This write-up primarily relates to the UK, but anyone interested in journalism education may be interested in reading it.
If you can't be arsed reading the whole 8000-word thing, and only want the gist of things; This is the most important paragraph in the whole dissertation, taken from the conclusion:
Ultimately, based on the research in this dissertation, the best suggestion that can be made, is to study a non-journalism topic in depth, or perhaps even a series of topics in which the prospective journalist is interested. Many of the skills that make good journalism are learned in the 'school of life', and the only way to enrol is to live to gain real-life experience and people skills. At some point, when the journalist-to-come decides the time is right, a one-year journalism course can offer the necessary core skills needed to land that first job.
Dissertation, part of my Journalism BA Honours degree
at Liverpool John Moores University in Liverpool, United Kingdom
Completed and © 2004 Haje Jan Kamps
Abstract
To what degree does journalism education benefit a career print journalism looks at the way journalists are trained and how the various training schemes can help a journalist's career.
After a brief summary of previous literature on the subject, the dissertation outlines and discusses the various journalism education structures available to an aspiring journalist. The thesis further discusses whether or not journalism education is necessary at all, what skills a journalist needs, and how it is possible to go about gaining these skills.
The original research for this body of work comes in the form of a series of interviews: Throughout the dissertation, the opinions from more than 50 trainers, trainees and journalism professionals are reflected and weighed against each other.
The dissertation reaches the conclusion that journalism training - when properly structured and focused on the right things - can offer fledgling journalists invaluable tools to use in their careers. The ultimate conclusion, however, is that a non-journalistic degree with an additional post-graduate qualification or masters degree in journalism is the wisest investment for someone who wants to pursue a successful print journalism career.
Introduction
Our society is saturated by The Media. Radio, the small and big screen, magazines and newspapers are like an inescapable web of knowledge, information, entertainment, advertisement, news, commentary and political spin. With topics as varied as gardens, cars, movies, home-improvement, antique dolls, education, chemistry and fly-fishing, the only thing all of these very diverse things have in common is the people that provide the content: Journalists.
There are literally hundreds of professions within the field of journalism. To begin with, we have the various forms of media output: national newspapers, local newspapers, news agencies, freelance, magazines, books, PR, radio, television, Internet news etc. (NUJ 2003a). In addition to this, there are all the different functions within the different media, that may all contribute to journalistic output, if only peripherally. These other roles and may or may not benefit from a journalism education: Reporters, sub-editors, editors, translators, proofreaders, producers, directors, cartoonists, illustrators and technical staff such as photographers, camera-crews, communication link operators etc.
This study will examine the different routes leading to a successful print journalism career. In particular, the dissertation will unveil to what degree it is beneficial to have a journalism qualification, what options are available and what the differences are between the alternatives. In the name of brevity, it will focus on journalism careers in the field of print journalism only: The education en route to a career as a journalist or reporter in local and national newspapers or magazines.
According to the NUJ, there may be as many as 80.000 journalists in the UK. Of these, roughly 60.000 work in print journalism. (NUJ 2003a) Consequently, we can assume there are 60.000 different stories as to how these journalists got to where they are today.
So what is journalism education, really? What is its purpose? After all, journalism theory can be summarized into a set of simple concepts, the essence of which you could write on the back of a business card: Get Who, What, Where and When, and get Why if you can. Spell names correctly. Check everything one more time. Do not convict a suspect. Bring an extra pen. Do not accept gifts from sources. Be accurate. Be creative.
Nevertheless, to teach these concepts there are a plethora of possible training and education selections. The options range from short "fast-track" courses to masters degrees or even doctorates.
It is a paradox: while journalism education has never been at a intellectual level, parts of the press - in particular the provincial press - are degenerating into rewriting press releases, as a cost-cutting option (Røkke Johansen 2004). Simultaneously, and in stark contrast with the previous observation, the average level of education within the population in general is rising. This has caused an increase in interest for in-depth, high-level information and analysis of the world around us, which manifests itself in the form of higher demands on publications and the people who produce them (Bierhoff et al 2000).
In order to initiate and uphold a meaningful journalism career, many media professionals feel "formal training is a pre-requisite for nearly all entrants - except the phenomenally talented, lucky, or those related to someone in high places" (Rudin 2004). Consequently, the significance of the quality of this training is considerable.
