Town and gown convergence: Does journalism education meet 21st century media industry expectations in Nigeria?

The problematic nature of news media framing of Islam and Muslims by Western news media has been well established by researchers. While research has focused on the ways such representations occur and to a lesser extent their effects on individuals and communities, we know little about why journalists frame Islam and Muslims in the Western news media in the ways they do. While studies point to a lack of knowledge about Islam and Muslims in non-Muslim populations, we know very little about how this translates to news media practitioners. This study draws from a far broader research project focused on encouraging more informed reporting of Islam and Muslims by the Australian news media. In this study, we establish the baseline knowledge of a purposive sample of Australian news media practitioners and journalism students about Islam and reporting stories about Islam and Muslims before and after targeted training. We find a relatively small investment in time significantly shifts this knowledge in both areas. Targeted training that includes a focus on basic facts about Islam as well as raising awareness of the resources that are now available to journalists may go some way towards improving reportage of Islam and Muslims.

Entrepreneurship and start-up activities are seen as a key response to recent upheavals in the media industry: Newly founded ventures can act as important drivers for industry transformation and renewal, pioneering new products, business models, and organizational designs (e.g. Achtenhagen, 2017; Buschow & Laugemann, 2020). In principle, media students represent a crucial population of nascent entrepreneurs: individuals who will likely become founders of start-ups (Casero-Ripollés et al., 2016). However, their willingness to start a new business is generally considered to be rather low (Goyanes, 2015), and for journalism students, the idea of innovation tends to be conservative, following traditional norms and professional standards (Singer & Broersma, 2020). In a sample of Spanish journalism students, López-Meri et al. (2020) found that one of the main barriers to entrepreneurial intentions is that students feel they lack knowledge and training in entrepreneurship. In the last 10 years, a wide variety of entrepreneurship education courses have been set up in media departments of colleges and universities worldwide. These programs have been designed to sensitize and prepare communications, media and journalism students to think and act entrepreneurially (e.g. Caplan et al., 2020; Ferrier, 2013; Ferrier & Mays, 2017; Hunter & Nel, 2011). Entrepreneurial competencies and practices not only play a crucial role for start-ups, but, in imes of digital transformation, are increasingly sought after by legacy media companies as well (Küng, 2015). At the Department of Journalism and Communication Research, Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, Germany, we have been addressing these developments with the “Media Entrepreneurship” program. The course, established in 2013, aims to provide fundamental knowledge of entrepreneurship, as well as promoting students‘ entrepreneurial thinking and behavior. This article presents the pedagogical approach of the program and investigates learning outcomes. By outlining and evaluating the Media Entrepreneurship program, this article aims to promote good practices of entrepreneurship education in communications, media and journalism, and to reflect on the limitations of such programs.

Journalism education is a unique field of study under a liberty of social science because it works in context. The surrounding society gives a lot of impact on how journalism has been practiced and educated. However, there are not many studies on journalism education that focuses on the elements of its society (i.e. gender, ethnic, religion, class, etc.), what more studies from the students’ perspectives. Therefore, this study attempts to fill the gap by having students of journalism as its samples. This article presents an extract from a huge study on journalism education in Malaysia. It studies the journalism students’ perceptions and expectations of journalism education in Malaysia and identifies whether different ethnics in Malaysia make any differences in their perceptions and expectations. Using quantitative methodology, 187 sets of survey questionnaires were collected from Malaysian journalism students who are studying at public universities in Malaysia. The result shows significant differences in terms of good journalism practice, news gathering skills and news production skills between three main ethnics of Malaysian journalism students.

