From the classroom to the African newsroom: how journalism education can bridge the gap between the classroom and the shrinking newsroom

Abstract

Throughout the development of journalism, several groups have made efforts to gain access to voice and advance specific agendas. The current evolutionary phase of journalism has witnessed the democratization of the origination and distribution of journalistic content and has propelled unparalleled content diversity and interactivity and a transition from communality of audience membership to individuality. This unprecedented phase has also brought on certain challenges to journalism as a practice and business, some of which are revenue loss to digital giants, misinformation, dwindling trust in mainstream media, shifting eyeballs to digital platforms and the withering of size and influence of mainstream news outlets. Consequently, journalism graduates now enter a job market that is largely low paying, is increasingly mediated by technology, is rapidly converging, and is experiencing a change in work cultures. In the midst of the rapid evolutions, one of the major concerns is how journalism and media studies schools can respond to this rapidly transforming environment for journalism practice. Through the autoethnography method of enquiry, this paper, thus, reflects on some of the current trends and makes proposals as to how journalism training schools can respond to current realities.