All the tutors and trainers we spoke to feel that journalism education upholds a very high standard, compared with the way journalism education has been practiced in the past. In spite of this, some newspapers, such as the Liverpool Echo, still require graduates they take on to follow a 2-year training programme. As one soon-to-be Bachelor of Journalism puts it: "What is the point of a journalism degree if institutions are going to retrain you?" (Smith 2004a).
Faced with all this - how do nascent journalists commence their careers? What training programmes exist to prepare the new generation of journalists? Is there even any point in following a journalism-training course?
The mission of this dissertation is to find answers to these questions.
Literary Review
For a topic that seems keenly debated, both in professional and in academic worlds, previous research into journalism education is surprisingly meagre.
Access to the debates themselves is easy enough, as strong opinions flourish in trade publications such as the British Press Gazette, the American Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication newsletter, and on a variety of Internet forums in the form of diverse articles.
A few pieces of academic work do exist, however. A major international study written by Bierhoff, Deuze and Vreese, "Media Innovation, Professional Debate", compares the professional and educational situations in five western-European countries. Their work goes into some depth, comparing and contrasting the situations in Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland, and offers an invaluable insight into the way journalism training works in other countries. The study only concentrates on the systems and how they work, however, and ignores the question of this dissertation altogether.
Other academic work includes Delano's work The Formation of the British Journalist 1900-2000, which is "the first comprehensive work into the nature of the present day British journalist" (Delano 2001 p3). It provides a significant work of historical observations, which to a large extent covers the major developments in educational structures.
From the modest previous writings, it seems that this dissertation seems to a unique work in the world of journalistic academia. Hence, its findings and observations will be based predominantly on original research.
The methods used for researching this dissertation have involved primarily qualitative analysis of the status quo in the media and journalism education debate. The research ideas originated in public discussion and discourse available in Journalism publications and in articles and discussion forums on the Internet.
Based on the issues raised in these forums, it was decided that the only way to expand further on the topics would be to talk to the individuals actually involved in the journalism training industry. These people were split into four groups: Those who are about to enter the journalism profession (students or trainees of journalism), those who train journalists (journalism trainers and tutors), those who are part of the journalism community (the journalists themselves), and finally, the top of the food chain: The editors, for whom all this training is undertaken - at least indirectly.
Research interviews
Having chosen the primary targets for research, a questionnaire form was devised in cooperation with Jeanette Smith, the dissertation supervisor. The form was programmed to go on-line , and a series of desirable participants were contacted and asked to fill out one of the forms. When a participant filled out a form, the web site generated an email, which was emailed to the author of this dissertation.
For this research, 49 different journalism tutors and trainers from 29 different institutions; more than 200 journalism students from 51 learning institutions on three continents and more than 100 journalists and editors were invited to participate in the research. Of these more than 300 people, approximately 20% replied.
When the ten days set as the deadline to respond to the research were over, 72 replies were received, of which 51 were valid. 11 of the replies were from journalism professionals, 31 were from journalism students, and nine were from the journalism education community.
Based on the replies to the research questionnaire, a selection of the interviewees were contacted again, in order to further discuss matters of interest, or to harvest more information about certain themes or topics they raised.
Method Advantages
It was decided that quantitative analysis would be largely irrelevant, as the purpose of this dissertation was not to find out how many journalists feel their educations had been useful. Instead, the choice was made to focus on the arguments for and against various forms of journalism education, from the variety of relevant first-hand sources detailed earlier.
Many of the replies to the questionnaire were highly opinionated, which was not surprising, as the participation in the interview was voluntary. This means that people without a distinct opinion on journalism education and its implementations were unlikely to take time out of their busy schedules to fill in the form. A corollary of this is that a very high percentage of the received interview forms were valuable to the overall production of this thesis.
Method Disadvantages
The primary disadvantage of the method chosen was the limited availability of journalism tutors and journalists. While the answers contained a great cross-section of differing opinions, there is no way of knowing what the general consensus of journalists and / or journalism tutors is without conducting further studies.
The situation for the journalism students is somewhat better, but even though replies were received from students of many different courses, the research is distinctively biased towards University students, as they were the ones who offered the most replies, and had the strongest opinions on the pertinent matters.
Analysis of methodology
Despite the drawbacks mentioned earlier, it is probably fair to conclude that the most popular major strands of thought, opinions and ideas on the topic of journalism education have been considered during the production of this dissertation.