The purpose of this research is to conduct a systematic study on the impact of globalisation on higher education in journalism and communication in Hong Kong. Globalisation, propelled by rapid advancements in information and communication technology, has reoriented the basic purpose and function of tertiary institutions, altered the market for higher education, and redefined the role of the state. At the same time, global forces have also reshaped the media landscape and undermined the traditional business model of mass media which has served the media industry for almost a century. The media industry is in the process of transforming in order to adapt to the digital age and journalism and communication education itself is at an inflexion point.
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\nThe role of journalism and communication education has always been a passive one and based on an industry model that focuses on training students for jobs in the media industry. In addition to fulfilling the needs of the media industry, what other vital roles can and should journalism and communication education play in this increasingly globalised world? To answer this question, it is necessary to first understand the impact of globalisation on journalism and communication as an academic discipline and reexamine its role in society.
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\nThis study investigates the impact of globalisation on journalism and communication education in Hong Kong from two different aspects. One is the impact of globalisation on the higher education system in Hong Kong and its implications for journalism and communication education. The other one is the impact of globalisation on the media industry and how it is affecting the development of journalism and communication education in Hong Kong.
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\nUsing Burton Clark’s Triangle of Coordination model as a conceptual framework, data were collected from in-depth interviews and relevant documents. Interviews were conducted with three different groups of stakeholders: State (officials involved with higher education policies), Academic (academics in journalism and communication) and Market (media executives and recent journalism and communication graduates).
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\nThe findings of this study reveal a number of issues that are pertinent to the future of the development of journalism and communication education. First, globalisation is taken to mean internationalisation in higher education, and internationalisation means exchange activities and climbing the league tables in international rankings for publicly-funded institutions. Second, the pressing needs of the media industry for a workforce with more technical skills and knowledge of new media, coupled with a higher education system that demands more efficiency and accountability, have driven journalism and communication programmes to become increasingly market relevant and less socially responsible. Third, the type of skills that journalism and communication programmes think the industry needs is not necessarily what the industry is looking for. Fourth, neither the industry nor journalism and communication educators understand the transforming media landscape in the digital age as well as they should.

College-level journalism education was advanced as early as 1869 by the Missouri Press Association, whose members pointed to the beneficial results on both the preparation of professional journalists and on the influence the press would have on the destiny of the country. This attitude stood in contrast, however, to the general scorn and ridicule that most nineteenth-century journalists heaped on the notion of journalism education, including the first, short-lived program established at Washington College that same year by Robert E. Lee.1 When Willard Blyer at the University of Wisconsin articulated his vision for journalism education in 1906, he specified a four-year degree program that included one-fourth journalism courses and three-fourths science and humanities courses. In contrast, Walter Williams' freestanding professional school at the University of Missouri opened in 1908 with an emphasis on hands-on training and the practical aspects of journalism.2 These two competing visions for journalism education have defined the culture ever since. In addition to the academy's own schizophrenic approach, five national newspaper associations worked alongside the major educational institutions at the time in creating the first journalism accreditation organization in 1939. Hence, the cultural transmission of knowledge to succeeding generations of journalism educators has included both a deeply embedded defensive reaction to the scorn of professionals who discount the entire endeavor, and an attempt to court professional endorsement (through the accreditation process and efforts to help students secure jobs upon graduation) while meeting the standards of the academy. Of course, this is not unique to journalism education. Professional fields such as law, medicine, architecture, and engineering have faced the same issues in navigating the proper balance between transmitting a set of specific professional skills, and preparing students with as much analytic and reasoning ability as possible for facing any situation that may arise. One observer argues that medicine and engineering education tends toward the first model while architecture and law education tends toward the second.3 This same observer argues that journalism education (along with social work, nursing, teaching, and librarianship) falls into a third category in which educators are unable to agree on the knowledge base or the appropriate pedagogy for their profession. According to this argument, because journalism education suffers from ambiguity of purpose, the students who graduate from these programs suffer a lack of status relative to the graduates of programs that have a coherent set of beliefs and values. These problems, among others, may have provided the impetus for the recent changes in journalism accreditation standards, which include an articulation for the first time of the core and that journalism and mass communication graduates must master in order for the educational institution to be accredited. The very terms values and competencies suggest that journalism educators may be trying to locate the balance between habits of mind and skill acquisition that could resolve some of the historic ambiguity of purpose in journalism education. At the same time, sweeping social, economic and technological trends are influencing the practice of communication and the traditions of the academy. Both media organizations and academic institutions are finding it difficult to meet the diversity standards that a global society requires. Both are under severe ettonomic pressure. And both the media industry and educational institutions at all levels are struggling to understand and keep up with the technological changes that are challenging every assumption they have had for decades. These much larger social, economic, and technological influences on both higher education and the media professions color the relationship between the two. …

