INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCES AND LOCAL DILEMMAS IN EDUCATION OF JOURNALISTS

by Stjepan Malović

This text is a part of a research project launched by Media Plan Institute Sarajevo in September, aimed to collecting basic information on education of journalists and media professionals in the countries of South East Europe (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FR Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria and Moldavia). Each among these countries provides different levels and types of education for journalists and media professionals, but no systematic analysis of developments in this area whatsoever. In that context, professor Malović has produced the analysis of the concept of education of journalists itself, comparing local and international experiences and contemplating the very core of journalistic profession and its impact on journalists’ education itself. 

Reports from different countries will be publicised on mediaonline.ba (special reports). 

Tempering in Fire

Education of journalists remains the subject of fervent discussions, conflicting opinions, different experiences and practices, many positive and negative examples, (non)confirmed positions, and all that for a question that seems simple: what type of education do journalists need? 

All doubts and experiences and moving around one single fundamental dilemma, where two main conflicting streams meet: one of them, lead by journalists hardened through practice, claims that a journalist has no need for any special education, except the one he obtains through work in the office. Anywhere in the world, representatives of that stream can be found in café-bars where journalists gather, but also in respectable professional forums, which set guidelines for the destiny of journalistic education. These professionals, hardened through practice, will tell you that everything they know they’ve learned on their own skin, through tempering in fire, when they started to work in their offices. Those who were lucky had a good editor-in-chief, who was able to show them the right direction, while others learned through the method on attempts and mistakes. 

Representatives of the second stream are less often found in café-bars, and more often in professional forums; they regard journalism a serious profession, which can be performed only by thoroughly and comprehensively educated journalistic experts.

Both these streams unanimously agree in one thing: journalists are experts in their jobs, they are masters who can change the world, influence the most important events and destinies of most important international protagonists. Both these groups readily stand up in defence of their freedoms, which they obtained through hard work; they claim their rights and do not allow anyone, not even the most influential centers, to interfere with their work.

Why is then that they cannot solve one of the basic issues of any profession: how to educate a journalist?

The answer probably lies in the very core of journalistic profession and in the need for freedom of word and thought. If we are talking about freedom of thought and word, that freedom applies to everyone, regardless of formal education. If they can do their job, they can be journalists. If they cannot, they are not journalists. It is important what and how they report. 

How firm is this thesis really? And how does it reflect on contemporary education of journalists in the world, and what are international experiences? 

Journalism: A Profession or...? 

Is journalism a profession in the same manner as law or medicine? According to some opinions, there are fundamental differences between journalism and other established professions. 

This is how Michael Kunczik, notable German professor of journalism and theoretic of communicology, defines journalism as profession:

“Journalists (generic term le journaliste comes from French word le jour = day) with full time, or working as free lancers for press, radio, press agencies and reporting services, but also in departments for relations with publicity in companies, associations and administrations. However, in many cases the criterion, by which the main occupation is determined, significantly narrows the circle of personnel engaged in journalistic profession. Thus, in many countries journalists have to perform additional jobs as a necessity by which they provide means of economic survival. So, all full and part time corespondents in media, who work on gathering, preparing, checking and commenting the news and/or entertaining contents are regarded as journalists.” [1] 

A very precise definition of journalism which – to our surprise – does not say a word about school and education. It remains more important how journalists earn their living. In France, membership to journalistic profession and the right to carry professional journalistic ID is proved by earnings. If most of your earnings come from journalism, then you are journalists. If not, you are not journalists. Italians do not recognise this. According to their rules, each journalist has to pass an exam and get a licence. It is only then that he can be employed and get the right to the title of journalist, and a salary, too. Between these two extreme cases, there exist various experiences and practices.

But, hasn’t the acknowledged professor Kunczik overstated the definition of journalism as a means to provide economic existence? This is how American authors Ferguson and Patten explain journalistic profession in their book «Journalism Careers»: 

“Reporters should have the capability of entering lives of complete strangers, ask them very personal questions and leave them without guilt. This does not mean that you should harden to human suffering and become insensitive. It simply means that you keep your feelings for later, for your spare time if you have it at all. The job can be hard and it can exhaust you, and perhaps your company is also not the best. However, when you come across a good story, when each piece of information gets in its place and all facts are there: cold, firm and bright – there is no job like this job. Good hunt for those who chose journalism as their career.” [2] 

But let us go back to initial issue: what is the difference between education of journalists and education of lawyers, doctours, agronomers or veterinarians?

“In all these professions students mainly learn to obtain knowledge, with less practical skills. In a typical journalists’ school students mainly learn techniques, spending very little time studying about how things work – or how they can find out how things work,” thinks John Ullman [3]. 

According to Ullman, journalists spend more time learning how to ask questions and how to write answers in an understandable form, complying with Kipling’s principles on “six honest helpers” who assist journalists. All it takes, according to traditional understanding of journalism, is to ask who, what, where, when, why and how, and accurately record obtained answers and properly describe what is seen. However, Ullman himself is aware that this is not enough; for that reason, advocating investigative journalism, he states that “investigative journalists, of course, answer the same questions, but they differ from most of their colleagues because they know much more about how the things work and therefore can achieve real answers to their questions”. [4]

Such an approach to education of journalists is supported by journalists of practical orientation we mentioned at the beginning of this text, who regard it better to learn in the city chronicles, but if it has to be school, let it be quick and efficient, two years to the most, and not four or more.

But modern journalists no longer confine themselves only to asking questions, listening and watching, as Ullman suggests, but they are excellent experts in their areas and sovereign masters of the topics they report about. Journalists, who specialised financial reporting, ecology, science, culture or any other area, have to be highly educated experts. 