While it will unfortunately be impossible to estimate what prominence the various ideas have in the current discourse in journalism education theory, it is unlikely that this will make a significant impact on the outcomes of the dissertation. This is because the theories and ideas have been considered against each other based on their credibility and argumentation.
The concept of journalism is extremely important in functioning democracies, and its role places a particularly heavy responsibility on the practitioners of the journalistic tradition: In a political landscape journalists are the filter between politicians and the people. Far more importantly, however, journalists are one of the pillars on which democracy depends. The function of journalists as whistleblowers, warning the public about problems in society and abuse or mismanagement by the government is as important now as it ever was.
With few exceptions (such as Italy), journalism "has no standards of admittance and no board of review" (Gopnik 1995), unlike other occupational groups such as physicians, nurses, engineers and solicitors. These groups of professionals cannot practice their profession without a license, and if they violate the rules of their profession, they may have their license suspended or terminated. With their license, they also lose the right to practice their profession. This is not the case within journalism. Not only do such licensing laws not exist, their implementation would be illegal in many countries. In the United States of America, for example, the First Amendment forbids the enforcement of journalistic standards: "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press" (US constitution, 1st amendment, 15 December 1791).
Although some countries lack laws that defend freedom of expression, most democratic countries have officially ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The 10th article of this document effectively makes it impossible for the concurrent countries to introduce licensing on the journalism profession. It states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression through any media" (O'Malley 2000).
Instead, in the UK, journalism is governed by a system of peer review, which puts heavy demands on the power structure in the news rooms, but also - ultimately - on a journalist's ability to show self-moderation.
An outcome of this is that journalism education is unlike many other professional itineraries of education: Journalists are not obliged to have completed some form of journalism qualification to be allowed to fill positions within the journalistic chain of production. Limitations to what a journalist can do are practical rather than being bound by statutory restrictions. For example, a journalist who does not know how a desktop publishing software package works may find it difficult to do sub-editing work.
Instead, training and / or journalism education is aimed primarily at the more practical sides of being a part of the journalism profession: To add practical skills and a basic knowledge of the theories and laws that are applicable.
An overview of Journalism Training
Ways into the journalism Profession
The typical journalism career path has changed radically over the past three decades. In the past, aspiring journalists would carry out an apprenticeship, picking up the "tricks of the trade" on their way, before being formally accepted into the newsroom and starting the climb up the career ladder. (NUS 2001a)
Nowadays, the vast majority of those who enter the journalism profession have a university degree, and most of the new journalists have completed a journalism-specific vocational pre-entry or postgraduate training course (NUS 2001a). It is worth noting that many who enter journalism have not done degrees in journalism, but rather in a more or less unrelated subject, such as political science, diplomacy or similar. The purpose of this was appropriately described by one of our interviewees: Having a journalism degree is well and good - it means you can write. However, being able to write does not mean that someone has anything to write about. (Tibbetts 2004) In other words, a non-journalism degree may be to an aspiring journalist's advantage, as it may grant them a deeper understanding of a specialist subject, which may be a valuable commodity in an increasingly cut-throat job market.
Journalism Education Structures
Many of the journalism teaching institutions are governed by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ), which was founded in 1951 to administer training for the UK newspaper industry. (NCTJ 2000a).
There are, however, many courses and programmes that have been set up independently of the NCTJ, or have decided to break away from the NCTJ. As will become evident, there are many reasons for why a course or programme may elect not to be NCTJ-accredited. For the purpose of this dissertation, there is a clear divide between accredited and non-accredited courses and programmes, as courses resulting in an accredited qualification largely cover the same syllabi. Non-accredited courses have a far wider spread in the ground covered in the duration of the programme.
The statistics on journalism education institutions referenced in this dissertation are based on the Press Gazette Education Special Edition published in 2003 (see Tomlin 2003). During the research for this dissertation, at least one additional undergraduate course was encountered, indicating that the numbers may not be 100 per cent accurate. They should, however, give a clear indication of the approximate numbers of programmes in operation:
In the UK, there are at least 21 undergraduate courses, 18 postgraduate courses, 3 colleges offering 12-week courses, 3 offering day release courses and 4 institutions offering a Two-year Higher National Diploma (HND). The London School of Journalism offers a distance learning course, there are 14 Pre-entry courses on offer and 8 colleges offer 18-21 week "fast-track" journalism training courses. In addition to these, there are specialist courses within photojournalism, magazine, online and broadcast journalism courses. Some of these have recognised accreditations, while others do not. (Tomlin 2003)
National Vocational Qualifications
One of the more obscure training programmes available is the government Department of Education-sponsored National Vocational Qualification (NVQ). These programmes are completed in the form of a work-related, competence-based training scheme, usually organised as part of a work-benefit style of training. The NVQ qualification system comes in five different levels. The journalism-flavour NVQ is most commonly rated at the second-highest level, level 4. The NVQ allows students to gain an intimate insight into a topic, without the academic rigour and thoroughness of some of the other courses on offer.
