Journawiki
Register
Advertisement

A journalism school is a school or department, usually part of an established university, where journalists are trained. They are sometimes called "J-school." One journalism school in Australia is now known as Jschool.

Many of the most famous and respected journalists had no formal training in journalism, but learned their craft on the job, often starting out as copy boys.

Today, in many parts of the world it is usual for journalists to complete university-level training which incorporates both technical skills such as research, interviewing technique and shorthand and academic studies in media theory, cultural studies and ethics.

Current preference within the United Kingdom is for entrants to first complete a non media-studies related degree course, giving maximum educational breadth, prior to taking a specialist postgraduate pre-entry course, most of which are either recognised by the National Union of Journalists or the National Council for the Training of Journalists.

Top journalism schools[]

There have been various attempts to rank journalism schools, and the question of which are the best or top journalism schools is frequently raised on the Internet by students. Many institutions claim to be leading schools of journalism, and there is inevitably debate about which are the most appropriate criteria with which to evaluate and judge journalism schools.

Asia

Two "top 10" lists have been compiled in India: [1] and [2].

Australia and New Zealand

In Australia, a ranking of all journalism schools in the country has been assembled based on graduating students' assessments of the quality of their courses [3]. The New Zealand Training Organisation has published a list of that country's journalism schools recognised by the industry [4].

Europe

Issues from a European perspective in evaluating journalism schools are discussed by the president of the European Journalism Training Association at [5].

Latin America

An evaluation of developments in journalism education in Latin America has been undertaken by Professor Rosental Calmon Alves[6].

Northern America

An unranked listing of leading Canadian journalism schools has been assembled by Campus Access[7].

In the United States, the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) [8] applies nine standards in evaluating university programs: mission, governance and administration; curriculum and instruction; diversity and inclusiveness; full-time and part-time faculty; scholarship: research, creative and professional activity; student services; resources, facilities and equipment; professional and public service; and assessment of learning outcomes. The ACEJMCC has awarded accreditation to 109 university and college programs, but does not attempt to rank the courses or programs.

Editor & Publisher has made an unranked list of leading journalism schools [9].

In 1996, U.S. News & World Report published a list of 15 top journalism and mass communications schools based on responses to questionnaires sent to deans and faculty members, along with a separate unranked and shorter list of schools "cited most often for their high quality" by respondents to a survey sent to print journalists, broadcast journalists, public-relations executives and advertising executives[10].

A list based on a variety of resources claims to identify the "10 most popular journalism schools in the United States" [11].

One critic has pointed to the anecdotal nature of much J-school ranking in the absence of effective tracking of journalism graduates' career paths [12].


Debate about the role of journalism schools[]

One of the most cited critiques of a journalism school was Michael Lewis's article in The New Republic (1993), "J-school ate my brain" ([13]), which earned a strong rebuke from American Journalism Review: [14]. Discussion of the issues raised by Lewis was evident a decade later in the Chronicle of Higher Education colloquy on journalism education, [15], Columbia Journalism Review's "Searching for the perfect J-school", [16], and "The J-school debate" in the Christian Science Monitor, [17]. Alternative approaches to journalism education were suggested in Jack Shafer's Slate article "Can J-school be saved? Professional advice for Columbia University" [18]. An article in The Australian discusses "What makes a good school of journalism" [19].

On the Internet, a range of weblogs have been set up by journalism students to chronicle or to criticize their journalism colleges. Examples are: [20], [21], [22], [23]. An example of a weblog criticising university journalism education in Australia is [24].

Various commentaries on journalism education are related to criticisms of contemporary news media standards and values. One example is a paper by Jan Schaffer, executive director of J-Lab: the Institute for Interactive Journalism[25].

Credit and categories[]

Smallwikipedialogo.png This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at {{{Journalism school}}}. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Journawiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Advertisement