Students who decide to study journalism at university level was the main point raised in two of the research papers discussed during the session on Transforming J-Education at the World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC) last week.
Students who decide to study journalism at university level was the main point raised in two of the research papers discussed during the session on Transforming J-Education at the World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC) last week.
Four research papers were discussed during the session which looked at the different approaches that universities in certain countries address while teaching journalism.
The session tackled the changing times in which journalism educators have to teach the craft. Prof Ian
Glenn from the University of Cape Town, noted that it was interesting how some students had unrealistic expectations of studying journalism and of the profession.
Prof Jan Jirak from Charles University in Prague in the Czech Republic said that although journalism is a preferred profession in his country, it is not wellrespected.
Students are not fully aware of the field they are entering before applying to study journalism, he said. Jirak described how, since the 90s and the development of the free market, journalism has evolved and become hyper-commercialised.
“This has resulted in journalism education merely adopting the features of US and European education,” Jirak said. “Old skills are implemented in the new frameworks.”
Rhodes University lecturer Priscilla Boshoff picked up on the same theme of journalism students entering institutions to study journalism without a critical understanding of the field in her paper There is no Curriculum.
Boshoff focussed on the perceptions and expectations of students studying Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University and made a distinction between those from elite schools (public and independent) and those from schools in rural areas.
Her research shows that while learners from wealthier schools are taught to be critical, they believe that the news adequately represents reality and think that opinionated news is good.
Meanwhile, students from poorly-funded schools, who may be academically challenged, are more accommodating to critical thought, Boshoff said.
“They think that news does not address the needs in society adequately and do not think highly of opinionated news.” Boshoff ’s paper also questions why journalism educators don’t scrutinise the disparity in class at universities.
Taking up the issue of creating curricular for students from different backgrounds, Dr Monica Chibita, a senior lecturer at Makerere University in Uganda, raised the question of how to teach journalism without losing its ‘Africaness’ to western methods.
Chibita said that journalism education in East Africa needs to teach students to produce locally relevant texts. She addressed the need for journalism education to include teaching in English as well as local languages, computerskills and internships.
The need for internships in journalism education was also highlighted in the paper by Dr Lillian Williams from Columbia College in Chicago, USA.
She demonstrated the importance of students undertaking internships, both for their own experience as well as a way of getting direct feedback about their abilities.
It may be problematic however, Williams said, as the supervisor may be able to assess whether a student can write, but not their views on ethics or diversity.
Chibita says that entering the field while on the tertiary education level will ensure that students are prepared to face the challenges that the profession presents to them.
