State of the News Print Media in Australia 2006

Chapter 8

Education and training

Journalism education and training often involves a debate around theory vs practice: the value of tertiary qualifications compared with that of traditional on-the-job learning. The debate pits educators teaching journalism at universities against employers who question the value and relevance of aspects of courses teaching journalism.

Many employers claim journalism education is too concerned with theoretical constructs and does not always result in "job-ready" applicants. Journalism academics counter that their courses are skills-based and that theory represents a relatively small component of a vocationally focused journalism program.

What is not in dispute is that universities are graduating many more potential journalists than there are jobs available in the mainstream media. However many journalism graduates opt to enter related fields such as public relations or work for companies outside the traditional mainstream media. Not everyone entering a journalism program has a desire to establish a career in the media. Demand among students for a qualification in journalism far outweighs employer demand for journalism graduates. Widening the gap between journalism graduate numbers and journalism vacancies is the employers' willingness to consider graduates from a wide range of other disciplines for jobs in newsrooms.

All newspaper publishers offer on-the-job training to entry-level employees, and the better-resourced publishers have extensive formal training involving classroom teaching outside the newsrooms and/ or their own courses delivered online. Investment by newspaper publishers in their own training for entry-level journalists has become significant, both in dollar terms and in the allocation of staff resources.


Journalism education

Journalism is taught at 26 Australian universities undergraduate level18. In most cases, undergraduate journalism is offered as a stream or major within another degree, for example Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Communications or Bachelor of Media Studies. At universities where journalism is offered as a stand-alone degree, the move in part reflects demand from students for a "pure" journalism qualification and in part highlights the broad range of skills that can be grouped under the journalism umbrella.

A number of the universities also increasingly offer postgraduate degrees in journalism, although this report will concentrate on undergraduate education, by far the larger part of the sector.

The breadth of skills that can be encompassed by journalism is reflected in the variety of content offered. While some elements, such as news writing, media law and ethics, journalism research, and feature-writing are common to nearly all courses, there is a wide range of both journalism and non-journalism subjects on offer, either as electives, or core/ compulsory subjects.

The range of subjects included in journalism programs (as electives or core) varies across the universities and is dependent on their individual degree structures. Some are more prescriptive than others. Journalism subjects (core or elective) can include, but are not limited19 to:

The wide range of options available is highlighted by the various online course home pages. For a link to these, see Belinda Weaver's online resource site for Australian journalists at http://www.journoz.com/journ.html. While the list is not complete, it does provide the core of necessary information about the various degree programs on offer, both undergraduate and postgraduate.

Nomenclature gives a reasonable indication of the amount of "pure journalism" that will be included in any course – a Bachelor of Arts (Media and Communications) will normally range more widely across fields related to, or peripheral to, journalism than will a Bachelor of Journalism. Courses that award the qualification Bachelor of Journalism generally have a higher percentage of journalism units compared to those that award other degree titles.

The breadth of skills encompassed by journalism is also reflected in the wide range of faculties in which courses are located.

Courses are located in faculties such as:

However, as Adams and Duffield20 have found, 40 per cent of all journalism degrees are earned under the Arts Faculty title.

Most graduates who claim a qualification in journalism will have studied in one of the following ways:


The market for qualifications

Student demand for journalism qualifications – whether as a pure journalism degree or as a major within another degree – is high and increasing. This has allowed universities to set high University Admission Index (UAI) 21 scores for entry to journalism programs – in the high 80s and 90s. In some cases, the UAI required for entrance to a journalism program is only marginally lower than that required for entry to medicine.

Universities' efforts to manage demand for journalism qualifications by setting such high university entrance scores has itself become a talking point in the education vs training debate. For example, do people with high UAIs make the best journalists? Do they necessarily have the temperament, determination, curiosity and other skills required to make the grade as a journalist?

Some universities do not screen Journalism applicants for suitability beyond the achievement of the required UAI. But others interview applicants and/ or require them to submit a portfolio of work or sit an entrance exam.


Craft or profession?

Unlike the professions, no qualification is required before a person can describe himself or herself as a journalist. A journalist is simply someone who is employed as such.

In recent years there has been a concerted but unsuccessful push – both in Australia and overseas—for journalists to be recognised as professionals, rather than people who undertake a craft or a trade. This was highlighted in studies undertaken by Henningham22 in Australia in the 1980s and by others. However, despite the fact that the vast majority of entry-level journalists are now tertiary-educated, newspaper editors still sometimes hire people who do not have that background.

