The World Journalism Education Council (WJEC): Advancing global Interaction Through Standards, Teaching and Research

Journalism Education

In June, I attended and participated in the first World Journalism Education Congress, held with the 16th AMIC [Asian Media Information and Communication Centre] Annual Conference, in Singapore. The United States and AEJMC were well represented by AEJMC President Wayne Wanta, various journalism & mass communication school deans/directors, senior scholars in international communication and journalism education, scholarly journal editors, and others. Just three days before the conference started, the Chronicle of Higher Education published an article headlined, Practicing Guerilla Journalism in Singapore, which mentioned-among other points-The media-watchdog group Reporters Without Borders rates Singapore at the same level as the military dictatorship of Myanmar when it comes to press freedom. Thus, picking that country for a journalism and/or education conference seems like an odd choice if that choice itself were not meant as a political statement. (It doesn't seem to have been, and there were reports that various potential attendees stayed away precisely because of the conference location.) However, the Congress was informative, thought-provoking, and otherwise useful in many ways. Just reading the English-language Straits Times every day demonstrated through that newspaper's relentless pro-social content what some would like U.S. news media to be, if not also packed with Singapore's equally relentless pro-business content. Here and in at least the Autumn 2007 JMCE, I am reporting key presentations, debates, documents, and other international developments at and since the Congress. On its first day, representatives from national and regional journalism education associations convened and drew up a Declaration of Principles of Journalism Education. After reportedly intense debate (I was not in the room) about various concepts and even individual words, the delegates produced: We, the undersigned representatives of professional journalism education associations share a concern and common understanding about the nature, role, importance, and future of journalism education worldwide. We are unanimous that journalism education provides the foundation as theory, research, and training for the effective and responsible practice of journalism. Journalism education is defined in different ways. At the core is the study of all types of journalism. Journalism should serve the public in many important ways, but it can only do so if its practitioners have mastered an increasingly complex body of knowledge and specialized skills. Above all, to be a responsible journalist must involve an informed ethical commitment to the public. This commitment must include an understanding of and deep appreciation for the role that journalism plays in the formation, enhancement, and perpetuation of an informed society. We are pledged to work together to strengthen journalism education and increase its value to students, employers, and the public. In doing this we are guided by the following principles: 1. At the heart of journalism education is a balance of conceptual, philosophical, and skills-based content. While it is also interdisciplinary, journalism education is an academic field in its own right with a distinctive body of knowledge and theory. 2. Journalism is a field appropriate for university study from undergraduate to postgraduate levels. Journalism programs offer a full range of academic degrees including bachelors, masters, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees as well as certificate, specialized, and mid-career training. 3. Journalism educators should be a blend of academics and practitioners; it is important that educators have experience working as journalists. 4. Journalism curriculum includes a variety of skills courses and the study of journalism ethics, history, media structures/institutions at national and international level, critical analysis of media content, and journalism as a profession. …

This article explores how educational qualifications, age, gender and regional context affect journalism educators’ perceptions of journalism’s normative roles and the future needs of journalism students. It draws on Australian and New Zealand/Aotearoan responses to the 2021 World Journalism Education Council (WJEC) Survey Journalistic Roles, Values and Qualifications in the 21st Century: How Journalism Educators Across the Globe View the Future of a Profession in Transition. It shows that holding a Ph.D. diminishes support for traditional observer and disseminator roles and predicts support for the mobilizer role. Age also predicts role perception; it diminishes support for the disseminator and mobilizer roles for both the current position of journalists and journalists in the next ten years. These age and education effects are independent of each other. The findings point to the need for more detailed research on the effects of further education on journalism teachers’ professional conceptions and teaching strategy.

The rise and control of artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting society as a whole. It follows that AI coverage must inform audiences about the implication of the technology itself, beyond journalism. For instance, reporting on the power dynamics in the changing relationship between companies, authorities, citizens and computer chips, and between data and algorithms. While many AI deployments serve public interest, journalists also need insight and expertise to alert about aspects like exclusions, unequal benefits, and violations of human rights. As part of its journalism education series, UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) has supported the World Journalism Education Council in commissioning this handbook. The aim is to inspire and empower so that journalism educators can help both journalism students and working journalists do justice to one of the major issues of our times. The handbook covers: Understanding machine intelligence and identifying different types of AI; Exploring AI’s potential, as well as its strengths and weaknesses; Imagining diverse futures with AI by recognizing pervasive popular narratives that inform public consciousness; Understanding journalism’s role in mediating and shaping AI discourse; Finding ways of reporting about AI in a nuanced, realistic and accountable manner; Making connections to existing genres of journalism, ranging from general news reporting to data journalism. Strengthening journalism education is one of the key results sought by IPDC, a unique intergovernmental programme within the UN system that specializes in media development.

