Mass Communication Curriculum Research Articles

Challenges to journalism safety education in Pakistan: proposing a new theoretical model

ABSTRACT This article explores the challenges faced by the media education and curricula development in Pakistan, and how the safety of journalists is apportioned in the courses and curriculum of mass communication in different universities. The study uses a mixed method research, including quantitative approach through surveys from one hundred and fifty media students from different universities of Pakistan, it further uses qualitative in-depth interview method in which fifteen media academics are interviewed. The research reveals that safety of journalists has never been a priority in the curriculum, even if the future journalists are really hungry to be educated and trained to cover any hostile event, pandemics and conflict sensitive reporting, and to cope with post coverage traumas. Safety of journalists has been occasionally discussed in lectures on the demand of students, but can never get a space in the mass communication curriculum. This study lays the foundation of ESCR Model of Journalism Education that deals with ethics and safety in crisis and risks. It further suggests the training of academics themselves; and collaboration of media professionals with the academia to realistically develop a curriculum taking into account what media industry and future journalists actually need to mug up.

Safety training deficiency, threats and adaptive measures among journalists reporting violent conflict in North East Nigeria

ABSTRACT This study appraises the mainstreaming and teaching of safety in journalism training institutions in Nigeria and interrogates the effectiveness of the safety measures available to safeguard the lives of journalists reporting from conflict areas in the North East geopolitical zone. In-depth interviews were conducted with 16 journalists representing a range of media organisations who had been reporting from the areas with the most volatile and prolonged conflicts. Mass communication curricula in universities and polytechnics across the region were also reviewed. The findings revealed that journalists in North East Nigeria are at high risk due to the absence of protective mechanisms and professional skills relating to safety. Journalists rely on their instincts and experience to manage risk, rendering them highly vulnerable in dangerous situations. These journalists endure multiple physical and psychological attacks from the security forces, insurgents and even community members that they cover. Recommendations reflective of best practice are offered regarding the mainstreaming of safety education in journalism training and the provision of safety mechanisms in order to reduce journalists’ physical harm and psychological trauma, increase their actual and perceived safety and security, boost their morale and improve the quality of their reporting.

Would You Say The Process Was Contentious or Smooth Sailing? Administrators’ Views On Revising The Mass Communication Curriculum

This study seeks to build upon our earlier investigation of how mass communication programs across the country are altering their curricula in order to accommodate the major changes in our field brought on by the Internet. While our earlier study looked at how degree plans are changing and what educators in the field think is important, this study again examines the how and the what, but expands to include: What has been your biggest challenge regarding your program’s curriculum? How have you deal with that challenge? Why did you make the changes you made? Beyond that, what philosophical beliefs underlie the changes? We also look at how the process played out: smooth sailing, a few minor skirmishes or downright contentious.

Youthquakes in a Post-Truth Era: Exploring Social Media News Use and Information Verification Actions Among Global Teens and Young Adults

Teaching information verification skills has become increasingly important in the current post-truth era. Through surveys and interviews with teenagers and young adults in the Middle East and United States, this study explores the changing patterns of social media use for news and actions they take to verify news stories online. Findings show younger students are moving toward more visual platforms, such as Instagram, and private messaging apps to get news. Information verification activities, however, are more frequently practiced by older people who use Facebook and Twitter. Implications for journalism and mass communication curricula are discussed.

Be My Guest: A Survey of Mass Communication Students' Perception of Guest Speakers

ABSTRACTThe use of guest speakers as a pedagogical technique across disciplines at the college level is hardly novel. However, empirical assessment of journalism and mass communication students' perceptions of this practice has not previously been conducted. To fill this gap, this article presents results from an online survey specifically administered to such students (N = 545) at a large public research university and a small liberal arts college. Results of statistical significance indicate that inviting a guest speaker is most valuable to students when the speaker comes from the industry and interacts face-to-face with the audience through personal examples and career tips rather than a formal slide-based lecture. Finally, this article contributes to and expands upon previous literature by offering a set of recommendations for the use of guest speakers in journalism and mass communication curriculum.