The industry has made it clear through its recruitment practices that, while it values tertiary education it does not require a degree in journalism as a prerequisite. Newsroom managers point to high performing employees with degrees in politics, law, economics, science, engineering, languages and a range of other disciplines as evidence that journalists do not necessarily need journalism degrees to be successful in their work.


Are there too many graduates?

Another point of questioning between universities and newspaper publishers is that the popularity of journalism study – and the proliferation of journalism courses – is increasing at a time when entry-level recruitment is declining.

There are no reliable figures on the number of cadetships and traineeships offered by newspapers in Australia. According to Barbara Alysen23the only hard data is nearly 20 years old, when Julianne Schultz asked 45 media outlets about their hiring practices that year. They had employed 199 cadets, of whom more than a third were school leavers. Of those who had a degree or who were studying for a degree, only a quarter were involved in journalism education (Schultz 1988).

Since then, some newspapers have decreased the size of the newsroom workforce or even ceased operation, accelerating an already-emerging trend for newspapers to employ fewer entry-level journalists.

It is important to make a number of qualifying points. It is difficult to determine exactly how many graduates the Australian journalism programs produce each year. Two of the largest programs – UQ and RMIT – produce about 100 and 40 respectively. Other programs turn out smaller numbers. The total journalism graduates each year Australia-wide would be fewer than 1000.

The gulf between positions available in newsrooms and applicants while wide, does not tell, the whole story. About 35 per cent of graduates find jobs in mainstream media, 30 per cent in non-mainstream media, and 30 per cent in non-journalism areas (Green and McIlwaine, 1999; Patching, 1996; Alysen, 1998; Oakham, 1998; O'Donnell, 1998).

In any case, not all people enter a journalism program with a desire to establish a career in the media. This is particularly the case with people undertaking double degrees, who mostly plan to establish a career in their other discipline – often one of the professions such as law, economics, commerce or finance. They see journalism as a valuable add-on. Journalism provides them with the skills they require to engage with their clients (see Surma, 2005).

Journalism educators have responded to the number of entry-level positions having declined by seeking to reposition their students, that is, by equipping them with skills that might enhance their employment prospects, particularly in the smaller publications that seek a larger skill set from graduates.

This is in line with Alysen's recent research which shows:

…the increasing fragmentation of the media means a much greater percentage of jobs is now to be found in smaller news outlets, including regional and suburban papers, niche publications and in what is termed "parajournalism', including corporate publications.


Accreditation

One of the thornier issues journalism educators have been dealing with is the question of accreditation. Again, this question is embedded in the broader question: Is journalism a profession or a craft/ trade? The Journalism Education Association (JEA) and most journalism academics believe that journalism should be regarded as a profession and push for university qualifications to be a requirement for entry-level staff.

This desire raises questions, however, about teaching standards. Just as anyone can claim to be a journalist under the existing model, anyone can set up a training body.

Other professions (medicine, law, accounting, nursing) require their members and/ or training organisations to be accredited before they can practise. The requirements are rigorous which imposes both considerable demands on those who wish to be trainers and high standards for participating organisations.

There are a number of benefits that would come from a recognized accreditation process that would foster a stronger consultative relationship between the industry and journalism academics.

For example, industry would have greater input into the content of journalism programs. This would ensure that industry and the academy are "as one" when deciding what skills a graduate should have, although with different employers having different needs the ideal graduate would be difficult to define.

Accreditation is an issue that will continue to simmer into the future.


Journalism training

Most of the training provided by newspaper publishers is directed at entry-level staff who are known as cadets or trainees, although larger publishers such as News Limited and Fairfax also offer on-going training and skills development for staff in the post-cadet/ trainee phase of their careers. Entry level training usually concentrates on development of the fundamental skills a journalist needs to develop in his or her early years, for example:

An examination of the structure and content of publisher-provided training for entry-level staff makes plain the emphasis newspapers place on development of fundamental vocational skills.

Every newspaper publisher provides on-the-job training to entry-level staff, but only the best-resourced have formal, structured courses. The minimalist version of on-the-job training at a small suburban or rural newspaper might amount to little more than ensuring the trainee journalist acquires a required speed in shorthand. The use of handheld voice recorders has resulted in a decline in the use of shorthand, but company trainers still believe shorthand is an essential on-the-spot recording skill.

