A geo-political review of education for journalists

Abstract

It is almost axiomatic in university journalism programmes everywhere that students embark on their tertiary studies unprepared by their schooling at secondary level. Learning in school is viewed, at one level, as being either inadequate (even non-existent) or muddle-head-ed, and, at another level, as deliberately subversive of the journalism project. As journalism programmes have grown in popularity, this tension, which could once be dismissed as marginal, has assumed greater importance as illustrative of the contemporary dilemma of negotiating a place for education in the facilitation of media literacy.

Keywords

• media education
• journalism education
• tertiary restructure