An advantage of the NVQ scheme is that there is less pressure on the student, as the course does not have a predefined time limit. This means that the NVQ programmes allows people who yearn for a journalism career of some description, but who are slow learners, or just prefer to take some more time completing a course, to have a chance.
The NVQ qualification is awarded by the Newcastle-based NCFE (NCFE used to stand for Northern College of Further Education, but its meaning is not used on their website or publications any longer, and the organisation is only known as the NCFE). The NVQ level 4 programmes offer training "which involves the application of knowledge in a broad range of complex, technical or professional work activities performed in a variety of contexts and with a substantial degree of personal responsibility and autonomy." (DFES 2002).
According to the Newspaper Society, "NVQs in newspaper journalism are equal to a British university degree pass" (Larkin n.d). Although this may well be true legally and technically, university students and tutors queried on this vehemently protested the statement.
The National Council for Teaching of Journalists qualification
There are several quality-approval bodies overseeing the training of journalists. For newspaper journalism, the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) is most prominent. However, for other branches of the media, there are other accreditations as well, such as the Periodicals Training Council (PTC) run by the Periodical Publishers Association (PPA), which administers accreditations for magazine journalism courses. There is also the Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BJTC), which oversees broadcasting education.
In order to gain an NCTJ qualification, the student has to sit a series of seven preliminary exams. These exams include writing of news stories of various lengths; a knowledge test covering local government, general reporting and law and a 100 word-per-minute shorthand exam. NCTJ accredited courses culminate in the NCTJ National Certificate Examination (NCE), which is a highly acclaimed qualification within the journalism profession. (NCTJ 2000b).
NCTJ courses can be completed in many different ways, but intensive 21-week courses, a full academic year course and a 3-year accredited bachelor degree are most common. There are also options to follow these courses on day-release, i.e. having regular days of training whilst working full time, journalism related or not.
It is also possible to study the syllabus privately, pass all the pre-exams and the NCE in order to gain the qualification.
Undergraduate degrees
21 universities offer undergraduate courses specifically in the field of journalism - as opposed to more theoretical "media" or "communications" degrees. Some of these courses are combinations of two subject matters, with journalism and politics being a popular amalgamation.
Nine - about 43 per cent - of the universities offering undergraduate journalism education are currently NCTJ-accredited. These are Bournemouth University, Chester College of Higher Education, Cumbria Institute of the Arts, Edge Hill College of Higher Education, Staffordshire University, the University of Central Lancashire, the University of Salford and the University of Sheffield. (Tomlin 2004) Several other universities are currently considering applying for NCTJ accreditation.
The universities that are currently NCTJ accredited are content with current arrangements: A series of phone calls confirmed that none of them are in the process of dropping the NCTJ accreditation from their programme.
Competition for the spaces at undergraduate degrees can be extremely fierce, entry requirements can be high and many applicants have to submit to interviews before they are offered a place at the most popular journalism courses.
The syllabi for undergraduate courses vary wildly, as do their focus on practical and academic work. Undergraduate students from the NCTJ-accredited University of Sheffield, for example, are not required to complete a dissertation to complete their bachelor degree. John Moores University, which is not accredited, have chosen an approach that means students have a limited amount of exams, but a high degree of practical work experience and hands-on training. Other universities, such as the City University, have chosen more academic and theoretical approaches to Journalism.
Postgraduate courses
Of the 19 institutions offering post-graduate journalism education, half offer NCTJ accreditation. There are a further 10 fast track 18-21 week postgraduate NCTJ-qualification courses, and a series of courses that are not accredited.
Most postgraduate courses relate their content to the previously completed academic work of the students, whilst remaining largely practical in their approach.
The majority of postgraduate courses focus on bringing the journalism students up to speed in topics such as journalism law, local and central government, and often include an introduction to media ethics. Many have also chosen to add shorthand as one of the requirements for the qualification.
