No abstract

Globally, journalism education is undergoing significant changes in view of the ongoing technological evolution. Hence, it is important to have a good journalism education that can shape good journalism practices and professionalism. In recognition of this, the Council for Heads of Communication Studies (COHEC) in Malaysia has mapped out a framework for journalism education to be offered by Malaysian universities (COHEC, 2010). However, COHEC study was very brief and did not underline what makes good journalism practice. Therefore, this study seeks to identify the knowledge, experience, and skills needed in Malaysian journalism education. To this end, this study conducted in-depth interviews with senior practitioners -senior editors and chief editors -from media organizations in Malaysia. Findings show the importance of knowledge, experience, skills, and attitude needed for good journalism practices. The findings also acknowledged that journalism knowledge is as important as experience and debunked the old testimony that knowledge can be practiced on the job and no formal journalism education is needed. The understanding of journalism is not as a skill but as social, cultural, and philosophical expression, and general education is needed to cover the journalistic aspect of life. There is a need to redefine journalism as a field of study.

Purpose -This study investigated media and communication practitioners' perspectives on the journalism education curriculum in Malaysia. Curriculum plays an important role in providing quality education for students. Journalism is a dynamic field that integrates industrial experience and fundamental knowledge in the field from higher educational institutions. Scholars in the field are divided on the issue of whether it is important for academia to consider input from industrial players in shaping the curriculum on journalism education in higher institutions of learning.Methodology -Drawing from the researchers' experiences and guidelines from the Malaysian Qualifications Agency, the Taba Model was adapted as the theoretical framework for the study. The study used a semi-structured interview method. Fifteen experts were interviewed. They have served more than 10 years in the media industry and have held various executive positions. The interview protocol was developed based on the literature review and guidelines from the curriculum review of Communication and Media Studies. The interviews were conducted at the offices or homes of interviewees. Each interview ranged from 1 to 2 hours. The data was analysed using thematic analysis.Findings -The findings revealed four main themes, namely 1) Strong general knowledge requirement, 2) the right skills matter, 3)Significance -These findings lend further support to the clarion call for industry and academia to collaborate extensively in nurturing high quality graduates in journalism.

The research aims to develop an instrument on perception and expectation of journalism students in Malaysia. The pilot study employs survey research method. The questionnaires were distributed to 30 journalism students in Universiti Utara Malaysia. The data was analyzed based on reliability, validity and descriptive analysis. The findings indicated the instrument is valid and reliable. The majority of the respondents perceived that knowledge and expectations of journalism education are pertinent in developing knowledge and skills of journalism students. Nonetheless, facilities offered need to be enhanced to match the minimum requirement of journalism learning.

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.