Teaching Journalists to Save the Profession

A critical assessment of recent debates on the future of US and Canadian journalism education

Bibliographic Data

ID7501546
AuthorsIsabel Macdonald (0000-0002-7540-9850, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume7
Issue5
Pages745-764
Publication date2006-08-31
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournalism Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-670X • E-ISSN: 1469-9699
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14616700600890414
OpenAlexW1499458350
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited13

Concerns about the media industries prioritizing profits over public service has historically given rise to proposals for a more professional model of journalism education (Commission on Freedom of the Press, 1947 Commission On Freedom Of The Press. 1947. A Free and Responsible Press: a general report on mass communication: newspapers, radio, motion pictures, magazines, and books, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Google Scholar]; Pulitzer, 1904 Pulitzer, Joseph. 1904. “The College of Journalism”. North American Review, 20: 641–80. [Google Scholar]; Royal Commission on Newspapers, 1981 Royal Commission On Newspapers. 1981. Report of the Royal Commission on Newspapers (Minister of Supply and Services Canada), Hull, Quebec: Canadian Government Publishing Centre. [Google Scholar]). In the context of neoliberal restructuring and a “professional crisis” in journalism, there have again been proposals for journalism education to help uplift professional journalistic values (Adam, 2001 Adam, G. Stuart. 2001. “The Education of Journalists”. Journalism, 2(3): 315–39. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Bollinger, 2003 Bollinger , Lee C . (2003) “Journalism Task Force Statement” , Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, April, http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/news/2003-04/taskforce.asp , accessed 7 November 2004 . [Google Scholar]; Carnegie Corporation, 2005a Carnegie Corporation (2005a) “A Vision for Journalism Education: the professional school for the 21st century news leaders: a manifesto”, April , http://www.carnegie.org/sub/program/initiative-manifesto.html , accessed 30 July 2005 . [Google Scholar]; Sauvageau, 2004 Sauvageau , Florian (2004) “Le Journalisme et l'Université: une union difficile” , conference paper . [Google Scholar]). This paper offers a critique of these recent journalism education reform proposals. While the proponents of professionalizing journalism schools acknowledge the structural and economic changes that are the culprits of the professional crisis in journalism, they place the onus of the solution on journalists, and they propose a model of journalism education that encourages students to refrain from critically analysing the media industries. The advocates of professional journalism schools also hark back to traditional journalistic ideals and notions of objectivity which some critics argue contributes to public apathy and damages prospects for participatory democracy. This paper will conclude by exploring recent proposals for a critical journalism pedagogy, which overcomes some of the problems of the professional reform model (Atton, 2003 Atton, Chris. 2003. “What Is ‘Alternative’ Journalism?”. Journalism, 4(3): 267–72. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Skinner et al., 2001 Skinner , David , Compton , James and Gasher , Mike J . (2001) “Putting Theory to Practice: a critical approach to journalism studies” , Journalism 2 (3) , pp. 341 – 60 .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar

Commission · Context (archaeology · Corporation · Journalism · Manifesto · Media studies · Newspaper · Political science · Sociology · Literature, Film, and Journalism Analysis · Media Studies and Communication · Radio, Podcasts, and Digital Media · History · Law

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