An Analysis of Traditional Graphic Design and MultiCommunication Arts Pedagogy

AbstractTraditional visual communication and graphic design curricula at the university level may not adequately educate, train and/or prepare students to successfully work in the intended creative professions. This critical study found three suspected reasons for the problem: first, that higher education art studio and mass communication curricula are stalled in a historical pedagogy that no longer is viable. Second, that employee compensation for traditional graphic design graduates is typically lower than integrated, interdisciplinary, multimedia graduates and third, that current institutional structures are based on past practice constructed by higher education’s territorial resistance to change.

Preparing Tomorrow’s Leaders

New journalism and mass communication curricula must prepare students to lead the media revolutions of the twenty-first century. Journalism, public relations, and advertising are being transformed by new media platforms and entrepreneurship, and these fields are now defined by rapid, radical change. Yet, the corresponding—and urgent—need to incorporate leadership education has not been widely articulated as a curricular priority. Leadership education would help students develop the knowledge and skills to lead dynamic industries and a leadership mind-set oriented to innovation. Leadership education would be especially beneficial for female students entering fields in which women are underrepresented in senior leadership.

Integration of Ilokano in the Mass Communication Curriculum of the University of Northern Philippines

The University of Northern Philippines (UNP) offers Bachelor of Arts major in Mass Communication to provide qualified and effective communicators for the various communication channels in the locality. This study was conducted to look into the need to integrate Ilokano or the local language in the mass communication curriculum of the University of Northern Philippines (UNP). It determined the Ilokano proficiency required by the local media, the Ilokano proficiency of the mass communication students, and whether Ilokano should be offered as a subject in UNP. This is a descriptive survey using questionnaires in gathering the data. Frequency counts, percentages and means were used to interpret the data. This study found out that most of the local media use Ilokano in 81-100% of their programs/publications and that they require personnel with very high Ilokano proficiency specifically in listening, reading, speaking and writing. The students assessed themselves as being highly proficient in Ilokano but average in writing. In particular, their facility in using Ilokano is only average along vocabulary, spelling, grammar, essay and longer composition. Further, students need to develop their facility in using Ilokano for skills needed in the media, such as interviewing, news casting, giving commentaries, program hosting, newswriting, writing advertisements and public service announcements. Students could best develop their Ilokano proficiency through the integration of Ilokano as a subject in the curriculum.Keywords: Communication, curriculum, Ilokano, local media, descriptive method, Philippines

UNESCO Mass Communication Curriculum Model for Developing Countries: Level of Compliance in Nigeria, a Study of Three Private Universities

The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, (UNESCO), recently introduced a model curriculum for journalism and mass communication training in developing nations which include courses in other disciplines. This research is an exploratory study of level of compliance in Nigeria, using three privately owned new generation Christian universities. Indices used for measurement include admission policies, total number of credit hour required for graduation, percentage of core courses, and percentage of non-core courses. With the application of the Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient, the result revealed that all the universities selected for study shot above the UNESCO standard in core courses by a ratio of between 35 and 47 percent, while the universities fell short of UNESCO recommended non-core courses by a percentage ranging from eight to 16 percent. The research revealed that journalism and mass communication colleges in the developing countries are gradually complying with UNESCO recommended standard.

Posting for Points: Edublogs in the JMC Curriculum

Despite the spread of blogs in mass media and in academia, little scholarly work has explored their use within the journalism and mass communication curriculum. This study, based on incorporation of blogs in ten classes during five semesters—undergraduate and graduate, skills and conceptual—examines student use of the format in relation to theories of social and blended learning. Findings suggest that although students tend to approach blogging as yet another assignment, blogs facilitate their engagement with course material and one another.

Revisiting the journalism and mass communication curriculum: Some experiences from Swaziland

This article reports on the changes the University of Swaziland is making to its journalism and mass communications curriculum. It does this in a number of contexts: the challenges facing journalism in the country; debates in the developed world on the correct route for journalism education and the needs for training that have been identified within Swaziland itself. Swaziland is not yet a democracy and the new curriculum is aspirational in that it identifies social justice and the need for journalists to provide a voice for the voiceless as key elements of the programme.

