Journalism Education Research Articles

Journalism education ‘truth’ challenges: An age of growing hate, intolerance and disinformation

Commentary: This keynote commentary at the Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) conference with the theme Change, Adaptation and Culture: Media and Communication in Pandemic Times is addressed through a discussion of three main issues: 1. The Covid-19 Pandemic and how it is being coped with; 2. A parallel Infodemic—a crisis of communication, and the surge of ‘disinformation’ and truth challenges in an ‘age of hatred and intolerance’; and 3. The global Climate Emergency and the disproportionate impact this is having on the Asia-Pacific region. Finally the author concludes with an overview of some helpful strategies for communicators and educators from his perspective as a journalist and media academic with a mission.

Gazetecilik Eğitiminde Dijital Eğilimler: Türkiye’de Gazetecilik Lisans Eğitiminin Üniversiteler Arası Karşılaştırılması

Bilgi iletişim teknolojilerindeki gelişmeler birçok meslek grubunda ve akademik alanda yapısal ve içerik boyutlu dönüşümlerin yaşanmasına neden oldu. Teknolojik çıktıları aktif olarak kullanan meslek grubunu oluşturması bakımından, gelişen teknolojiler, gazetecilik eğitiminde bir zamanlar kabul edilen akademik eğitim pratiklerinin ve teorilerinin yenilenmesini gerekli kılmaktadır. Özellikle de Web 2.0 teknolojisinin gelişmesi kamuoyunun içeriğe erişme pratiklerini değiştirmiş, gazeteciliğin de dönüşümünü gündeme getirmiştir. Bu nedenle 21. yüzyılda gazeteciliğin, tek başına sosyolojik düşünme gücüne, meslek etiğine, güçlü bir kuramsal temele sahip kişilerden ziyade tüm bu niteliklere ek olarak çağın dilini anlayabilecek, ihtiyaçlarını karşılayabilecek, teknik bilgi ve program bilen dijital okur yazar kişilere ihtiyacı bulunmaktadır. Bu yalnızca eğitim alan bireye yüklenen bir işlev değildir. Ders müfredatlarının geleceğin gazetecilerini dijital çağın taleplerini karşılayabilecek niteliğe eriştirecek düzeyde donatılması da gerekmektedir. Bu sorunsal çerçevesinde çalışmada Türkiye’deki üniversitelerin gazetecilik lisans müfredatlarının dijitalleşmeye adapte olup olmadıklarını belirlemek amaçlanmıştır. YÖK Atlas üzerinden ‘gazetecilik’ ve ‘basın ve yayın’ isimli lisans programları olan 33’ü devlet, 6’sı vakıf olmak üzere 39 üniversite araştırmaya dâhil edilmiştir. Üniversitelerin Ders Bilgi Paketleri üzerinden dersler doküman incelemesi ile taranmıştır. Sonuçta ise gazetecilik lisans müfredatlarının grafik/tasarım ve yeni medya konularında yoğunlaştığı görülmüştür. Veri gazeteciliğinin müfredatlarda yaygın olarak yer almasına karşın yapay zekâ/robot gazeteciliğine yönelik derslerin tek bir üniversitede olduğu izlenmiştir.

Exploring the Normative Foundation of Journalism Education: Nordic Journalism Educators’ Conceptions of Future Journalism and Professional Qualifications

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.

Origen y evolución del modelo técnico-cultural en la enseñanza del periodismo en España (1887-1975)

Durante buena parte del siglo XX, la enseñanza del periodismo en España recorrió el camino hacia su actual consideración universitaria. Tradi-cionalmente, se ha pensado que el modelo de formación superior de los perio-distas españoles ha tenido un carácter mixto, combinando las asignaturas de carácter cultural, con las puramente técnicas. La finalidad de esta investigación es indagar con sistematicidad científica en el origen y proceso de evolución de este modelo mediante la presentación de las iniciativas pioneras no formales —de 1887 a 1926— y el análisis de las contenidas en los planes de estudio, desde los primeros momentos hasta que la disciplina periodística pasa a ser considerada formación universitaria de manera oficial. En total, este estudio longitudinal retrospectivo de carácter descriptivo comprende ocho décadas de historia (1887-1975) y un total de catorce planes de estudios de siete entidades formativas. La investigación constata empíricamente cómo todas esas etapas tienen un denominador común: el carácter mixto de los planes de estudios.

