Becoming a Journalist: Experiences of Trainee Journalists in Zimbabwe

Abstract

ABSTRACT Basing on reported experiences of trainee journalists at the University of Zimbabwe on completing their work-related industrial internship, we give unique perspectives into challenges and contradictions of “becoming” a journalist. We argue that the route to becoming a professional journalist involves imbibing a kaleidoscope of largely (Western) values along the way throughout the value chain of different socializing sites such as the university, the newsroom and broader subjective social experience. The study concludes that journalism training in Zimbabwe—and indeed in Africa—is firmly informed by the dominant liberal press theory, a development that is at variance with social, political and economic realities obtaining in a country that has not fully embraced the principles of democracy to the letter and spirit of its classical dictates. While scholars have tangentially inserted African texts into the curriculum, these are texts that are made to fit into extant conceptual schema that invariably also shape practice.