Mass Media technologies are developing rapidly and media has become an integral part of our day to day life. In this context, the development of media and journalism education in schools, universities and other institutions has been confronted with many challenges. Although there are training courses and educators covering a range of skills for print journalism, broadcast, telecast and online media, there are still many issues pertaining to the quality control, practical relevance and affordability of media and journalism education. Human resource management policies of media companies do not recognize priority on continuation of education of journalists (Gunawardene, 2015). This study focuses on challenges confronted by media education in Sri Lanka. The intensive interviews and focus group discussions have been applied to collect data and information. It has transpired during the research that media and journalism syllabi should be revised with more theoretical, conceptual and practical inputs based on media education and media literacy. It is necessary to make the public in general aware of media texts. The ever fluctuating dynamics of the media industry and media education has detrimentally affected the general perception on media.

This article deals with Nordic journalism educators’ conceptions of journalism by placing the concept of normativity at the center. The values, norms and ideas concerning journalism and journalistic practice have previously been studied by journalists and journalism students around the world and in the Nordics, while the Nordic journalism educators’ conceptions have remained more or less without attention. Nevertheless, journalism educators play a crucial role in defining what journalism is and what it is not, and thus largely affect future practitioners’ ideas of journalism. Using a questionnaire that has been employed in previous studies, journalism educators within the academic journalism training in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden (n = 115) were surveyed in terms of their conceptions. It was found that the journalism educators, of which 35 per cent had a doctoral degree, still largely subscribe to the ideas of the welfare state. In addition, the ideas of slow, investigative, constructive and solutions-based journalism have gained high popularity among the Nordic educators, which, we argue, dovetails well with the pedagogical aims of journalism education.

Racial inequities and the lack of racial representation within Canada's journalism industry are persistent. Existing literature on the underrepresentation of Black, Indigenous or a person of colour (BIPOC) journalists in workplaces and journalism students in academia points to the need for research on the lived experiences BIPOC individuals endure in both journalism education and Canadian newsrooms. In journalism education and practice alike, BIPOC individuals brave issues of microaggressions, institutional racism and pigeonholing (Zoledziowski, 2018). The research completed for this project recounts multiple experiences of racism that journalists face in the journalism industry and shows similarities and differences in the experiences of BIPOC individuals in practice and education. Many established reporters start their careers by enrolling in journalism schools. BIPOC students face challenges of systemic racism in post-secondary education and, in addition, largely do not see their experiences and perspectives reflected in the overall curriculum. Diversity training is not widely prevalent in Canadian journalism schools and curricula is largely taught through colonial and Eurocentric lenses (Todorova, 2016). BIPOC students who have multifaceted identities, including gender, ethnicity, religion, or ability, may face additional discrimination in journalism education, in addition to microaggressions due to their race. There is also little research on the lack of BIPOC students in journalism education and a lack of official statistics on the number of BIPOC students in Canadian journalism programs. Using a scoping review of existing literature, this Major Research Paper discusses racism in the Canadian journalism landscape and identifies future explorations in BIPOC Canadian journalism research, especially focusing on BIPOC students in journalism education. This MRP may also serve as a stepping-stone for areas of future research regarding student journalists in post-secondary journalism education.

