Reporters pour l'Environnement dans la catégorie "étudiant en journalisme" avec son article "Terre des villes contre terre des champs? En Provence, deux visions s'affrontent". Un sujet qu'elle a réalisé dans le cadre de son projet de fin d'études à l'issue de son cursus.
Zoé Pallier, étudiante de l'Ecole de journalisme de Sciences Po, gagne un autre prix de ce même concours dans la catégorie "Forêt et Bois" pour un reportage radio réalisé sur la filière française des jeux en bois.
Félicitations à toutes les deux !
Retrouvez le palmarès des prix et concours remportés par les étudiantes et étudiants de l'Ecole de journalisme de Sciences Po.
Ulysse Bellier et Clara Marchaud sur le podium de l'AFP
Ulysse Bellier et Clara Marchaud
Ulysse Bellier et Clara Marchaud, diplômés 2020 de l'Ecole de journalisme de Sciences Po, obtiennent tous les deux un prix spécial de l'édition 2020 de la bourse AFP. Ils auront ainsi la chance d'effectuer un CDD de 3 mois au sein de la rédaction.
Félicitations à tous les deux !
Retrouvez le palmarès des prix et concours remportés par les étudiantes et étudiants de l'Ecole de journalisme de Sciences Po.
