Journalism Education, Training and Employment

Bob Franklin, Donica Mensing

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781136835667
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sprachen & Linguistik
• Subtopic: Journalismus

During this period of rapid and significant change in journalistic practices, journalism educators are re-examining their own profession and contributing to the invention of new models and practices. This edited volume of studies by respected international scholars describes the diverse issues journalism educators are grappling with and the changes they are making in purpose and practice. The book is organized into three sections -- education, training and employment – that explore common themes:

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• How the assumptions embedded in journalism education are being examined and revised in the light of transformative changes in communication;

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• How the definitions of journalism and journalists are broadening in scope and what this means for educators;

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• How newsrooms and training programs around the world are being re-examined and made more effective.

An introductory essay and section summaries provide context for the thirteen chapters that constitute the collection. The section on journalism education explores fundamental ways educators are seeking to make their institutions and practices stronger and more responsive. The section on training includes case studies of journalism training programs in sub-Saharan Africa, Turkey, Sweden and the U.S. The final section examines the job prospects and employment market for journalism students with data from the U.S., U.K, Australia, and Sweden.

The scope of issues considered in the book makes it a valuable resource for journalism scholars from around the world, as well as doctoral students, journalism and communication administrators in universities, organizations that fund journalism training programs, and practitioners interested in understanding employment and education trends.

Part I
Journalism Education

Introduction to Part I

The argument, evidence and research in this collection unravel across three distinctive sections which deal in turn with journalism education, training and employment. Donica Mensing’s opening essay constitutes a clarion call to journalism educators, inviting them to undertake a radical reconsideration of their activities in the context of new digital media technologies with their implications for both journalism practice and education. She advocates a shift from the current “industrial model” of journalism education with its emphasis on journalism “as a process of transmission from producer to receiver” towards a focus on community networks which emphasise “the needs of community first and [constitute] the journalist [as] one node in a network of relationships.” Such an approach offers the promise of re-establishing journalism’s “natural connection with community” and its democratic roots, while also allowing journalists to realise the potential advantages deriving from new forms of news gathering, production, editing and distribution inherent in new media technologies. She concludes by examining the prospects and possibilities for this approach to journalism education by outlining four community based projects which require students to invent new ways of practicing journalism by “listening carefully to individual citizens.”

In chapter two, Guy Berger addresses and challenges the legitimacy of a “one-size-fits-all” approach to journalism education which has been nurtured by globalisation. He argues for a detailed consideration of the particular requirements for journalism education in so-called developing countries and describes a specific project, developed under the auspices of UNESCO, concerned to identify those journalism schools in Africa with the greatest potential to become “centres of excellence.” The purpose of the exercise was, “(1) to reward excellence, (2) to create conditions for further investment, (3) to serve as nodal centres for quality education and training, and (4) to serve as a training ground for excellent teaching and learning practices.” Berger describes how the methodology for the project derived from protocols operating in other countries, but with specifically “home-grown” indicators and criteria of inclusion developed to allow identification of specifically African centres of journalism excellence.

Jerry Crawford and Barbara B. Hines examine the difficulties confronting Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in their efforts to win accreditation from the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) across the 25-year period since the first HBCU was accredited in 1982 to 2007. Based on their examination of records across the period, they identify Council requirements for Scholarship: Research, Creative and Professional Activity of faculty, as well as the defined goals for learning that students must achieve, as key stumbling blocks preventing accreditation. The assessment of how students learn not only traditional news values and ethics, but also how they are prepared to work in multi-platform converged media careers are the keys to the future prospects for the schools’ future ACEJMC accreditation. Crawford and Hines argue for the importance of HBCUs increasing faculty with recent professional experience or developing creative partnerships between departments and schools with communication professionals.

In the closing chapter of this first section, Robert E. Gutsche examines the significant but academically neglected issue of how experience of journalism practice and other elements of journalism learning, develop among the tens of thousands of student journalists in the United States who work on college newspapers, as well as producing news web sites, television and radio programming. This neglect assumes a growing significance at a time when policy prescriptions for resolving the current ‘crisis’ of journalism increasingly focus on the involvement for college journalism departments and student journalists. Robert Gutsche draws on educational and communication theory and the stories of student journalists, derived from in depth interviews as well as focus groups comprised of student journalists and editors, conducted in 2007 and 2009, to explore how an early journalism experience may influence personal growth in college and future contributions to society through journalism. Gutsche argues that an early newsroom experience may contribute to students’ struggles balancing career, personal and educational goals, as well as professional development.