Racial inequities and the lack of racial representation within Canada's journalism industry are persistent. Existing literature on the underrepresentation of Black, Indigenous or a person of colour (BIPOC) journalists in workplaces and journalism students in academia points to the need for research on the lived experiences BIPOC individuals endure in both journalism education and Canadian newsrooms. In journalism education and practice alike, BIPOC individuals brave issues of microaggressions, institutional racism and pigeonholing (Zoledziowski, 2018). The research completed for this project recounts multiple experiences of racism that journalists face in the journalism industry and shows similarities and differences in the experiences of BIPOC individuals in practice and education. Many established reporters start their careers by enrolling in journalism schools. BIPOC students face challenges of systemic racism in post-secondary education and, in addition, largely do not see their experiences and perspectives reflected in the overall curriculum. Diversity training is not widely prevalent in Canadian journalism schools and curricula is largely taught through colonial and Eurocentric lenses (Todorova, 2016). BIPOC students who have multifaceted identities, including gender, ethnicity, religion, or ability, may face additional discrimination in journalism education, in addition to microaggressions due to their race. There is also little research on the lack of BIPOC students in journalism education and a lack of official statistics on the number of BIPOC students in Canadian journalism programs. Using a scoping review of existing literature, this Major Research Paper discusses racism in the Canadian journalism landscape and identifies future explorations in BIPOC Canadian journalism research, especially focusing on BIPOC students in journalism education. This MRP may also serve as a stepping-stone for areas of future research regarding student journalists in post-secondary journalism education.

ESSAY Introduction Journalism education has been examined from numerous frameworks during its 131-year history, and every step of the way there have been discourse and debates about its nature from educators, professionals, journalism program graduates and administrators. Nowhere in these debates have the characteristics of the learning environment been examined. Ignoring the study of the learning environment in which journalism education takes place is a fatal flaw, and needs to be corrected as we begin the next century and a new millennium. Instead of traveling the same research paths again and again, journalism researchers need to take paths that break new ground. Applying the theory of experiential learning to journalism education offers one such path. Experiential researcher P. Honey proposed characteristics of a learning environment in an article in a book entitled Training and Development Yearbook in 1992.1 Before laying the groundwork for a new research area, I would like to consider historical perspectives of journalism education. Historical Perspectives The first classes started at what is now called Washington and Lee University of Lexington, Virginia, and during the first twenty years, journalism classes focused on teaching students to be printers, A. A. Sutton said in the book for journalists in 1945.2 During the 1888/1889 academic year, Cornell University offered writing courses. Other universities followed with such courses, and departments were organized. The University of Missouri started the first journalism department in 1908. The teaching of writing courses set off a debate about whether journalism students needed to study writing, a debate taken up by T. Campbell-- Copeland in an 1893 book entitled The Ladder to Journalism.3 Many thought journalism was best learned on the job. Historians have left a trail of discourse in the form of articles and books on the developments in teaching journalism. Those researchers include W. Schramm, who wrote an article in 1947 titled Education for Journalism: Vocation, General or Professional, and published in Journalism Quarterly, W. D. Sloan, who wrote an article in 1990 entitled Search of Itself: A History of Journalism Education, which was included in the book Makers of the Media Mind: journalism Educators and Their Ideas; 5 and Frank L. Mott, who wrote a book in 1962 entitled American Journalism: A history 1690-1960. 6 Journalism courses grew to include principles of journalism, ethics, newsgathering, editorial writing, the law of libel, history, newspaper administration and comparative journalism, advertising, public relations and reporting. The instructors were professional news people. Practical training was the norm until Joseph Pulitzer funded the School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York, resulting in a radical curriculum change that brought liberal arts and the sciences and the beginning of Ph.D.s teaching in the classrooms, according to R. T. Baker in the 1954 book The Bicentennial History of Columbia.' The issues became whether the liberal arts and sciences were needed, and if they were, what kind of balance there should be between journalism and the liberal arts classes, and whether Ph.D.s should replace professional people. The next change in journalism education brought theory into the curriculum, and this change brought more debate between those who favored practice and those who favored adding theory to practice. In the early 1900s, schools, departments and programs were formed, and the issue became whether the programs should focus just on journalism skills and related courses or should include a broad base in the liberal arts and sciences. Other issues have been raised over the years-issues such as the centrality of journalism to the university setting, who should teach journalism courses, what skills and competencies need to be taught, whether journalism should be merged with other communication programs and whether a journalism program is better if accredited. …