Revisiting the journalism and mass communication curriculum: Some experiences from Swaziland

Revisiting the journalism and mass communication curriculum: Some experiences from Swaziland

The Need for More Business Education in Mass Communication Schools

Teaching business and economics in journalism and mass communication schools has long been ignored despite the fact that students in all areas of media will have to work with budgets, financial statements, and annual reports at one time or another in their careers and despite requests from the industry. A number of schools are looking to change mass communication curricula to include courses that discuss these and other business-related topics

Links between Professional Education and the Penalized Campus Press

Perhaps the most compelling issue in journalism education today crystallizes a traditional tension between the academy and the profession. To move into the 21 st century, some educators now say, journalism and mass communication curricula must shift away from an antiquated green eyeshade mentality, toward a theory-oriented general examination of human communication. The purpose of this study is to examine one sphere of this controversy. College newspapers are an immediate product of journalism education in academic environments; so, we sought evidence of a relationship between the kind of journalism education available to students who produce college newspapers, and the performance of those papers. Observers' opinions vary widely on the merits of differing kinds of journalism and mass communication education. For example, Blanchard and Christ (1993) say traditional journalism education that emphasizes expensive, hands-on training for entry-level positions in specific professions is unwelcome on modern cost-conscious campuses. They contend skill and technology training is better left to extracurricular experience that ... is neither mandatory nor the center of the curriculum. It does not absorb a great deal of faculty time and effort, and only a little of it, if any, is for academic credit; it is mostly co-curricular. Students seek this experience on their own extra-curricular, `rest-and-recreation' time. By so doing, they demonstrate their interests, initiative and motivation-attributes that cannot be taught in required, lock-step courses but that media practitioners profess to prize so highly. (p. 71) On the other hand, Mencher (Reconstructing, 1994) observes that reformers emphasize concept-oriented courses while the current technology-heavy communications environment dazzles students. We have forgotten the necessity to train those who would put the messages on the hurtling electrons, he says. Yet this is the kind of training that some would replace with programs in generic journalism and the like, one of which, a leading exponent of the changeover says, would consist of a journalism program in which no student would be required to write (p. 72). What impact would the proposed reforms in curricula have on the quality of the products journalism students produce? What results when journalism programs move away from a professional model to what some derisively call communicology (Highton, 1967, p. 10)? Aside from the rhetoric generated by the controversy, there is scant evidence regarding the effect such a shift away from the practical in communication education would have on the performance of journalism. Literature review Expressions of concern regarding the role of communication and its various subfields in the academic world have taken a tone of urgency in recent years. Authors from within the academy have noted that although considerable numbers of students enroll in communication programs each year, the field of communication is in a weakened position relative to traditionally accepted fields such as history or philosophy. It is young in academic terms and badly fragmented among speech, interpersonal communication, rhetoric, mass communication, journalism, cultural studies and other areas (Rakow, 1993; Swanson, 1993). In addition, there are suggestions that because of its various roots, communication as an academic field has no unifying theory (Shoemaker, 1993). With neither tradition nor solid academic credentials, communication programs have become a large target of opportunity for administrators in the modern atmosphere of downsizing (Avery, 1993; Kosicki and Becker, 1994). Journalism and mass communication programs have been targeted directly, with threats and outright actions to abolish or subsume journalism units (Beasley, July 1994 and September 1994; Dennis, 1994). Journalism educator and researcher Everette Dennis warns that journalism and mass communication programs are threatened because of university budget cutting, duplication of program content, questions about programs' centrality to university missions, and an absence of visible, effective leaders from journalism and mass communication programs (1994, p. …