1
Realigning Journalism Education

Donica Mensing

The current upheaval in the journalism industry presents an opportune time to rethink the configuration of journalism education. For historical and institutional reasons, most university journalism programs retain the structure, some more than others, of education based on an industrial model of journalism. The mass production of journalism fashioned the practices taught today and embodies an understanding of communication as a process of transmission from producer to receiver. Journalism education came to life in the “age of the reporter” (Carey, 2000), when the role of a journalist was to find information, shape it into a story, edit, and then transmit it as accurately and quickly as possible to a mass audience via a mass medium. While journalism schools have diversified and now graduate a large percentage of students who never pursue reporting, the idealized perception of journalism education still centers on the reporter and the basic functions of information gathering, evaluation, production, and distribution.

This basic model of journalism, taught in journalism schools and run as a business by news organizations, has remained unchanged for many decades. Adding multimedia, using new storytelling techniques, and delivering the product over the Internet doesn’t change the basic functions of journalism (see chapter 12). Students learn this model in courses organized by sequences that relate to modes of distribution, with the role of the reporter a central theme in early classes. Courses are frequently taught by practitioners using textbooks that have changed little in their basic outline since 1938 (Brennan, 2000). “Correct” ways to write, report, and produce stories form the basic curriculum. Students are often required to complete internships as part of their practical training (see chapter 8). This configuration of curriculum, work experience, and mentorship reinforces particular conceptions of what journalism is and how to practice it. While convergence and multimedia storytelling have introduced some significant changes, the essential flow of journalism education has changed little in response to the “epochal transformation” (Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2004) taking place within communications.

The purpose of this chapter is to suggest that as journalism schools take up a rigorous examination of their own practices, they consider an alternative to the transmission driven, industrial model of journalism. Moving the focus of attention from the industry to community networks could reconnect journalism with its democratic roots and take advantage of new forms of news creation, production, editing, and distribution. Rather than conceptualizing an independent reporter as the “defining role in American journalism” (Borden, 2007) a community-oriented model of journalism would place the journalist as reporter, editor, and facilitator within a community network. This configuration would emphasize the needs of community first and make the journalist one node in a network of relationships. It would re-emphasize journalism’s natural connection with community, as described by de Tocqueville (1990 [1835]), Dewey (1927), and Carey (1989) and refocus attention on the role that journalism can play in the health of a community. Working with students in a laboratory of inquiry, researching how journalism matters and experimenting with ways to practice journalism in a rapidly reconfiguring environment could reinvigorate journalism programs and encourage more productive connections between the work of educators, scholars, and practitioners.

In the following pages I describe briefly the present alignment of journalism schools within universities and how the industry-centered model came to dominate journalism education. It is important to analyze the assumptions embedded in this model because they make it difficult for journalism educators to respond fully to the present crisis and opportunities in journalism. By “journalism education” I am referring specifically to university programs that teach news and editorial courses and conduct research in journalism and communication. While many journalism programs include public relations and advertising, and the ideas in this paper are applicable to those professions as well, the focus of this chapter is to think specifically about education for journalists. I will describe how a community-centered focus could provide a way to conceptualize a reconstitution of journalism education to match that taking place in journalism beyond the university. Finally, a brief look at several examples from current journalism programs will illustrate the implications of this analysis and provide an indication of future directions for realignment.

The call to reinvent journalism education has been oft repeated. Dennis (1984), Medsger (1996), Reese (1999), Reese and Cohen (2000), Carey (2000), Adam (2001), MacDonald (2006), Deuze (2006), and others have identified new ways to conceptualize journalism education. The realignment advocated in this paper follows most closely that articulated by James Carey and interpreted in an appreciation by Jay Rosen (2006) on Poynter.com:

Carey suggests an alignment with democracy as the key to reforming journalism education. That is, the J-school can get into proper alignment with the society, the university, and the profession in only one-way: by thinking with and through “democracy.” … There’s an intellectual crisis in journalism, which creates an opening for those of us who do “journalism” in a university setting…. following Jim Carey as he follows John Dewey, I can say we need to experiment with a new alignment between journalism education and the university; between the J-school and the society, especially the media; and between the teaching of journalism and practicing journalists.

INDUSTRY-CENTERED JOURNALISM EDUCATION

From its earliest conceptions, journalism education has been about training students to work in professional news organizations. Initially, the training was to equip students to work in newspapers (O’Dell, 1935; Dickson, 2000; Becker, 2003). Over time schools have added training in broadcast, advertising, and public relations, some have added design programs, management sequences, and emphases on various types of reporting. Some schools offer education only at the undergraduate level, some at the graduate level, and some at both. Throughout its history, however, a central theme of journalism education has been that of a professionally oriented program focused on educating students for jobs in the media industries (Dickson, 2000; Becker, 2003). This is apparent in the assessment required by accreditation standards, in the curriculum offered at many journalism schools, and in the division between journalism educators and journalism scholars (Zelizer, 2004...

Table of contents

• Routledge Research in Journalism
• Contents
• Figures
• Tables
• Introduction
• Part I Journalism Education
• Part II Journalism Training
• Part III Journalism and Employment
• Contributors
• Index