Graduate Qualities and Journalism Curriculum Renewal: Balancing Tertiary Expectations and Industry Needs in a Changing Environment
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University of Wollongong Research Online Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities 1-1-2013 Graduate Qualities and Journalism Curriculum Renewal: Balancing Tertiary Expectations and Industry Needs in a Changing Environment. Stephen J. Tanner University of Wollongong, [email protected] Marcus O'Donnell University of Wollongong, [email protected] Trevor Cullen Edith Cowan University, [email protected] Kerry Green University Of South Australia, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons, and the Law Commons Recommended Citation Tanner, Stephen J.; O'Donnell, Marcus; Cullen, Trevor; and Green, Kerry, "Graduate Qualities and Journalism Curriculum Renewal: Balancing Tertiary Expectations and Industry Needs in a Changing Environment." (2013). Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers. 1984. https://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers/1984 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Graduate Qualities and Journalism Curriculum Renewal: Balancing Tertiary Expectations and Industry Needs in a Changing Environment. Abstract This project explores the attitudes of universities and media organisations towards journalism curriculum renewal. In part, the project is inspired by an apparent schism that exists between some journalists and editors on the one hand, and journalism academics on the other regarding the role of journalism training and education, specifically, where it should most appropriately be taught – in-house, that is by the media organisation, within a university environment, or elsewhere. This project provides the first comprehensive analysis of the journalism education sector in Australia to consider the question of curriculum renewal and the relationship between universities and industry on a national scale. The timing of this project was fortuitous, given the impact of technological innovation and economic restructures on journalism worldwide and the consequent impact of these changes on the following questions: (1) What is a journalist? (2) What skills are required to become a journalist? (3) How can those skills be acquired or developed? This project addresses these questions and begins the development of a shared language of curriculum renewal in the journalism education sector and between industry and the sector. In conducting this study, the researchers conducted a series of interviews with senior journalists, editors and industry trainers, as well as with Journalism educators. The survey questions are included in Appendix A. Ethics clearance for the project was obtained through the University of Wollongong (see Appendix B). Keywords industry, expectations, tertiary, balancing, renewal, curriculum, environment, journalism, changing, qualities, graduate, needs Disciplines Arts and Humanities | Law Publication Details Tanner, S. J.., O'Donnell, M., Cullen, T. and Green, K. Graduate Qualities and Journalism Curriculum Renewal: Balancing Tertiary Expectations and Industry Needs in a Changing Environment.. 2013. This report is available at Research Online: https://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers/1984 Graduate qualities and journalism curriculum renewal: Balancing tertiary expectations and industry needs in a changing environment Final Report 2014 University of Wollongong (Lead institution) Professor Stephen Tanner (Project leader) Dr Marcus O’Donnell University of South Australia Professor Kerry Philip Green Edith Cowan University Associate Professor Trevor Cullen Report authors: Professor Stephen Tanner, Dr Marcus O’Donnell, Associate Professor Trevor Cullen, Professor Kerry Green Support for the production of this report has been provided by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. The views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. With the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms, and where otherwise noted, all material presented in this document is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/). The details of the relevant licence conditions are available on the Creative Commons website (accessible using the links provided) as is the full legal code for the CC BY 3.0 AU licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/legalcode). Requests and inquiries concerning these rights should be addressed to: Office for Learning and Teaching Department of Education GPO Box 9880, Location code N255EL10 Sydney NSW 2001 <[email protected]> 2014 ISBN 978-1-74361-413-6 [PRINT] ISBN 978-1-74361-414-3 [PDF] ISBN 978-1-74361-415-0 [DOCX] Acknowledgements • To the journalists, editors, news directors, editorial trainers and other members of the Journalism profession who agreed to participate in the interviews, thank you. • Thank you also to the Journalism educators who agreed to share their experience and thoughts on the current state of Journalism education in Australia. • Emily Duncan, for undertaking the initial literature review and preliminary data gathering regarding the structure of Australian journalism programs. • John Burfitt, for conducting additional interviews. • Emilija Tanner and Victoria Wilde for transcribing interviews. Graduate qualities and journalism curriculum renewal 2 List of acronyms used AAP Australian Associated Press ABC Australian Broadcasting Corporation ACP Australian Consolidated Press ACU Australian Catholic University AJA Australian Journalists Association ALTC Australian Learning and Teaching Council Ltd AQF Australian Qualifications Framework BA Bachelor of Arts B Comm Bachelor of Communication BIJ British Institute of Journalists BJ (or B Jour) Bachelor of Journalism CAE College of Advanced Education CNG Community Newspaper Group CQU CQ University EA Enterprise Agreement EBA Enterprise Bargaining Agreement ECU Edith Cowan University FCN Fairfax Community Newspapers Grad. Cert. Graduate Certificate Grad. Dip. Graduate Diploma HESP Higher Education Standards Panel JCU James Cook University JEAA Journalism Education Association of Australasia JTB Journalism Training Board (New Zealand) KC Kings Counsel MA Master of Arts M Comm Master of Communication(s) MJ (M. Jour) Master of Journalism M Media Master of Media MEAA Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance NCTJ National Council for the Training of Journalists NUJ National Union of Journalists NZJTO New Zealand Journalism Training Organisation OLT Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching OUA Open Universities Australia PMA Published Media Award QUT Queensland University of Technology RD (RDA) Regional Daily Award RMIT RMIT University SBS Special Broadcasting Service SCU Sunshine Coast University TAFE Technical and Further Education TEQSA Tertiary Education Quality & Standards Agency UoW University of Wollongong UniSA University of South Australia Graduate qualities and journalism curriculum renewal 3 UNSW The University of New South Wales UQ The University of Queensland USQ University of Southern Queensland USyd The University of Sydney UTas University of Tasmania UTS University of Technology, Sydney UWA The University of Western Australia UWS University of Western Sydney WAN West Australian Newspapers WARN West Australian Regional Newspapers Graduate qualities and journalism curriculum renewal 4 Executive Summary This project explores the attitudes of universities and media organisations towards journalism curriculum renewal. In part, the project is inspired by an apparent schism that exists between some journalists and editors on the one hand, and journalism academics on the other regarding the role of journalism training and education, specifically, where it should most appropriately be taught – in-house, that is by the media organisation, within a university environment, or elsewhere. This project provides the first comprehensive analysis of the journalism education sector in Australia to consider the question of curriculum renewal and the relationship between universities and industry on a national scale. The timing of this project was fortuitous, given the impact of technological innovation and economic restructures on journalism worldwide and the consequent impact of these changes on the following questions: (1) What is a journalist? (2) What skills are required to become a journalist? (3) How can those skills be acquired or developed? This project addresses these questions and begins the development of a shared language of curriculum renewal in the journalism education sector and between industry and the sector. In conducting this study, the researchers conducted a series of interviews with senior journalists, editors and industry trainers, as well as with Journalism educators. The survey questions are included in Appendix A. Ethics clearance for the project was obtained through the University of Wollongong (see Appendix B). The project’s findings can be summarised as follows: 1: Interviewees (both industry and academic) agreed that there was a key role for universities in providing both an educational background and skills-based training for people contemplating a career in Journalism and early career journalists. 2: Not surprisingly – given the debate that provoked this study - there was some disagreement, both between industry and academe and within the two sectors, as to what