Journalism students’ professional identity in the making: Implications for education and practice

Abstract

Changes in journalism spurred by technological shifts and industry restructuring have left observers questioning both the nature of the profession and what educators ought to do in order to prepare aspiring journalists. Despite attempts to rethink what it means to be a journalist and the educational experience needed to prepare students, few qualitative studies have emerged that track how learners are negotiating professional values. This article does precisely that by providing a case study of how students in an undergraduate Canadian university’s journalism program are conceptualizing the profession against the backdrop of changing practices and principles. Based on the data generated from 96 open-ended reflections, this investigation offers some important findings about the student professional identity experience within a 4-year program. More precisely, the results indicate that the ideals of ‘high modernism’ (especially those surrounding objectivity, the role of the public watchdog, and ethical practice) are being negotiated by journalists in training in important and meaningful ways.

Illusio and disillusionment: expectations met or disappointed among young journalists

“…You can forget journalism anyway; you'll never make it"' (2016, f_1). Apparently, our respondents were advised against pursuing the career confirming the finding that journalism students are intensely warned of the death of the industry (Williams et al, 2018). This might explain why Hanna and Sanders (2007) found that students' interest in starting a journalistic career decreases in the course of their studies.…”

“…Journalists interviewed by Goyanes and Rodríguez-Gómez (2018) were concerned that present circumstances make it increasingly difficult to reach high quality standards. Even journalism students seem to already be aware of these constraints: While they aspire to fulfil a watchdog role in society, they fear that achieving this ideal will be hampered by the constraints of ethical standards and the objectivity norm (Williams et al, 2018).…”

Journalism Education in Post-Truth Era: Pedagogical Approaches Based on Indian Journalism Students’ Perception of Fake News

“…Academic learning is identified as a major formative influence in the development of professional identities among student journalists (Williams, Guglietti, & Haney, 2017). Based on students' perception and industry input (Drok, 2013), "back to basics" is often projected as a preferred approach for addressing issues like fake news; however, this lacks temporal, reflexive thinking (Carlson & Lewis, 2018).…”

Sustainable Journalism Education - the Only Possible Way to the Future / Održivo obrazovanje novinara – jedini mogući put u budućnost

“…) • Actual social topics and contents (Ilgaz Büyükbaykal, 2016, etc. ) • The sexes in journalism education and practice (Alacrón Espinoza, 2015) • Journalism identity (Vukić, 2017;Williams et al, 2017) • Definition of basic concepts in journalism education (Vukić, 2017) • Cooperation between journalism and other important social systems (Newman & Drevo, 2015;Vukić, 2017, etc.) and many others.…”