With the rise of digital technologies and the opening-up in society, China’s journalism education has entered a period of fast growth. While the media environment is adapting to the changes, journalism education is still developing in a traditional manner, thus failing to provide up-to-date teaching for students. Meanwhile, because of gaps between academics and professionals, graduates are not appreciated by media industries. On the basis of the background of media development and social reality in China, the article endeavours to elaborate on issues and challenges of Chinese journalism education by revealing the relationship between policy, media and journalism education. The article suggests that the problems in journalism education are caused by the social system rather than by education. Therefore, instead of focusing on issues invited by the new technology, market or the conflict between the academic and professionals, it is more crucial for Chinese journalism education to face the challenge caused by the social system, balancing between policy and professionalism, in order to find a way for journalism education to develop in a Chinese context.

The number of formal programs educating and training young people to work in journalism and mass communication media organizations has grown substantially worldwide since the 1920s. Estimates put the number of college and university programs well beyond 2,500, with the United States and China exhibiting the largest numbers. These estimates do not count many of the private training programs offered by for-profit companies. Beyond these programs, media organizations, foundations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), journalist associations, and media unions offer training to help students and journalists update their skills in a field undergoing rapid change. Much of this growth is because journalism itself has commanded attention from organizations of all kinds in the 21st century: governments, private industry, nonprofits, NGOs, sports organizations—leaders in virtually all forms of human activity have come to believe that media play a powerful role in shaping public opinion. This attention has led societies around the globe to invest in training journalists and media workers. Some of these investments have been through higher education. Others have been through private training institutes and organizations, NGOs, and private foundations. New types of media jobs have developed since the 1970s. Strategic communication and promotion industries dedicated to shaping public discourse have expanded around the world. New media technologies have changed journalism itself, creating new kinds of journalism jobs worldwide. Digital innovation has changed the structure of traditional media industries. As new forms have emerged, these digital innovations have expanded both the types and numbers of media jobs available. These new types of media jobs have changed how journalism students are educated and trained. Demand for trained workers has increased and skill sets have changed. This has altered thinking about journalism education around the globe. Journalism educators have introduced new types of training into the curriculum, including entirely new topics and new types of majors in many countries. Similarities in how journalism is taught, based on shared educational needs and skills, have grown, while historically important ideological differences in teaching journalism have weakened. Shared challenges include how to teach media technologies, ethics, fact-checking, and coping with disinformation and fake news. They also include preparing journalism students to deal with strategic manipulation, partisan hostility, threats, and shifting concepts of appropriate online media discourse in social media, blogs, tweets, and online comments. Despite these common challenges and shared approaches, unique circumstances in each society still lead to differences in how journalism is taught around the world. These differences can be quite pronounced. These circumstances include resource shortages, competing training traditions, weak industry support, sociopolitical differences, and censorship. Across the globe it is clear that education in journalism and media will continue to expand as changing media technologies exert a growing influence on public discourse. Journalism education is changing in every country as: (1) technologies reshape it, (2) media theories shift teaching techniques, (3) new technologies create newly shared ideas about teaching journalism, (4) unique circumstances in each country still produce different approaches, and (5) it expands in different regions of the world.

The Qatari media system is emerging rapidly to cater for the rapid socio-economic change and sustainable development the country is witnessing since its independence in December 18th, 1997. Since the accession of H.H Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa AI Thani to the reins of the country, the media have been promoting freedom, democracy and social change. Qatari media are fostering Arab and Islamic heritage and morals as well as national, Arab and Islamic causes. Established in 1971, Qatar continues to undergo a period of intense socio-economic change. Although Qatar is a small nation in terms of area (4,416 sq mi) and population (2,116,400), it has one of the best media infrastructure in the region for press, broadcast, and electronic media. The country has four dailies in Arabic, three in English, and more than two hundred magazines of both general and specialized interest. Qatar also has several satellite television channels and radio stations, as well as the famous Al Jazeera network and be INSPORTS channels. I...

