Abstract
This study has explored the community engagement levels of Taiwanese college journalism students who took the community engagement and public journalism courses, as well as examined the way the practices have made an impact on them. The results indicated that taking community-oriented courses increases an interest in the community for the students. It enhances their abilities when participating in civic engagement activities more than their peers. The finding also showed through focusing the reportage on the residents and helping them to form a dialogue field for discussing community public issues, the participating students recognized the feeling that they have earned the trust and respect from the residents, and were able to rebuild their connection with society. Furthermore, the process not only improved the students’ journalism skills so that they were more likely to produce in-depth and meaningful news coverage, but also strengthened their confidence to become a good news practitioner in the future.
Highlights
The media environment in Taiwan is deteriorating (Taiwan News, 2014; Tong & Lo, 2017)
Similar results were found in Taiwan that the university journalism students felt that the activities of civic engagement and the community-oriented news reportages have allowed them to feel the friendliness of local residents, and believe that people had regained confidence in the news media (Chen, 2017; Huang, 2017; Hu, 2014)
The participating students were quite cognizant of the fact that the community involvement experience had led them to consciously pay attention to relevant information on public affairs. Their level of participating on such public issues and their peer discussions has been enhanced. This present study has attempted to examine the attitudes of college journalism students on the results and effects of the implementation of the civic involvement and public journalism practice curriculum in local communities promoted by Taiwan‟s journalism educators, recognizing the deteriorating performance of the news media has led to people‟s indifference of public affairs, and is harmful to Taiwan‟s democratic society
Summary
The media environment in Taiwan is deteriorating (Taiwan News, 2014; Tong & Lo, 2017). The tabloidization tendency has not improved viewership ratings; it has led to severe criticism from the public toward the media outlets and journalists (Maxon, 2019; Taiwan News, 2014). The “2019 Taiwan Public Credibility Survey” conducted by Taiwan‟s Global Monthly View showed that a “news reporter” obtained a trust rating of 27.5% and was the most distrusted profession by the Taiwanese people (Global Monthly View, 2019). In addition to the sporadic self-regulatory initiatives by the media and the supervisory efforts of the non-governmental organizations, in recent years, Taiwan‟s academia has reviewed higher education in journalism and has fine-tuned courses and teaching directions following the poor performance of the news media. Measures have been taken to build a healthy foundation for the future of the news media and society
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