That is the reason why journalists have to be educated, not only in regular universities but also through permanent professional improvement, in order to be able to follow, and often to be ahead of strictly specialised areas they cover as journalists.

American theoretic of journalism Herbert J. Gans regards that the main reason why journalism has become a respectable profession lies in the fact that journalists advocate progressive social ideas and fight for the truth, as they did in the Watergate affair. 

“... these values serve journalism as a profession, giving it a respectable social role. As journalists act as protectors of a range of social values, they present more than sheer technicians who pass the information from its source to the public. Contemporary journalists do not see themselves as social reformers, however, they are proud when their articles result in official investigation or social and legal changes.” [5]

With or Without Faculty

Journalists are well aware of the fact that only compliance with social standards can keep their profession at a satisfactory level. And the knowledge of standards can be obtained only in relevant schools and faculties. That is why journalists are no longer uneducated youths who enter the offices straight from the street; their education is increasingly high. 

“The most important skills of journalists – capability of systematic gathering, analysis and communicating information – also makes the most important component of high education”, emphasises Charles L. Overby, president in the Freedom Forum, a big American media foundation which promotes freedom of speech and press.[1][6] However, Overby also mentions the importance of a link between a good practical work and a theoretic professor, because without one another they can hardly yield results required by modern journalism. But, why is the model of journalistic education so contentious? 

“There are two basic approaches to education of journalists – stresses Ray Hiebert, professor of journalism in the University of Maryland. “One of the best is presented in Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where journalists are educated in a one-year practical course, at M.A. level, and only after having graduated a four-year study. Most other studies of journalism are four-year under-graduate studies, where theory prevails, and with less practical subjects.” [7]

So, that “quick” journalistic school in the American style is actually almost equivalent to our post-graduate studies! The difference still exists, because our post-graduate studies last 2 years, but the incoming new system which will introduce 3+2 years will be much more similar to the American. 

Most among today’s American journalists have graduated in some of journalistic studies, and a very small number among them is without high professional education. However, they can also have diplomas of some other faculties, but the practice has shown that contemporary courses of journalistic studies are the matter of greatest importance for journalists if they want to do their job properly. 

Most European journalistic studies last also four years, with theoretical subjects prevailing, and graduate journalists are not prioritised more than other graduate students. Europe also has shorter, two-year educational courses in specialised schools of journalism. Among French, Danish or Dutch journalists, the majority finished some of their journalistic schools of journalism, like the famous l’Ecole superieure de journalisme de Lille (High School of Journalism of Lille) or Danish School of Journalism in Aarhus, which both make prototypes of top educational institutions for education of journalists. However, even though they have titles of schools, these two institutions actually present post-graduate studies of a kind, as the majority of their students already graduated in other faculties. 

It is worth noting that, although in France, for example, membership to journalistic profession is exclusively confirmed by the fact that journalism is one’s main way of providing means of living, it is still important to be well educated. The logic is simple: the knowledge obtained in Lille or Aarhus is so firm, that students have no difficulties in finding job in their profession and confirming themselves as top professionals.

So, where are then the journalists – universal ignorants from smoky café-bars? Have they become anachronism, relict of the past, or they are the reality, while highly educated yuppies belong to glamorous reports for annual sessions of UNESCO only? 

As usual, the truth is somewhere in the middle. 

The importance of journalistic education can be confirmed by one of conclusions of the conference “Mediadiskurs Sudosteuropa”, held in Budapest in July 2000, where journalists, media experts and instructors of journalism in their joint declaration placed education of journalists on a high position, stating that “education makes a key factor which will help future generations of journalists to master the difficulties in the region.” 

LITERATURE

1. Bennet, Lance W.: News: the Politics of Illusion, Longman, White Plains, 1996.
2. Clark, James C.: Newspaper Training Editors Guide, The Freedom Forum, Arlington, 1999.
3. Curran James and Gurevitch Michael: Mass Media and Society, Edward Arnold, London, 1991.
4. Eurostat Yearbook: A statistical eye on Europe, European Commission, Luxembourg, 2000.
5. Ferguson, Donald i Patten, Jim: Journalism Careers, VGM Career Horizonsm Linconlwood, 1989.
6. Gans, Herbert J.: Deciding what’s News, Vintage Books, New York, 1980
7. Higher Education in Developing Countries: Peril and Promise, The World Bank, Washington , 2000
8. Kunczik, Michael i Zipfel, Astrid: Uvod u publicističku znanost i komunikologiju, F.Ebert Stiftung, Zagreb, 1998.
9. McQuail, Dennis: Mass Communication Theory, Sage Publications, London, 1994.
10. Malović, Stjepan: Educating Journalists, Politička misao, Vol, XXXV, (1998), Zagreb
11. Medsger Betty: Winds of Change, Challenges Confronting Journalism Education, The Freedom Forum, Arlington, 1996.
12. Highlights of a Summit of Journalism from Central and Eastern Europe and the United States, The Freedom Forum, Arlington, 1994.

Stjepan Malovic, Ph.D. is senior lecturer in the subject of press in the Faculty of Political Sciences in the University of Zagreb. Stjepan Malovic, doctour of the science of communications and Dean in the Faculty of Political Sciences in the University of Zagreb, Director of International Center for Education of Journalists and chairman of the Board of the South East Europe Network of Media Centers for Education of Journalists. Translation: O.H. ©Media Online 2001. All rights reserved. 

source: MHxJU
published by: Roland Brunner rbr@medienhilfe.ch date of release on this site: 29-11-2001

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