Decolonizing Journalism Education to Create Civic and Responsible Journalists in the West

ABSTRACT This paper sets out a case to decolonize journalism curricula to produce civic-minded journalists who are better prepared to report on multicultural societies. Through the examination of reading lists and module descriptions on UK accredited journalism degrees it is revealed, that the subject is dominated by journalism experiences grounded in western nations and that non-white perspectives are largely neglected. There is a discussion of what decolonizing the curriculum entails and a critique of journalism practice in the UK. Finally, there are recommendations to make journalism curricula inclusive based on findings from a project to narrow the attainment gap at De Montfort University. While there have been calls to make journalism education more international in its outlook, the terminology decolonizing is specifically used to denote the undoing of colonial legacies in creating ethnically and racially divided societies. There is a call to educate trainee journalists about racism and structural racism, and the ways it advantages some groups and disadvantages others. This would enable journalists to challenge longstanding biases and omissions that restrict the audience’s understanding of politics, histories and societies.

Historiography of journalism, current affairs commentation, and journalism education: Toh Lam Seng’s communication research and practice

<p>學者卓南生以新聞史研究和國際時評知名，歷任新加坡《星洲日報》社論委員與《聯合早報》東京特派員；而從上世紀80年代末在日本東京大學新聞研究所任教開始，投身中、日新聞教育三十餘年，迄今仍然以北京大學新聞學研究會為平臺，與青年學子保持對話。代表性著作為1990年、1998年、2002年及2015年出版的《中國近代報業發展史（1815-1874）》，與2010年、2020年出版的《東亞新聞事業論》等。本文從他幼年時期目睹南洋政治的經歷出發，並在日本與亞洲社會的變遷背景下，勾勒出卓南生在史論治學、時評寫作和新聞教育方面的思想觀點；而從中國報業的新聞發生史開始，經過長時期對日本社會、華文報業的親身經驗，及在時事評析與新聞教育中，發展出清晰穩固的亞洲視角，與論從史出的歷史是非觀。</p> <p> </p><p>Toh Lam Seng is a renowned scholar for his research on the history of journalism and a famous international affairs columnist. He worked as an editorial board member of Singapore’s Sin Chew Jit Poh and Lianhe Zaobao’s Tokyo correspondent. Starting from the late 1980s, when he began teaching at the Institute of Journalism and Communication Studies of the University of Tokyo late 1980s, Dr. Toh has been devoting himself in journalism education in China and Japan for more than 30 years. Currently, he still participates in the Institute of Journalism, Peking University and uses it as a platform to engage young scholars and students in dialogues. His representative works include The Beginnings of Modern Chinese Newspapers and their Development in the 19th Century (1815-1874) published in 1990, 1998, 2002, 2015, and East Asian Journalism published in 2010 and 2020. This study starts from Toh’s childhood experience, in which he witnessed the politics of Southeast Asia. Against the backdrop of social changes of Japan and other Asian societies, this study outlines Toh’s thoughts and views on historiography, column writing on international affairs, and journalism education. With his work on the history of the development of newspaper industry in China, his long years of personal experience of Japanese society and Chinese newspaper industry, and his career in international affairs column writing and Journalism education, he developed a clear and stable Asian perspective and an emphasis on historical evidence and critical analysis of history. </p> <p> </p>

Journalism and war responsibility: On the thoughts of Journalism of the “Research Society of Shiso no Kagaku” in Japan

