The education of journalists

Abstract

Noting that journalism education has fallen short of the mark set for it in a visionary essay published by Joseph Pulitzer in 1904, the author analyzes Pulitzer's arguments and then makes a case for strengthening the education of journalists. It is argued that an education for a life as a journalist calls for an immersion in news judgement, the development of university-based skills in evidence gathering and fact assessment, formation in the best literary and/or visual methods of representation, and an under-standing of how to apply the forms of understanding born in the academy to the problems of the here and now. It also involves a careful grounding in the languages, purposes and practices of democratic institutions. Journalism education will be strengthened by a careful reconsideration of the concept of journalism, by a parallel reconsideration of the scholarly tasks supporting the teaching of journalism, and a careful articulation between core journalism subjects and cognate academic disciplines.

Does Journalism Education Matter?

“…I began by writing memos to my colleagues on what I thought individual syllabuses in journalism should look like, how they should cover the territory of professional practices, and how they should be located in a comprehensive curriculum that involved academic courses both in journalism and other university disciplines. These administrative memos led in due course to more formal and published reflections (including Adam, 1968Adam, , 1989aAdam, , 1989bAdam, , 2001Adam, , 2004.…”

Rethinking [Again] the Future of Journalism Education

“…Dennis (1984), Medsger (1996), Reese (1999), Reese and Cohen (2000), Carey (2000), Adam (2001), MacDonald (2006, Deuze (2006) and many others have identified new ways to conceptualize journalism education. The realignment advocated in this paper follows most closely that articulated by James Carey and interpreted in an appreciation by Jay Rosen (2006) on Poynter.com:…”

Reflections on the implications of the empowered citizens at Alpha Media Holdings (AMH)

“…According to Adam (2001) the education of professional journalists, at least for the European and American context, has failed to produce clear professional and pedagogical criteria which would allow journalistic education to achieve a degree of legitimacy and prestige similar to that enjoyed by medical and law studies.…”