Core Curriculum Outcomes: Discrepant Beliefs about the Field

When disciplines perceived as to mission of their liberal arts college are reinforced and those regarded as non-central are eliminated, merged, or subsumed into a more contributing discipline, faculty in negatively targeted fields may be prompted to inform their university colleagues about importance of theories and skills of their discipline. As part of such an effort, they may point to knowledge that is special to their discipline and, at same time, crucial to other currently more favored disciplines. What knowledge, beyond technical skills, is special province of journalism and mass communication?(1) The present survey examined selected beliefs to probe whether a journalism and mass communication curriculum instilled a more sophisticated view of media reality in formal coursework for majors than for non-majors who learn about media from daily experience. The goal was to use this information to initiate a fruitful discussion, which might culminate in consensus(2) about core understandings that could distinguish a person who has received a mass communication education. Such a core could then be offered as a vital component of a comprehensive university to colleagues and administrators. Since 1984, national studies and gatherings (e.g., Oregon Report, 1987; Stark and Lowther, 1988; Wingspread Project, 1989; Blanchard and Christ, 1993; State of Field, 1994; What Makes a Great Journalism School, 1995) have explored domain of journalism and mass communication education. However, these books, reports, and conferences, while continuing to generate discussion about new paradigms for curricular development and role of mass communication education in changing university cultures, have failed to define current baseline. To establish a baseline, consensus about basic concepts of mass communication education is necessary. However, effort to reach consensus for even a modest list of belief statements for this exploratory study emphatically reinforced what Blanchard and Christ (1993, p.92) discovered in their 1990 national survey: Across country there is great diversity in number of required core courses in journalism and mass communication programs and no pattern. A review of core courses would have been another way to assess faculty philosophy and to demonstrate what a school believes is basic and fundamental to discipline (Blanchard and Christ, 1993, p. 92). However, after two years of surveys and discussion, even Oregon Report (1987) suggested only broad-based communication competencies--general literacy, visual literacy, computer literacy, information-gathering ability, media-writing capability--not specific outcomes. At University of Michigan, two-year Professional Preparation Network (Stark and Lowther, 1988) also recommended general competencies that overlap or expand Oregon Report. Scanning course titles in a curriculum, or examining syllabi for these courses, did not reveal outcomes of interest here, actual mass communication-related understandings of graduating seniors, and fit of these understandings to those of their instructors. The Professional Preparation Network (Stark and Lowther, 1988, p. 23) concluded that journalism educators should expect students to learn to identify, understand, and critique media's values in courses common to mass communication programs across country. Despite different emphases at different institutions, mass communication majors should learn media value systems in ethics courses, restrictions and regulation in law courses, impact of media in media and society courses, leadership in management, internship and capstone courses, and scholarly concern for improvement in research and communication theory courses (Christ and McCall, 1974). Mass communication programs have been admonished to distinguish themselves nationally, and to contribute to their local campuses through the promotion of media literacy and fostering of freedom of expression (Oregon Report, p. …

