Professional Orientation After Journalism Education: A Research On Ege University Journalism Department Graduates Between 2010-2017

Abstract

Many students graduate from journalism departments of universities which give communication education in Turkey each year. But, beside the political, economical, social and professional difficulties of performing journalism in Turkey, personal causes and career expectations determine professional orientation and journalism graduates can be employed in a wide range of fields. The tendency towards non-journalistic professional fields is due to greater necessity than to voluntary preferences. The aim of this research, which was initiated by a personal observation, is to survey professional orientations of journalism graduates; to reveal the dynamics of the relationship that manifests itself as consistency or inconsistency between the undergraduate program and the professional orientation; to identify the factors that determine the professional orientation of journalism graduates and to explain the positive/negative effects of journalism education based on empirical evidences. Another purpose of the study is to measure graduates' attitudes toward journalistic education and the profession. In this direction, a field research was held among graduates (2010-2017) of Ege University Faculty of Communication. For data collection, an original questionnaire was developed by the researcher. The survey is comprised of 26 questions which aim to dissect attitude meausurement by open/close-ended questions. The data were analyzed with SPSS. Some of the outstanding findings of the research are: Journalism formation is a conscious choise but dynamics that break this enthusiasm come into play during education and after graduaiton. Although graduates kept mentally envision such as "ideal journalism", "journalism as an honourable profession", they questioning the journalism in Turkey and see as a "dangerous profession". They prefer to do journalism abroad. Most of them with a professional orientation in journalism work in local organizations as reporter. However, they don't intend to do journalism for a long time for economic reasons. Graduates turn to non-journalistic professional fields because of economical reasons and negative conditions of journalism in Turkey. Most of them work as a "worker" in the private sector. Findings show that unemployment is a reality of journalism and a big issue after the graduation.