The form and content of journalism and mass communication education outside the United States are undoubtedly as varied as the number of countries out there. It is difficult, if not impossible, for us to get a clear sense of why, what, and how journalism and mass communication programs around the world have been set up and run the way they do. The scant information and knowledge we have suggest that their structure and processes, not to mention the historical origin, can reasonably be expected to follow the interplay among political, social, cultural, and economic factors within and outside a particular country's geographical domain. To survey all the journalism and mass communication programs available on the face of the globe. therefore, is to undertake a daunting and perhaps futile project. There is arguably no compelling theoretical or practical need to do so. To compare programs across time (now and then) and space (here and there), however, is a different matter. There are epistemological and pedagogical reasons to look at the range of vision that may be manifest in journalism and mass communication education in cross-national settings. Only through comparison can we better understand the spirit and practices of such education in a world that has increasingly been made smaller by the flow of resources and technologies between regions and among nations. This special issue, albeit limited in scope, represents a modest attempt toward that goal. The interest in journalism and mass communication education around the world has always been visible in the United States in both the academic and political communities. First in the Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly (formerly Journalism Quarterly) in the early years and later in Journalism & Mass Communication Educator (formerly Journalism Educator), numerous articles were published on journalism and mass communication education in a number of countries, ranging from small to big and covering a wide variety of geopolitical and sociocultural spectrum. They provided useful and informative glimpse into the many shapes and sizes of the world's journalism and mass communication education programs. Significant changes Judging from the manuscripts submitted to this journal and other published reports, since the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 and the former Soviet Union in 1991, and amid the worldwide democratization phenomenon, the past few years have witnessed significant changes in the quantity and quality of journalism and mass communication education around the world. New programs have emerged in countries where there was none before and existing programs have been expanded to keep up with the pace of time or to take advantage of the newfound freedom and opportunity. The political interest in journalism and mass communication education outside the United States is rooted in the belief that professional training in skills and knowledge will prepare future and working journalists in other countries to do a better job, which in turn will help forge the foundation for an open and free society that would best serve the American interests abroad. In one way or another, the five articles in this special issue have something to offer in that each tackles within a comparative context a larger problem in journalism and mass communication education at the international level that is often missing in many previous descriptive studies. It should be pointed out that these five articles by no means offer a representative picture of the total reality. Any inclusion from the world's rich pool of journalism and mass communication programs is bound to be delimited by, or biased toward, what is available in the selection process. Readers will certainly notice that countries in such regions as Latin America, Middle East and Southeast Asia are conspicuously absent. Their exclusion was in part by default due to lack of submission and in part by design as a result of the review process. …

This article explores the challenges surrounding the Scottish media graduate landscape after the COVID-19 pandemic. Contributing factors that impact Scotland-based students and educators include a shift in the jobs market, altering pedagogies during and post-pandemic, and social drivers including fewer students choosing media pathways of study due to the cost-of-living crisis. This study draws on insights from 40 students at five Scottish universities, all of whom graduated in the summer of 2023. The research presents a window into the mindset and expectations of this post-pandemic graduating class while drawing on current and relevant literature. In addition, the paper includes reaction from industry and academic experts in Scotland and questions what can be done to address trends surrounding the stability and sustainability of journalism education. The experts include senior broadcasters, an established media educator who has worked across further education and higher education in Scotland while also being a national news editor, and one of Scotland’s most experienced journalism educators who is the chair of the World Journalism Education Council. This work is predominantly qualitative, drawing on a mixed research approach of expert interviewing and surveys while providing recommendations for journalism educators.

Fact-checking has become a global industry, with more than 417 fact-checking outlets in 100 countries operating in 69 languages (Stencel, Ryan & Luther, 2023). According to the Duke Reporters’ Lab, half of the world’s fact checkers are associated with media outlets, but there are also 24 affiliated with academic institutions. Although the work is time consuming and resource intensive, fact-checking has increasingly been introduced to journalism programmes at universities and in professional settings. This expert article brings together some insights from a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Journalism Education Council (WJEC) roundtable event ‘Fact-Check and Verification as Core Journalism Curriculum’ hosted by RMIT University in Australia in 2021, alongside relevant literature exploring the nature and presence of fact-check based education approaches at that time. It concludes that while fact-checking and verification are important skills for student journalists, fact checkers do not necessarily need to be journalists, nor indeed have journalistic training. However, more students are needed who are excellent journalists and the authors argue that fact-checking is just part of that training.