Thinking Critically about Journalism through Popular Culture

In recent years, many have called for a greater emphasis on and within journalism and mass communication curricula (e.g., Blanchard & Christ, 1993; McLaughlin, 1994; Picard, 1985; Strohm & Baukus, 1995). Critical thinking and critical studies are not necessarily synonymous; the latter often connotes an explicitly oppositional stance to dominant media practices and institutions. But in the classroom, both represent an effort to link professional media education to the liberal arts. Shoemaker (1993, p. 103) says courses in do this by fostering skills as asking intelligent questions, supporting arguments with appropriate evidence, uncovering assumptions, and examining assumptions from multiple points of view. Similarly, Parisi (1992, p. 5) argues that serve the goals of a broad liberal arts education by viewing--and teaching--journalism whole, in its historical, literary, political, economic, and philosophical dimensions. This article discusses a course aimed at helping students in a professionally-oriented program to think critically about journalism by watching movies about it. movies represented Hollywood's depictions of the press over more than six decades. In addition to watching the movies, students were required to complete an extensive reading list and write a series of papers analyzing the movies and readings. Others have used movies in media classes as part of a discussion of specific concerns like ethics and gender (e.g., Talbott, 1994; Wilkins, 1987). While this course also addressed concerns, its goal was to study journalism more broadly as a practice and institution by analyzing movies as a long-running commentary on the press (Pauly, 1991). In particular, the course asked students to consider whether the movies portrayed journalism positively or negatively. Portrayals in movies If articles in the mainstream media and trade press are any indication, journalists do not like the way they are typically portrayed on the big screen (e.g., Gersh, 1991; Rowe, 1992; Ryan, 1985; Sayre, 1975). In the words of one such article--written only half in jest--Hollywood is to blame for those loathsome misconceptions that journalists are hard-drinking, foul-mouthed, dim-witted social misfits concerned only with twisting the truth into scandal and otherwise devoid of conscience, respect for basic human dignity or a healthy fear of God (Rowe, 1992, p. 27). Some film critics and media scholars agree that the movies' depiction of journalism is generally negative (e.g., Good, 1989; Manvell, 1978). But others (e.g., Robards, 1990; Rossell, 1978; Vaughn & Evensen, 1991) see a more mixed portrayal. Barris's (1976) book on journalism movies includes chapters titled The Reporter as Scandalmonger and Reporter as Villain, but also ones on The Reporter as Crime Buster and The Reporter as Crusader. program from a Library of Congress (1990, p. 4) exhibit on the Paradox of the Press says while fictional portrayals of journalism can foster myths providing dangerous illusions that distort Americans' understanding, they also can raise important ethical questions about the press or entertainingly capture an element of the journalist's character (see also Ghiglione, 1990, pp. 97-162). And Zynda (1979, p. 32) offers an especially intriguing argument: As the press serves as a watchdog on government, so Hollywood, likewise on behalf of the public and with a like commercial basis, keeps an eye on the press. I assigned students to read many of these articles at the outset of the course to help frame their about the movies' portrayal of journalism. readings suggested that journalists view their work much differently from the way many others view it. This, in turn, encouraged students to cast a eye not only on the movies' image of journalism, but also journalism's self-image. …

Writing-Across-the-Curriculum in Mass Communication Courses

assignments may be the key to increased learning in most college courses, and the mass communication curriculum is no exception. In 1977, Shaughnessy argued that ought to be found to increase students' involvement with writing across the curriculum. This does not mean simply persuading more teachers in other subjects to require term papers but making writing a more integral part of the learning process in all (p. 87). During the last decade and a half, a growing awareness that writing and learning are interdependent has led many U.S. colleges and universities to adopt Writing-Across-the-Curriculum (WAC) programs. Based on the premise that learning is supported and strengthened through integrating writing in all areas of the curriculum, these WAC programs train faculty in effective ways of using varied writing assignments as part of the thinking process across disciplines. A 1985 Modern Language Association survey found that 46 percent of all Ph.D.-granting institutions, 48 percent of all BA/MA-granting institutions, and 28 percent of all two-year colleges had a WAC program (Kinneavy, 1987, p. 362). Perhaps McLeod (1992) best sums up the influence and growth of WAC programs: Writing across the curriculum has, in the space of a decade and a half, become a familiar part of the academic landscape (p. 1). WAC programs stress writing as a major component in all disciplines, not just in those that have traditionally included composition courses or just those that are a part of the general undergraduate core. Although no one WAC model has emerged, the typical WAC program suggests that writing courses be required as part of each academic major and sets parameters for how much writing and what varieties of writing assignments should be included in courses. Students commonly are taught that effective writing is a process that involves three elements: (a) prewriting, the conceptualizing and defining of key ideas and terms in an organized fashion such as an outline; (b) writing, the actual physical process of constructing paragraphs and themes; and (c) rewriting, editing one's own work and responding to the ideas of others about the work. Several theoretical assumptions form the basis of WAC programs. Sipple (1989) suggests that the theoretical assumptions should be endemic to each college or university, but some common WAC premises include: (a) promotes learning, and writing is a mode of learning itself; (b) writing is a complex developmental process; (c) the universe of writing includes a broad range of functions and audiences; (d) each academic discipline that shapes student writing should be driven by its own specialized procedures, conventions, and terminology; and (e) writers should develop and apply defined sets of problem solving and writing strategies to help them think more effectively about the subject matter of their disciplines. No matter the theoretical assumptions and premises that shape the WAC description, most WAC programs are not additive, but transformative--they aim not to add more papers and tests of writing ability, but to change the way both teachers and students use writing in the curriculum (McLeod, p. 3). There seems to be an obvious marriage between WAC programs and the journalism/mass communication discipline. Many have already called for a thorough examination of writing within the various mass communication disciplines. For instance, the AEJMC Broadcast Task Force argued in the 1989 Challenges and Opportunities in Journalism and Mass Communication Education publication that: ... broadcast production, writing, legal aspects, management, and ethics were, in that order, the areas listed as most important for broadcast majors upon graduation. Educators cited as the strongest skills their students had at graduation broadcast production, performance, and equipment operations; as the weakest, they cited writing. This point suggests that stronger and more consistent broadcast writing experiences should be expected . …