At the smallest newspapers, where the editor might also be the chief reporter as well as the person who sells the ads and lays the paper out, a new trainee might derive most of his on-the-job training simply by shadowing the chief reporter on his rounds for a couple of weeks.

At the opposite end of the training-provision spectrum are the big capital-city-based publishers, where full-time editorial trainers are on staff and new trainees undertake structured programs.

Between the two extremes lie the multitude of rural publishing networks, independently owned newspapers and mid-sized regionals, all of which deliver elements of the training offered by their larger cousins. There is some overlap between the Journalism programs and the on-the-job training provided by the larger organisations such as News Limited and Fairfax. But that simply reinforces the notion that a one-model-suits-all approach will not necessarily work in Australia.

While the larger media organisations have substantial training budgets, and are in a position to value-add to the training their recruits received at university, many smaller media organisations have neither the time nor the resources to devote to training. Smaller organisations expect their recruits to be "job ready" and will probably make greater demands of their new staff in the early months of their employment.

One of the risks here is that graduates finding employment in smaller newsrooms will not receive the valuable training that the larger organisations can afford to provide and which universities do not offer.

Only a few universities offer students the opportunity to learn shorthand, for example. For most, shorthand does not fit with their view of a university-level subject, despite its importance to industry.

It can be argued that what the larger organisations offer by way of on-the-job training does not reflect critically on the quality of university programs. Rather, it reflects the particular requirements – perhaps emphasis – of the particular news organisations.


At Fairfax

Fairfax provides on-the-job training for mid-career journalists as well as for its trainees.

In recruiting trainees, it differentiates between what it terms "advanced trainees" – people who already have at least three years' experience with another media organisation – and "trainees" – usually people with no or minimal previous experience.

All trainees, whether advanced or not, begin their training with a three or four-week induction.

The subjects covered in induction vary, but the core curriculum is:

After induction, trainees are given one day a week devoted to training. This usually consists of shorthand in mornings for those who need it and a range of other activities in afternoons, including industry guest speakers and outside visits.

For trainees hired to work in production roles, there are specific courses in publishing systems, sub-editing and layout. For trainees hired to work on the newspaper websites, there are specific courses in audio and video skills and use of equipment.


At News Limited

News Limited's newspapers are spread throughout Australia and range from The Australian with bureaus in every state and territory to two-journalist satellite newspapers outside big regional centres.

This geographical spread and disparity in size makes it uneconomic to have an on-site editorial trainer at every newspaper.

News's response has been to build its on-the-job training around core content that is delivered on the internet.

The internet delivery system means that the cadet at the two-journalist newspaper has access to the same training as the cadet on the capital-city newspaper.

On enrolment in News's Professional Programs Online, the cadet gets a logon and a password and can then open the program's foundation-level course – Reporting. The Reporting course is compulsory for all cadets at all News Limited newspapers.

The course contains exercises and tests that must be completed satisfactorily. Cadets receive feedback from a tutor assigned to them from among News's senior journalists and managers.

Subjects covered in the Reporting course include:

At post-cadet level, News offers online courses in a variety of other journalism skills or competencies, such as:

In addition to the courses that are delivered online, the separate divisions of News Limited conduct supplementary classroom-based training for cadets that usually begins with a four-week induction period at the beginning of their employment.

All News Limited cadets are also required to acquire a shorthand speed of 100 words a minute during the first year of their employment.

At West Australian newspapers

The West Australian provides on-the-job, classroom and site-visit training for trainees. Each trainee is allocated a senior journalist as a mentor and the program is conducted by the Editorial Counsellor. The Editorial Counsellor has regular contact with the trainees for about three years.

The intake of trainees occurs in February. The trainees are given a two-week intensive induction. They then spend two days a week learning to touch type and achieving a shorthand speed of 120 words per minute. About every second week they spend another day on site visits to such places as the courts, prisons, the police and parliament.

They also attend a media law course conducted by Westralian lawyers. The media law course is open to all journalists and the paper conducts an annual news and conflict course for selected reporters, photographers and supervisors.


Conclusion

As indicated in the introduction to this paper, journalism education and industry sit uncomfortably together. But the question should be asked: is that discomfort necessary or does it represent a misunderstanding by both parties. Active consultation between the industry and academic institutions offering journalism has been established in countries such as Denmark where students undergo year long industry internships representing future positions in the industry. It would appear that there is considerable scope for future "family reunions" in which these issues are discussed, perhaps even leading to outcomes such as accreditation or wider consultation between the different groups.