Fact-checking has become a global industry, with more than 417 fact-checking outlets in 100 countries operating in 69 languages (Stencel, Ryan & Luther, 2023). According to the Duke Reporters’ Lab, half of the world’s fact checkers are associated with media outlets, but there are also 24 affiliated with academic institutions. Although the work is time consuming and resource intensive, fact-checking has increasingly been introduced to journalism programmes at universities and in professional settings. This expert article brings together some insights from a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Journalism Education Council (WJEC) roundtable event ‘Fact-Check and Verification as Core Journalism Curriculum’ hosted by RMIT University in Australia in 2021, alongside relevant literature exploring the nature and presence of fact-check based education approaches at that time. It concludes that while fact-checking and verification are important skills for student journalists, fact checkers do not necessarily need to be journalists, nor indeed have journalistic training. However, more students are needed who are excellent journalists and the authors argue that fact-checking is just part of that training.

For years, journalism education training in the Pacific has relied on donor funded short courses and expatriate media educators but in recent times this has been changing with the growth of more journalism schools at both universities and technical institutes and a more home grown actively qualified staff and proliferating research programmes. These changes can be reflected with the establishment of the new advocacy group, Media Educators Pacific (MEP). This is chaired by Misa Vicky Lepou, the president and she is also the head of journalism at the National University of Samoa. This body has a mission to promote and deliver the highest professional standards of training, education and research in media and journalism education relevant to the Pacific and beyond. In a region where the news media and journalism education have been forced to confront major hurdles such as military coups, as in Fiji; ethnic conflict, as in the Solomon Islands; and two rival governments and the ruthless crushing of student protests in Papua New Guinea in June 2016, major questions are faced. Along with critical development issues such as climate change and resources degradation, what are the challenges ahead for teaching contemporary journalists? These were some of the issues explored by this panel at the Fourth World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC) conference in Auckland in July 2016. The panel was chaired by the Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie. Speakers were Emily Matasororo of the University of Papua New Guinea, Shailendra Singh of the University of the South Pacific, Misa Vicky Lepou of the National University of Samoa and Charlie David Mandavah of the Vanuatu Institute of Technology. Eliki Drugunalevu of the University of the South Pacific provided a summing up.

This study traces the colorful history of the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) as an alliance of primarily midwestern editors in the 1920s to a slightly more diverse 1,000-member organization cautiously poised to enter the 21st century. Using minutes, correspondence, interviews, official proceedings, and other in-house documents, Pratte shows how the loosely knit organization, serving as an independent bridge between the more liberal ranks of the reporters and the more conservative publishers, has been absorbed into the corporate culture. The history, presented in both chronological and topical form, discusses the leadership and lack of leadership concerning such issues as ethics, freedom of the press, world press freedom, newspaper economics, journalism education, diversity, and minority affairs. As the first critical history of the professional, elite organization of editors to be written by an independent outside source, this work suggests ASNE has provided ordinary leadership for extraordinary times.

Momentum has been building toward the international networking of journalism educators, as evidenced by, among other events and trends, the second World Journalism Education Congress in South Africa, July 5–7, 2010. Previously, there were “parachute professors” and “the transfer of an ideology” from global journalism centers outward. The example of long-standing global journalists' and publishers' organizations provides a model for educators; the success of two World Journalism Education Congresses (and strong interest in a third), fundraising opportunities, and other factors suggest further progress is possible and likely. An international organization such as the existing World Journalism Education Council could even help overcome local resource limits and job stresses by helping to link journalism educators on a national or regional basis to those agencies who have resources.

Good journalism remains central to the needs of the Pacific and her people. Good journalism education is central to this issue of Pacific Journalism Review, which features a selection of papers on journalism education in the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand. Drawn mostly from the papers presented to the Fourth World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC16), and the preconference organised by the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) and the Pacific Media Centre with the Media Educators Pacific (MeP) at the Auckland University of Technology in July, they all reflect the importance of good journalism and good journalism education. Speaking at the opening of the preconference, University of Auckland Associate Professor Toeolesulusulu Damon Salesa said the profession was vital for bringing the Pacific community together. Dr Salesa, director of the newly founded New Zealand Institute for Pacific Research, which sponsored five Pacific media educators to attend the conferences, said journalism helped people engage in the public sphere.