University-Industry Task Force Finds Complex Alliance Activity

Calls for greater cooperation between journalism educators and professional media organizations have taken on new urgency as the nature of media technologies, organization structures, and products have changed.The American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE), the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), and the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) have established committees or undertaken initiatives to promote greater cooperation with academic institutions.At the 1992 NAA convention, the topic was raised at foundation session called What Do We Tell The Kids? (America, 1992, Atwater, 1992). At the 1993 NAA convention, talk about cooperation dominated discussions at the NAA Foundation/AEJMC Joint Committee on Cooperative Education (AEJMC/NAA Foundation, 1993a. See also Brock, 1993, and Terry, 1993).At the 1993 AEJMC convention, no fewer than eight sessions, including plenary, were devoted to the issue, and further reports and discussions were part of several business meetings. It played role in the ASNE/New Directions for News Roundtable (Stein, 1993), and at another meeting of the AEMC/NAA Foundation Cooperative Committee (AEMC/NAA Foundation, 1993b).Of course, discussions about the appropriate relationship between the academy and the media are not new. Earliest accounts of conflict go back to Joseph Pulitzer's first offer to pay for journalism education at Harvard and to the rejection of that offer.More recently, series of studies and conversations about cooperation between journalism education and the media were undertaken. There was the joint Committee on News-Editorial Education (CONEE) report in the early 1980s (For an evaluation of the continued controversy surrounding the effectiveness of the CONEE recommendations, see Brock, 1993). The committee produced document designed to help journalism programs better integrate professionals into their faculties by defining appropriate standards for promoting and granting tenure to media professionals.Then came the Oregon Report for Curricular Change in Journalism Education), which attempted to reexamine the journalism and mass communication curriculum and made recommendations for reshaping that curriculum to address the changing nature of the professions. It included several specific recommendations for areas of cooperation among educators and professionals (Planning for Curricular Change in Journalism Education, 1984, 1987).After that came the Wingspread Report, which brought together professionals and journalism educators in an attempt to talk out differences in perception about journalism education (The Wingspread Project, 1989).In 1991, two attempts were made to examine the kinds of cooperative relationships that have been undertaken by professionals and academics.Ralph Izard, for the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication, undertook study of cooperative programs by polling members of AEJMC's Council of Affiliates. The result was list of more than 50 cooperative alliances offered by Council members to journalism educators (Izard, 1991).Also in 1991, the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center published what Everett Dennis and Jane Coleman called the first publication to provide a broad overview of professional development opportunities for faculty. The directory, focused on national associations and foundations, did not include initiatives by individual media companies. It did offer list of more than 60 national faculty development programs grounded in cooperation between the journalism education and national media organizations (Pioneering Partnerships, 1991).The joint task forceIn 1992, the presidents of AEJMC and ASJMC, Tony Atwater and Ralph Izard, independently decided that the time had come to review the kinds of appropriate cooperative relationships between the academy and the media professions. …

Mass communication education and the practical course

While the popularity of mass communication education is recognized, its nature, role, and teaching methods as a discipline in higher education continue to evoke concern. This article analyzes the historical context of mass communication curricula, proposes a philosophical mode to which mass communication education ought to adhere, and suggests a particular definition and teaching methodology for the practical production course.