Analyzing impacts of campus journalism on student’s grammar consciousness and confidence in writing engagements

Abstract

Campus journalism serves an important foundation for learning, values development, and discipline. Campus journalism fosters students’ development in various literary, social, and academic aspects. Its culture emphasizes the importance of truthfulness, social transformation, and effective communication not only in school but also in communities. This study aimed to analyze how campus journalism shaped the grammar consciousness and confidence in writing among campus journalists. This study purposively sampled 16 campus journalists to extract their narratives that reflect their consciousness and confidence. Nine (9) of the participants were college students and were former campus journalists in high school while seven (7) were current member of their publication. Narrative analysis indicated that trainings and mentorship in campus journalism developed the writing competencies of campus journalists and helped them expand their linguistic knowledge and literary skills. This mechanism enabled them to be conscious and confident in their language use, most especially in academic setting. However, it was also evident that social pressures in social media delimit them to express their ideas and share their skills to larger community. Social cognitive theory supports this language use anxiety in social media that leads campus journalists to control what they share and express socially. Nevertheless, this study provided a possible perspective for future analysis on how social factors influence the language use of campus journalists. This study highlighted how specific culture to which campus journalists were exposed to can potentially foster or degrade their language confidence.