Can journalism be taught? Some hardened journos say no — that it’s all about talent and time on the job.
Journalism teachers, of course, believe their work does produce results. And, to underline this, about 450 from some 50 countries met in Singapore last week at the first-ever World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC).
Coincidentally, the event came a fortnight after the global newspaper industry’s annual meeting, and shortly before African editors were due to debate with presidents in Accra, Ghana, this past weekend.
Being sandwiched between these occasions neatly symbolises the significance of the WJEC. The point is: journalism education is a spring. It bubbles into much that is in the newspapers. It underpins much of the intellectual firepower the African editors would have mustered (had the presidents arrived in time for the debate).
Like many conferences, the WJEC included a share of duds who simply make you depressed about the future of media. But overwhelmingly it showcased a worldwide cadre of cosmopolitan individuals committed to providing the best journalism education possible:
- One was Rebecca MacKinnon, founder of Global Voices and a former CNN correspondent now teaching in Hong Kong. She gets her students to blog in order to learn about RSS and social media.
- Another was Yevgenia Munro, a journalism teacher from Russia who works in New Zealand. She’s collated what her fellow educators around the world see as crucial for assessing the quality of a news story. It’s evolving into a tool for students to score their own work.
- South African Margaretha Geertsema, now living in the United States, is on a mission for journalism teachers to learn from how the Inter Press Services news agency mainstreamed gender issues into coverage.
Driving much of the event was Indrajit Banerjee, an Indian living in Singapore whose Asia Media Information Centre merged its own annual conference with the WJEC.
With this kind of fusion of folk, it followed that many interesting things were said at the congress.
How to teach when students exhibit two different languages and social classes was the topic addressed by Ujjwala Barve of the University of Pune in India. (Answer: look at the positives, not the problems; enlist the students as co-teachers.)
Canadian Terry Field presented on what his students had learnt about globalisation in an exchange programme with the US and Mexico. (What? Their lives had changed).
Texas-based Brazilian Rosental Alves preached in effect that much journalism teaching today amounts, albeit unconsciously, to instruction in media history. He shook up the skills and mindsets of old, industrial-era media.
Refreshingly, there was no debate about whether journalism education should cover theory or practice — it was accepted that both are essential to producing thinking and skilled practitioners.
The main issue was how to teach in a fast and fluid media landscape, and how to prepare students for jobs — like moderating user-generated online contributions — that have only recently been invented, or which are even yet to emerge.
Behind the conferencing, close to 50 journalism education groups adopted a Declaration of Principles of Journalism Education.
They agreed that journalism education should prepare graduates to work as highly informed, strongly committed practitioners who have high ethical principles and are able to fulfil public-interest obligations.
This is not as obvious as you may think — especially in countries, ranging from the US to China, where ”national interest” thinking has sometimes tilted journalism education towards government policy and away from independent, critical thinking.
The WJEC declaration also does well by stating that:
- journalism education is an academic field in its own right, with a distinctive body of knowledge and theory;
- journalism educators should be a blend of academics and practitioners; and
- journalism educators should maintain strong links to media industries, and critically reflect on industry practices and offer advice to industry based on this reflection.
Recognising global issues, the declaration notes:
- journalism students should learn that despite political and cultural differences, they share important values and professional goals with peers in other nations; and
- there should be global collaboration to boost journalism education as an academic discipline and ensure that it plays a more effective role in strengthening journalism.
Quite so.
Given the challenges facing media in Africa, journalism education on the continent could benefit greatly from a shot in the arm akin to the Singapore dialogues.
With that in mind, some WJEC delegates proposed Africa as the venue for a follow-up second congress. Seeing that the world’s newspapers recently blazed a trail in this regard, it’s quite possible the educators will follow suit.
The result could be to reinvigorate journalism teaching and improve its effects on African media.
Even the sceptics about journalism education should hold their thumbs.
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