Journalism education in universities : the global and local migration of concepts between discipline and practice

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study deals with the relationship between university-based journalism education and journalismas a social practice. It is argued that the construction of this relationship can be better understood incontext of its location within the history different conceptions of social knowledge. The purpose wasto gain insight into how this relationship was shaped by the location of journalism education withinglobal and local histories of such knowledge. This goal was pursued through an exploration of theinternational development of university-based journalism education and a more detailed considerationof the South African example.The study consists, firstly, of a literature review which demonstrates how the construction ofthe relationship between journalism education and journalism as practice has been implicated in thehistory of different conceptualisations of authoritative knowledge. The review traces the role playedby Mass Communication Studies and Cultural Studies in shaping this relationship. It is concludedthat the way in which these two fields have located themselves within the politics of authoritativeknowledge has contributed to the marginalisation, within journalism education, of critical engagementbetween academic knowledge and knowledge of journalistic practice. The review also teases out howSouth African journalism education has positioned itself within the broader history of universitybasedjournalism education. It is concluded that although the marginalisation of critical education isreproduced within the South African example, a close study of journalism education in this countryreveals the potential for a more critical engaged approach to teaching.The study includes an empirical research component focusing on South African journalismeducation. This serves as a more detailed exploration of the themes emerging from the literaturereview, pursued in context of an examination of a historically situated example of university-basedjournalism education. A central aim of this empirical component of the study was to explore thepotential for the realisation of a critically engaged tradition in journalism education in South Africa.The study drew, for this purpose, on interviews with individuals who have experience both of workingas journalists and of studying and teaching in university environments in South Africa. One conclusion drawn from these interviews is that journalism education, as it exists in this country, hasprimarily defined itself in relation to a mainstream and 'liberal' understanding of authoritativejournalistic knowledge. It is demonstrated that it becomes possible to imagine a more criticallyengaged and transformative relationship with journalism practice if teaching acknowledges theexistence, in the South African context, of alternative approaches to authoritative journalisticknowledge. It is also shown that within existing traditions of critical education, the relationship withpractice tends to be one of the 'deconstruction' of the liberal conceptualisation of journalisticknowledge. The study proposes that 'critical engagement' needs, instead, to be reconceptualised as arelationship of 'supportive critique' with historically situated examples of journalistic practice.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University