Educating ‘New’ Journalists: Challenges to the Curriculum

Abstract

In recent years, at least three major new journals dedicated to media (professionals) and journalism in particular came out: New Media & Society, Journalism Theory, Practice & Criticism (both Sage) and Journalism Studies (Routledge; affiliated to the European Journalism Training Association). Since 1992 an increasing number of journalism studies, notably surveys, have been conducted across the globe (Weaver, 1998). Around the same time, journalism as a trade or profession itself has come under intensified scrutiny from both its publics as well as media critics - media coverage about media has increased and professionalized in recent years (Boylan, 2000). Not only the established critics voice their concern the general public does so as well, turning away from their traditional news sources or expressing outright anger with the way reporters go about their work - culminating in the public outcry against the worldwide standards of reporting regarding, for example, the role of the U.S. television networks in the 2000 U.S. election. A 1999 survey even signaled the public's call for more political control over the press (Freedom Forum, 1999). In terms of journalism education, one can see a growing number of the media's recruits coming from various journalism schools, departments, polytechnics and so on across the globe - making formal journalism education a key role- player in equipping both today's, in terms of further training, and tomorrow's media professionals with the tools to grapple the social, cultural, professional, and economical developments that threaten, challenge, but most definitely change, the journalism profession (Weaver, 1998, 455-458; Dickson, 2000). Although change in journalism is nothing new - not in the least regarding the dominant role of technologies in the media - the threats and challenges to contemporary journalism have caused scholars, publics, journalists, and thus journalism educators to reconsider their approaches, definitions, and function in society. This article is an attempt to locate the changes and challenges to our traditional understanding of what journalism is, to describe our ways of dealing with them up to this point, and to formulate a number of arenas in which we may explore initiatives to educate the new journalists of today and tomorrow. The argument will be based on recent developments in journalism education and further training particularly in Western Europe and the United States. This article is based on an analysis of the European and U.S. contemporary literature and material from 45 face-to-face, in-depth interviews with experts in journalism education and further training in five European countries from February to April 2000 by Jan Bierhoff, Claes de Vreese, and the author (Bierhoff, Deuze, & DeVreese, 2000). The countries were selected be- cause of their comparative features in terms of size and structure of the media system: Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Austria. First, the ways in which programs have traditionally been constructed and new initiatives have been employed in journalism education are summarized, looking specifically at Europe and the United States. As a second step, the underlying notions of professional journalism, as these form the basis of education programs, will be discussed. This section addresses, in particular, the ways in which such ideal-typical notions of journalism have come under threat in recent years. The third part of this article discusses the challenges to journalism education and further training programs in terms of what can be seen as the three key arenas where one may find fundamental threats or challenges regarding the role, function, and definition of journalism and journalists: society (cf. multiculturalism), economy (cf. infotainment), and technology (cf. online journalism). Journalism programs Journalism education in most countries around the world has traditionally covered the ground of practical skills and standards training on the one hand and general contextual education and liberal arts courses on the other hand (Gaunt, 1992, 12; Weischenberg, 1990). …