Traditional media – particularly print – are in decline as audiences move online, and revenue streams follow them to platform giants like Google and Facebook. The demand for journalism graduates is shrinking, while non-professionals play an increasing role in supplying society with information. As I argue in a new paper, journalism schools need to reorient ate their courses to new kinds of students and adjust the curriculum for the new post-professional world of journalism. If they do not, they risk becoming irrelevant – if they do, a host of new opportunities present themselves.
Teaching for a professional role
Historically, journalism teaching emerged just over a century ago as journalists began to claim the status of professionals. The first journalism school in the US was founded in 1908 at the University of Missouri. Since then, students have enrolled in journalism courses expecting to obtain the necessary skills and knowledge to work as full-time professionals in a newsroom. In Africa, too, journalism and communication schools have become common.
The industrial age of journalistic media, with news produced by full-time professionals, looks like it is ending. Journalists are more likely to have to behave like entrepreneurs in the gig economy, moving from one short-term contract to the next. It is a precarious existence. In Africa, journalism has been precarious for longer and for other reasons. Political pressures and fragile media economies mean that working for independent media is often freelance, with low and uncertain pay.
However, new opportunities emerge if journalism is thought of less than as a profession, but rather as a practice.
The quality of the information published matters a great deal – one of the challenges of the social media world is the amount of misinformation available. The difficulty of telling rubbish from worthwhile information has bred distrust of journalism. And that is where the crisis offers journalism schools in Africa – and arguably elsewhere – an opportunity.
Reimagining journalism training
Young people wanting to become full-time journalists are no longer the only people who want and need to learn journalistic skills. Others include people in community media, media entrepreneurs and “accidental journalists” – people who don’t see themselves as journalists but who contribute worthwhile information. At the same time, there is a substantial need for working journalists to update their skill sets for a rapidly changing world.
As the shrinking job market in many countries discourages young people from entering the field, there are also practical reasons for identifying new types of potential students. New groups of students bring fee income from new directions into cash-strapped universities.
Journalism schools also need to think about the curriculum. There is a need for old-school skills like verification and the ability to work out what is publicly important or “newsworthy”. There is a need for new technical skills, from data journalism to podcasting and artificial intelligence.
Overall, journalism schools have obligations that go beyond producing the next generation of young journalists. They can and should consider much more broadly what they can do to sustain and improve the health of the information systems around them. In African countries, the responsibility is particularly acute, as there may be few other institutions able to play such a role. Research and an involvement in public discussion of media issues are just some ways they can contribute, and many already do so.
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