South African journalism graduates' preparedness for newsroom ethics: views of early-career journalists at News24, Eyewitness News and Independent Online

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Several changes to the media landscape have highlighted how journalists need not only be wary of sources and the content that they share on social media, but also journalists need to be cognisant of being consumers of social media and the role that they as journalists play in the spreading of incorrect and illegitimate news. These changes to the media landscape have led to news editors increasing the value placed on journalism ethics training. This raises several questions regarding how well prepared journalism graduates are when faced with the current ethical challenges in the newsroom. The researcher started off this exploratory pilot study by doing a thorough review of prior literature on the role that journalism education plays in the practice of ethical journalism. Additionally, the researcher addressed prior literature that looked at the development of journalism education in South Africa, as well as how journalistic professionalism has changed over the past few decades. In order to investigate the role of ethics education, the researcher relied on social responsibility theory as a theoretical framework for the study, alongside the basic tenets of role perception theory and the concept of professionalism. Social responsibility theory was chosen as a theoretical framework as it suggests that the media have a responsibility toward society. Through conducting a series of semi-structured interviews with thirteen journalists from three major online publications in South Africa, viz, News24, Eyewitness News and Independent Online, this exploratory pilot study explored how well equipped newly graduated journalists are to navigate ethical challenges in the newsroom. The data from the thirteen semi-structured interviews was analysed by means of thematic analysis. The findings show that newly graduated journalists are not being trained sufficiently in the current practice of media ethics. By exploring the journalists' personal experiences as early-career journalists, the exploratory pilot study emphasised the importance of modern-day journalism ethics training. It further provides insight into how journalism training institutions should adapt their media ethics courses to fulfil industry expectations.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University