I went to graduate school so I could be a teacher. Fresh from the advertising industry, I was thrilled to be liberated from the constraints of a micro-managed time sheet, and amazed that with just a word or two, students teetered on the edge of their seats hanging on my every word. They were enthralled that they had a teacher who had done and they were going to learn the secrets so they could do it, too. If I were only a moderately successful copywriter, working at an Atlanta agency that absolutely no one had ever heard of, it was all lost in the glory of war stories I could tell my eager students. All so they could become copywriters just like me. Only something funny happened on the way to getting my degree. I discovered the field of mass communication. I discovered the practicality of theory. I discovered the joys of data analysis. In short, I discovered that I wanted to be a professor. I also discovered that it was time to leave the war stories behind and figure out what this profession was all about. I learned by reading, writing, teaching, and talking to colleagues, of course. But, I learned the most by getting involved in the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. I embraced everything about AEJMC. I went to paper sessions, bought papers, attended business meetings, hit the socials, you name it-and now thirteen years out of graduate school, I find myself at the end of my run with the Council of Divisions. It's now time to reflect on how AEJMC has impacted not only me, but also the field of journalism and mass communication. First, our organization is large so change comes slowly. The relationship between membership growth and the divisions and interest group expansion is close. Rarely does a division or interest group disband. So, logically, the older divisions tend to be the largest and the most stable-and carry the most weight. For example, the Newspaper and Advertising divisions typically garner large numbers of convention paper submissions, and, therefore, have a strong presence at the convention. Given their strong presence, other divisions want to co-sponsor panels with them, which give them an even bigger presence. A few brave souls periodically talk about whether the divisions need to reorganize, but they are so stable and so normal, no one wants to make the leap. And, then, even as we create for study (business journalism, community journalism, entertainment studies, religion and media, to name a few), we do that in addition to all of the traditional of study. The new areas in search of a co-sponsor at the convention end up being fairly traditional because they have to be sponsored by the traditional divisions. And the problem is that many of these panels then lose some of the cutting edge and are responses to the structure of the organization rather than to the the things we're thinking about. Graduate education is important. One of the best benefits of AEJMC is how it exalts graduate education. Given that the submitted research papers are blind reviewed, professors and graduate students compete for acceptance on the same level. As a result, we are privy to the bright minds beginning to climb the academic ladder. The down side, however, is that these graduate students have to be prolific to compete in the job market. So, they submit papers to divisions that have a large enough presence to accept large numbers of papers-again, the more traditionally oriented divisions, which perpetuates the academic cycle again and again. I have been reviewing manuscripts for many divisions for more than a decade. Every single year, I can count on reviewing papers about attitudes toward ads; a new look on agenda setting; and, for the past ten years, at least one paper that investigates how people are using the Web. We contribute entry-level workers, but are we contributing deep-thinking citizens? A few years ago, the Accrediting Council of Education in Journalism and Mass Communications eased its inside/outside hours of journalism and mass communications courses from 90/30 to 80/40 (a maximum allowance of 40 hours of journalism and mass communication courses), which means students can take more classes in their field-if they can fit them into their schedules. …

Since the launch of the first Arabic-speaking journalism education program in Egypt in the late 1930s, this academic sector has made slow, yet significant headways into supporting the development of professional journalistic practices in the Arab world. While some Arab world journalism programs have managed to secure international accreditation, others have earnestly enhanced learning outcomes through stronger engagement with the media industry and the accommodation of digital features into their curricula. But an online survey of Arab world journalism education programs carried out by the author in 2019 suggests that this academic sector remains hugely underdeveloped in both curricular contents and professional methodologies. The author argues that for journalism education to successfully serve as an agent of positive change across the Arab region, it has to embrace four key standards: integral interdisciplinary knowledge, balanced theory and practice, strong engagement with the media industry, and socially and culturally relevant ethical and professional values.

At present, in connection with the renewal of public consciousness and views, new judgments have been made from the point of view of studying literary heritage, and historical weighing has been undertaken. Thanks to independence, when looking at our past, analyzing previously published journalistic works, the reality that was sealed as a result of the Prohibition of the Soviet ideology, which was born by the Marxist-Leninist methodology, turned to one-on-one publicity. The article analyzes the special influence of Abai's heritage on his students, as a result of which the formation of their creativity, their leaders, and their value for society are considered. Hakim analyzes the journalistic world of his students, epistolary texts that firmly convey the socio-social, historical, political, spiritual face of that era, determines their ideological orientation, artistic features and contribution to the national tradition of journalism.Folk problems in the works of Abai's students are analyzed from the point of view of independence, analysis and conclusions are given. The most acute issues of journalistic heritage (education, enlightenment, settlement, religion, language, etc.) are removed and revised from an independent point of view. Analyzing the works of the leading poets around Hakim, it is proposed to systematize educational and educational journalism; religious and educational journalism; journalism about the Earth, artistic journalism; philosophical journalism; journalism that determined the appearance of the times, etc.