<p>本文以卓南生2020年的專著《東亞新聞事業論》為起點，論述聚焦在「新聞學的戰爭責任」上；這焦點既是卓南生新聞史研究、時事評析，以及新聞教育的關鍵前提，更是了解當代日本不可或缺的實質範疇。戰前，日本新聞學著重傳播效能，許多菁英投身軍國主義宣傳，但在戰後，這批專業人士卻「轉向」成為協助美國建設民主日本、大眾傳播的執行要員；一時之間，言語雖能表達，但在傳播過程中無法有效傳達意義的「傳播隔閡」卻在大眾中普及開來。圍繞著1946年出版的雜誌《思想的科學》而於1949年成立的研究會，正是掌握這段歷史的關鍵角色，也能成為理解卓南生書寫脈絡的背景。結論揭示二戰後的新聞學如何成為日本的思想史課題，以有效參與當代文化建構的歷史變局。</p> <p> </p><p>Starting from Toh Lam Seng’s latest book titled “East Asian Journalism”, this study focused on the war responsibility of journalism, which is the key premise of Toh’s journalism history research, current affairs commentary, and journalism education, as well as the substantive domain that facilitates the understanding of contemporary Japan. Before World War II, Japanese journalism focused on the effectiveness of communication with many elites devoting themselves to militarism propaganda. However, after World War II, these elites became key executives in assisting the United States in turning Japan into a democracy with mass communication. However, at that time, a “communication gap” emerged among the general public as a result of ineffective delivery of meanings during the communication process despite the use of language for transmission of information. In order to grasp the history of this period, it is crucial to understand the key role played by the magazine Shiso no Kagaku (1946) and later by the Society for the Shiso no Kagaku (1949). This also constitutes the context in which Toh’s writings can be understood. The conclusion revealed how journalism after World War II became a subject of Japan’s intellectual history, which allows for its effective participation in the historical changes in contemporary cultural construction. </p> <p> </p>

BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN CLASSROOM AND NEWSROOM: A STUDY ON MEDIA EDUCATORS IN HARYANA, INDIA

The present study is an attempt to understand the strength, skills, and specialisation of the media educators working in different universities and colleges in Haryana. 60 media educators from 32 media institutions in the state were surveyed, and the heads of the departments of the different universities were interviewed. A study found that media education and educators are both in their 40th year in the state. Half of the media educators are from rural Haryana, and they are well qualified as per the UGC norms. 60% of media educators also have industry experience, and they have the skills and competence to teach and train the next generation of journalists in the state. Media educators are well versed in writing and reporting skills, but they are lacking in audio-video editing, production, and technological skills. A study suggests media educators need to do more hard work to be a bridge between the classroom and news rooms. Change in journalism education and industry is possible only through media education. Class rooms and media educators can be the change agents for bridging the gap between the newsroom and classrooms. To be the change, media educators need to be well trained, equipped, educated, and skilled in the new emerging areas of the journalism industry.

The discourses of data journalism

Becoming a data literate, technologically competent journalist is represented as a desirable goal that will benefit the individual, the industry and society as a whole. Data journalism skills are increasingly being taught in journalism programmes around the world. This article applies Foucault’s distinctive conceptualisation of discourse to critically examine data journalism as constructed in the ‘talk’ of its most visible pioneers. The analysis is driven by three distinctive aspects of Foucault’s theory of discourse – power, knowledge and materiality. Using these tools, I investigate how data journalism knowledge is produced, the practices that reinforce it and the strategic power relations it conceals. I argue that data journalism draws on four discourses – journalism, technology, enterprise and citizenship – and wraps itself in the power relations embedded in these prestigious discourses. I argue that there is a political imperative for journalism educators to examine these power relations because material injustices along race, gender, class lines are built into them and have consequences for our students and society.

