How do you educate a journalist? : the competing discourses of journalism education.

This research is concerned with the curriculum in an area of professional education,
that of journalism. Competing concepts of journalism and journalism education
exist which have led to variety and some confusion in the structure and content of
educational programmes. The research investigates the beliefs and values
underlying the two main undergraduate degree programmes in journalism in
Ireland, at Dublin City University and the Dublin Institute of Technology, with the
aim of gaining a better understanding of the issues involved. The study is set in the
context of the more general debates on journalism education and professional
education.
As the topic is to do with meaning and language, a discourse analysis approach was
used, specifically the method of critical discourse analysis developed in the work of
Fairclough. This approach entails a comprehensive, multi-layered analysis starting
from a small amount of data or core texts. The data used were documents. The
brief published descriptions of the two courses served as the core texts; the analysis
of which was further tested through examining documents detailing the course
modules and course rationale. The third layer of analysis looked at the usage of the
concepts in texts from the wider journalistic and educational contexts in which the
courses were developed.
Discrepancies were found in the concepts of journalism and journalism education
within and between the texts at the different levels of analysis. There were
differences in the perception of journalism as distinct from or part of the media in
general, differences in the nuances attached to its role, and differences as to
whether its status is that of a profession. The two curricula studied exemplify the
two common journalism education models which are difficult to place within the
conventional models of professional education. The findings of the study are
discussed in so far as they have implications for practice.