A Review of Trends in Journalism Education. ERIC Digest.

Overview & Synopsis

Despite the lively debate and the plethora of terms used in the discussion, mass communication educators (at colleges and universities throughout the United States and the world) continue to struggle to define the direction journalism education should take. This Digest examines some of the "enduring issues" of journalism education: (1) the need to focus on service to the public; (2) the need to address challenges posed by new economic, technological, and social realities; and (3) the need to make journalism and mass communication education and practice diverse, inclusive, and global. It concludes that journalism education reveals itself to be dynamic and introspective, continuing to redefine its mission and its methods in response to evolving technologies, global culture, and the needs of the media industries and the patrons which they serve. (Contains 14 references.) (RS)