Journalism Education in Turkey in the Spiral of Neoliberal Policies and Technological Transformation: Problems, Pursuits, and Suggestions

In recent years, radical changes in journalism due to political developments and technological innovations have accelerated the debate on the quality and future of journalism education. Today, as in the rest of the world, journalism academics in Turkey are faced with the need to restructure journalism education in line with the transformation of journalism and the problems as well as needs that come with it. Considering the structural problems of the media sector in Turkey and the need for quality journalism, the role of journalism academics in this process becomes even more important. On the other hand, in Turkey, where journalism education is a field with multifaceted problems because of neoliberal policies, how communication faculties and journalism departments can respond to the current needs of journalism education constitutes a critical issue. Based on these evaluations, this study focuses on the current needs and the pursuits for future journalism education of journalism academics in Turkey and their experiences under current conditions. With a qualitative research approach, interviews were conducted with seven faculty members of different backgrounds working in journalism departments affiliated to public and foundation universities in Turkey. According to the results, journalism academics had practices to structure training programs in line with the developments and needs in journalism and there were inequalities in this regard, especially in newly established departments. It was also revealed that the ongoing problems arising from higher education policies in journalism education generally complicate the efforts of journalism academics to respond to current needs.

قول الحقيقة للسلطة: مبادئ أساسية لتطوير تعليم الصحافة دوليًا

أدّى تظافر مجموعة من العوامل إلى الوصول بالصحافة وتدريسها إلى حافة الانهيار. ومن بين هذه العوامل صعود اليمين المتطرف، وتقدم التكنولوجيا الرقمية، وتدهور البنى الاقتصادية لوسائل الاعلام. وتقدم هذه العوامل متحدة مع تزايد عولمة الصحافة والاعلام تحدياتٍ وفرصاً جديدة للصحافة والاعلام مهنيا وتربويا. يقدم هذا البحث 10 مبادئ أساسية لتوجيه عملية تدريس الصحافة والاتصال دوليًا وتعزيزها. ونقدم أيضّا مبدأً ختاميًا لتدريس الصحافة والاتصال يمكن اعتماده أساسًا لتعليم طلبة الكليات على نحو عام.

Indigenous knowledges and perspectives in university journalism education: Exploring experiences, challenges and opportunities

News media coverage of Indigenous Australian peoples and perspectives is often absent or, when present, unfair or shallow in context or understanding. This raises the question of how much – and what kind of – exposure to Indigenous knowledges and perspectives journalists-in-training receive in their university studies. To find out, this study analyses 30 unit outlines and assessment details of journalism subjects at three Australian universities. It follows this analysis with interviews of seventeen undergraduate journalism students at these universities to explore their perceptions of if and how their journalism programmes paid attention to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander topics and perspectives in the classroom setting. The results reveal that the journalism students in this sample, even those from the same university, had an uneven experience related to Indigenous knowledges and perspectives in their university journalism subjects. This testifies to the generic nature of unit outlines and learning objectives and to the broad discretionary power that individual tutors and lecturers have to shape the flow of information that is engaged with during the learning opportunities they oversee. Student recommendations for how Indigenous knowledges and perspectives could be more usefully integrated into journalism education were also gathered and reported.

‘I can say I was a journalist during a global pandemic’: Australian students’ experiences of a newsroom in lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic presented university journalism educators with a dual challenge: transitioning subjects online and helping students navigate an industry that is experiencing disruption to work practices and job losses. The impact was particularly felt in practice-based subjects such as student newsrooms. While work-integrated learning programmes have become ubiquitous in journalism courses to produce job-ready graduates, the pandemic required educators to implement swift changes to accommodate online learning in them. The pandemic provides an opportunity to explore how students perceive the value of curriculum-related newsrooms during significant industry upheaval. Many studies have examined these practical journalism education programmes; however, the student perspective is often lacking. This case study, based on student questionnaire responses and educators’ observations, chronicles the experiences of working remotely in a curriculum-related newsroom during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns. It situates this within ‘pedagogical newsroom’ that blends pedagogical and journalistic principles to simulate practice within a flexible environment. Due to this flexibility, educators were able to adapt content for unanticipated online delivery to meet learning outcomes and even to create new learning opportunities. Student survey responses showed that despite the disruption, they believed the programme offered vital preparation for industry and generally remained optimistic about their career prospects.