The majority of the fast-track postgraduate courses consist primarily of "tack-on" journalism knowledge and skills. These courses can result in a journalism qualification, normally an NCTJ diploma. The full-year postgraduate courses usually lead to a master's degree.
In-house training
The final major option within journalism training is the in-house training offered by media businesses. Although the number of media institutes offering training today is notably lower than only a few decades ago, there are still a number of options available.
In-house training schemes are often technical, designed to introduce new journalists to the particularities of the media institution in question, but some schemes also include full training on par with their NCTJ or NVQ equivalents. Some in-house courses conclude with an exam resulting in a recognised qualification, while others may effectively be an institution-specific diploma.
Because of the wide variety of in-house training possibilities and variations, this flavour of journalism education has been largely ignored in this dissertation.
The status quo of journalism education
The necessity of journalism training
Journalism may well be one of the most intense professions in the world, but it is also a line of work that requires a particularly diverse set of skills. For example, journalists have to be capable researchers and interviewers, in order to get all the information required for a story. Researching is a skill that can be taught, but what about interviewing? It is possible to read rules, tips and tricks, but it is only through performing interviews again and again that a journalist instinctively knows how to lead a conversation in the right direction and ask questions that cause the interviewee to relax and open up. A final skill that is absolutely vital to journalism cannot be taught, forced or replaced: Persistence. One of the journalists spoken to agreed with this, and was sceptical about journalism education because it "teaches skills that many people have as talents" (Unanue 2004)
Some scholars would go even further than this. Betty Medsger thinks that journalism education is an oxymoron, and that the very concept gets in the way of both good journalism and good education. In her research, Medsger found that 59 per cent of Pulitzer Prize winners never studied journalism in any shape or form. For broadcast, this number was even higher. Furthermore, in a study done on "new" journalists, 27 per cent had never had any journalism education. Stunningly, these 27 per cent were "in various ways doing as well or better than the new journalists who had gone to J-school: Better in job satisfaction, in income and in achieving managerial positions" (Medsger 2003).
The other side of journalism happens after the interviewing and researching is completed: The conversion of gathered material into a logical sequence, allowing readers to understand the connections and significance of certain events. This conversion, writing up the story, can be taught to a certain degree, but only up to a degree. Beyond this, creativity and a special type of empathy with the reader is what makes a good journalist great.
Several of our interviewees alluded to the idea that journalism can be learned, but not taught. They claimed that that the role of journalism training was to offer a budding journalist the right tools for the job, but that it would be a logical impossibility to actually teach the students how to use these tools. A press officer for the Ministry of Defence seems to speak for many journalists when he says that "Short vocational courses seem to be enough to give people a decent grounding in the job before they actually start out on their careers" (Stringer 2004)
If we just for a moment accept that journalism education merely offers basic tools, what are these tools? From the research gathered, most journalists seemed to agree that a knowledge of shorthand, journalism law, and the basics of local and central government were the tools of most importance (Temple 2004). Many of the interviewees highlighted one particular skill: "The most important part of journalism training is shorthand. Without a minimum of 100 words per minute you are missing one of the most important tools of the job" (Tibbetts 2004).
From the core skills mentioned by our media professionals, it is possible to make an interesting observation. The tools have in common that one need not train formally in order to gain command of the skills in question. If one were to study An Introduction to Journalism and a decent book on shorthand, the core skills would be covered. At the reasonable sum of £50, one would have enough familiarity with the professional theories behind the art of journalism, and probably have enough change to celebrate the new skills at the pub afterwards. What, exactly, does journalism training offer that a pair of books and some persistence cannot teach?
It would seem that the main argument for following a journalism course, is that one has the opportunity to make mistakes that would not be tolerated in professional circumstances. Journalistic writing is not something that comes naturally to many people, although there are many examples of people 'picking it up' along the way (Smith 2004b). The prospect of developing this style in the "sealed environment" of a classroom or lecture theatre allows for a gentler learning curve: Your job is not in jeopardy if a story is written up badly.
Quite apart from the obvious advantage of the skills learnt during training, it must be considered that a diploma itself carries weight. One of the editors interviewed thought a qualification was paramount: "More and more newspapers will not even accept people without some sort of journalism qualification" (Weedy 2004). He points out, however, that if a course is to be of any use, it will have to be of a practical character, as courses focusing on history and media theory are far less useful to the industry.
Not everybody agrees. Another journalist observes that many large media organizations are still run by the "