In recent years, the media industry in Bangladesh has undergone significant transformation, influenced by rapid technological advancements, digital media integration, and shifting audience expectations. These changes have created a complex landscape where journalists are required to adapt to new platforms, tools, and production processes. As of January 2025, Bangladesh has 55 public universities and 114 private universities. Among these universities, only 9 public and 15 private institutions offer journalism education.However, despite the growing demands of industry, journalism education in the country has struggled to keep pace with these developments. There is an increasing concern that the skills and knowledge imparted through academic programs may no longer align with the practical needs of the media sector, leaving graduates inadequately prepared for the challenges of modern journalism. The changing landscape of the news media industry has rendered university-level journalism programs inadequate in meeting its professional requirements. The number of journalism graduates coming out of universities is much higher compared to the scope of suitable work opportunities for them. The current study aimed to investigate the local media industries’ demands which are challenging the journalism education of Bangladesh. The current study explored to identify the gap between the content taught in university-level journalism programs and the requirements needed for professional excellence in the industry. In-depth interviews and case studies were employed as qualitative methods in this study. The study found that journalism courses were confined to theoretical and textbook-based knowledge sharing where practical and fieldwork facilities are needed in the departments. Lack of ample funding has also been a persistent issue for public universities of Bangladesh for initiating hands-on experience facilities. However, this study also revealed that there is hardly any partnership between the department and the media industry which can create scope to explore the job market for the students.

In Soviet period (1917-1991), journalists in Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) were trained for one purpose-to serve State. Under Soviet theory of press, media was an arm of state, never to question, always to promote. As controls over press have eased since 1990, journalism training has changed as well. Courses in Communist Party history and ideology, and criticism of Western journalism, have disappeared. Practical courses have been added, and courses such as investigative reporting have appeared, often taught by U.S. journalism educators. Journalists from United States and Western countries have trained Russian journalists throughout transition period since 1991. Each country offering training has a different model of journalism education and a different media system, and variety of approaches have led to a certain amount of competition, and thus, tension. There has been an enormous amount of funding available in United States for developing Russian journalism with a stated view of promoting democracy. American professors and journalists have been enthusiastically sharing their model of journalism education-and form of media-with Russians. There has also been funding from governments for media training in Russia, and result is a proxy war for hearts and minds of Russian journalists and journalism students. As Yassen Zassoursky, dean of Moscow University School of Journalism and head of Union of Russian Journalism Schools, stated at an international symposium on Russian Media in Transition in Stirling, Scotland in February 1996, the Third World was a battleground for new ideas during colonization; Russia is now. All countries think their model of media is bestGermany, France, United Kingdom, and, most insistent, United States. Russia is a country in flux, with something of a vacuum created by departure of Communist Party. There are democratic forces, there are Nationalistic forces, and there are Communist influences at work, and some uncertainty as to where country is heading. Into this vacuum has jumped vested international interests which see great potential in creating future markets. Will Russia become a capitalist democracy? A socialist democracy? A bit of both? What kind of mass media system will emerge from this period of transition? What will overall political economy of media be, and how will journalists be educated? The answers are far from clear at this point in history. In this article, I focus on past and current Russian journalism models (and suggest that we examine latter model carefully), European model, which might be more appropriate to Russian cultural and historical circumstances, and U.S. model.1 The three models are examined for purposes of comparison, and questions are raised about suitability of U.S. model because of its structure and content. Conversely, there are aspects in Russian and models that might be considered for adoption by U.S. journalism educators. The paper concludes by critiquing commercialism of U.S. system of media being promoted in Russia and Eastern Europe by U.S. Government and private foundations, and questions its appropriateness for export to Russia. Russian journalism education A brief history of how Russia educated its journalists in Communist era is in order because it resulted in system of journalism education-mostly still in place-designed for a media system which was based on criminal sanctions against denigration of state and communist system, on fear promotion by KGB police; on a policy of tolerating no dissent from Party line, on loyalty over competence, and on a formal censorship agency (Daniloff, 1993, p. 215). Between 1917 and 1991, journalists were either university graduates who eventually went into a writing career, or high school graduates who joined newspapers and worked their way up. …