The System of Entrepreneurship and Private Business Formation: Publication in the Media

The research developed the attitude to the publication in the media like to the channel of informatiza- tion of entrepreneurship and private business. The training program in journalism should addresses the de- velopment of business also. Entrepreneurship needs not only a management or economic system, but also information. Curricula in journalism education should offer training based on professional experience, and students should be able to consider not only their field, but also part of the entrepreneurship. By informing the student must be able to achieve high results so that a particular product will be in demand in the market. The main purpose of the research is to establish a link between entrepreneurship and private busi- ness media. Entrepreneurship in our country is considered just as a system of economic relations in the administrative system. As a scientific method, the content analysis of articles on this topic, research on the legislation «On support and protection of private entrepreneurship» and thematic analysis were used. According to the results of the research in the current situation scientists identify the entrepreneur as a subject of search and implementation of new opportunities for the introduction of new ideas, develop- ment of new technologies, innovation, application of new customer service and development of new areas of capital. The state of informatization of business has a positive effect on the economic direction. In the market conditions the entrepreneur decides what goods and services consumers will need tomorrow, and needs the correct delivery of information about those goods. A properly structured media publication policy can contribute to this. Key words: entrepreneurship, private business, economics, media, advertising.

The song remains the same: Media regulation a decade after the Finkelstein inquiry

This commentary draws on a keynote panel held (virtually) at the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia’s (JEERA) annual conference, hosted by the University of Canberra between 30 November and 3 December 2021. The panel comprised four people who had been involved in the last major attempt to reform media regulation in Australia, in 2011–12: Ray Finkelstein, who was appointed by the federal Labor government to inquire into the media and media regulation; Matthew Ricketson, then professor of journalism at the University of Canberra, who was appointed to assist Finkelstein; political scientist Rodney Tiffen who acted as a consultant to the inquiry, and Emma Dawson, who was the media policy adviser in the office of the Communications minister, Stephen Conroy. The government, which had already set up the Convergence Review, took the recommendations of both inquiries and introduced a package of bills to parliament in early 2013 that was strongly opposed by both the Liberal Party and the media industry. Most of the bills were withdrawn. The commentary summarizes the discussion and asks whether media regulation has improved in the intervening decade and if not, why not.

Journalism pedagogy and ICTs in a time of pandemic: A case study of selected journalism schools in Southern Africa

The paper explores journalism pedagogy in selected Southern African journalism schools. It draws from two South African Universities: The Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) Journalism Department and the School of Communication at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). From Zimbabwe, it draws on Journalism and Media Departments: The National University of Science and Technology (NUST) and Media and Society Studies at Midlands State University (MSU). The paper utilises the Domestication theory and Replacement model as theoretical paradigms to assess how the selected journalism schools reconfigured teaching and learning on their practical and theoretical subjects during the COVID-19 pandemic era. Semi-structured interviews are used with students and journalism educators to understand strategies adopted in the deployment of lectures. The study aims at understanding the teaching techniques that were adopted by journalism educators during the pandemic and how students adopted to virtual delivered education. Lastly, we solicit views from students who were already seeking or had been placed on attachment or work-related learning to establish how they readjusted, if at all. The study found that teaching practical courses was a challenge because, for example, editing suits for film and radio courses are housed on campus. For Zimbabwean universities, the challenge was that students were not given data by the University for online learning while lecturers’ data was not enough for their teaching. This is in contrary to South Africa were both lecturers and students were given data, laptops and other gadgets for online learning. Despite challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, lecturers received training on how to conduct online lessons and restructured their syllabus to ensure that it meets the demands of the ‘new normal’.

The importance of universal ethical standards in science

Long-standing ethical principles for genetics research help respect and protect research participants, and they are especially important for preventing harm to marginalized or vulnerable populations. Recent reports allege that several genetic studies conducted in China might not have secured individuals' consent for their participation freely and without coercion. These reports reinforce the need for ASHG to articulate expectations that scientists worldwide abide by universal ethical standards for biomedical research and to update our own policies and practices, including updating journal instructions to authors and expectations for content submitted to ASHG's Annual Meeting program.

The Reform of Journalism Education Driven by Digital Technology in the Era of Media Integration

Multimedia industry is a combination of economic industry and cultural industry and is a powerful tool to promote national cultural revival. In the process of multimedia integration, the multimedia industry has developed rapidly, and there is a huge demand for talents in this field. However, every year, the graduates of media majors have the status quo that they cannot find a suitable job or leave the original profession. The emergence of this status quo is due to the rapid development of the media industry. We should also see the other side that there is a clear contradiction between the news education of universities and the needs of the industry. In China’s journalism major education, there are contradictions between the barriers between colleges and the media industry and the “fine” and “all” dilemmas in the cultivation of talents. The purpose of this paper is to study the reform of journalism major professional education driven by the era of digital media technology. This paper sets up a control experiment to demonstrate that the integration of the concept of media integration into teaching can enable students to achieve greater progress. Through the literature research method, it summarizes the shortcomings of journalism major education at this stage and collects educational reforms from previous students through a questionnaire survey. It is recommended that 79% recommend adding practice links in the teaching process, 45% suggest that network coverage in the classroom is convenient for students to access materials at any time, 73% suggest that practitioners can be invited to participate in teaching, and 63% recommend imitation media. In teaching, 39% suggested that students should be taught according to their individual characteristics. 55% suggested using general education in teaching, and 39% suggested setting up more related competitions.

Between the Normative and the Interpretive Approach: Student Performance Online Evaluation Challenges in Journalism and Communication Higher Education

n times of pandemic, higher education programmes had to switch quite unexpectedly from educational strategies and techniques that applied within a classical kind of college environment, to the online platforms. 
 If all sorts of platforms proved feasible for seminars, in the case of courses and evaluation activities, some difficulties were encountered and, consequently, demanded special concern and conjugated efforts to roll things out through the thick and thin of a period that required a high level of adaptability on the part of higher education leadership and management, as well as on the part of professors and students.
 A survey addressed to the students and to the professors at the University of Bucharest, College of Journalism and Communication Studies revealed intriguing information regarding our main topic, that of the online student performance evaluation challenges in the journalism and communication higher education in Romania. The response of the majority of the professors to such an unexpected turnout in education within the context of the pandemics was that of a spectacularly more flexible approach mostly to the assessment of student performance, our topic at stake for this research endeavour. 
 Within our research focus, the student and professor preference for measurement and for a normative approach to online evaluation, on the one hand, versus the option for appreciation within an interpretive approach, on the other hand, may account for interesting developments in the educational system of the near future that we seem to have stepped in quite abruptly due to the pandemic.

Creativity and creative process in moldovan higher journalism education in the totalitarian period

The article is devoted to the examination of the principles of organization of higher journalistic education in the MSSR, in particular, to the study of educational activities aimed at the formation and development of skills and creative abilities of future journalists. The identification and description these activities from a conceptual and functional perspective, as well as the follow-up of the dynamics of their development, offers the possibility to outline a new, pragmatic vision on the university education in the totalitarian period. This pragmatic approach, as opposed to the ideological one, highlighted the good practices existing in that higher education system. Over time, these practices have formed models of journalistic training, which have been the basis of contemporary Moldovan higher journalism education. According to the authors, one of the basic objectives of that education was the development of creative skills, which was achieved by the training and later by amplifying the divergent thinking, flexibility and originality of students. And just as the creative process does not follow a single pattern, the strategies, techniques, tactics, in general, the ways of formation, development, modeling, etc. of the creative skills and abilities of future journalists were very varied; they had a central place in the curriculum and in the teaching process, being studied throughout the training. Exactly the activities aimed at training creative skills and abilities, despite the deeply ideological nature of higher education in the Soviet period, gave a functional-pragmatic and distinctive character to university journalistic training.