Comments on the Sanef media audit: a new news

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Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

87

Ecquid Novi ISSN 0256 0054 2002 23(1):87-151

Mark Deuze with J. Oliver Boyd-Barrett, George Claassen, Pedro Diederichs, Susan Tyler Eastman, Danie Jordaan, Eric Louw, Doug Newsom, Stephen Quinn, Lizette Rabe, Lynette Steenveld, Robert L. Stevenson, Gert van Rooyen, Herman Wasserman, John Williams

Comments on the Sanef media audit: a new news culture is facing the media and journalism educators: the time to act is now! This omnibus article deals with some of the comments received by the authors of the Sanef media audit (see p. 11) of the edition of Ecquid Novi). As Mark Deuze, one of the commentators puts it: The threats and challenges to contemporary journalism have caused scholars, publics, journalists, and thus journalism educators, to reconsider their approaches, definitions, roles, and function in community and society. Widely recognized as the four main changes or challenges facing education programmes in journalism are: the multicultural society; the rise and establishment of infotainment genres; the convergence of existing and new media technologies (cf. multimedia); and the internationalization or ‘glocalization’ of the media and journalism playing field. The four mentioned challenges and developments could be seen as reflected in the 2002 Sanef audit. The report particularly stresses the ‘new culture’ within which journalists are expected to do their work. This is a culture determined by fragmented audiences; a widening gap between journalists and their publics; and an increased need for quality information. It is also a culture of enhanced interactivity and media accountability; intercultural communication; recognition of cultural diversity; and dealing with ‘nonhierarchical’ management styles. Journalism education, in other words, is gearing up to face a tough challenge: keeping the best practices of the teaching context and practical skills courses on the one hand, and including cultural and critical reflective didactics on the other. This is not the

88

Ecquid Novi

traditional theory versus skills debate of old – this is definitely something ‘new’ – as is clearly shown in the Sanef audit. In this respect the Sanef audit stands out for its discourse of emphasizing changes in journalism and news culture, rather than simply advocating more or less theory- or skills-based curricula. Daar is geen kitsantwoorde op die probleme wat deur Sanef se oudit uitgewys is nie, volgens Danie Jordaan, een van die kommentators op die oudit. Opleidingsinstansies kan die probleme wat in die verslag genoem word, nie in isolasie aanspreek nie. Wedersydse samewerking tussen die die akademie en die praktyk is die enigte opsie, maar dit verg ongelukkig meer as net entoesiasme en bereidwilligheid onder mediawerkers en akademici om saam te werk. Uiteindelik sal die mediabedryf en die opleidingsinstansies substansieel vir sodanige samewerking moet begroot. Slegs dan sal begin kan word om van die leemtes reg te stel wat die verslag uitwys. Die verslag behoort uiters waardevol te wees vir programleiers en ander akademici wat met kurrikulumontwikkeling gemoeid is, want dit is nou moontlik om kurrikula aan te pas, of selfs grondig te hervorm, op grond van bevindinge wat empiries gesteun word, en dan wel binne die konteks van die Suid-Afrikaanse mediabedryf. Vroeër was diegene wat met kurrikulering gemoeid is te afhanklik van oorsese insette oor tendense in die media-industrie en media-verwante opleiding. Die Sanef-oudit lewer om die rede ‘n waardevolle bydrae uit eie bodem.

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

87

Ecquid Novi ISSN 0256 0054 2002 23(1):87-151

Mark Deuze with J. Oliver Boyd-Barrett, George Claassen, Pedro Diederichs, Susan Tyler Eastman, Danie Jordaan, Eric Louw, Doug Newsom, Stephen Quinn, Lizette Rabe, Lynette Steenveld, Robert L. Stevenson, Gert van Rooyen, Herman Wasserman, John Williams

Comments on the Sanef media audit: a new news culture is facing the media and journalism educators: the time to act is now! This omnibus article deals with some of the comments received by the authors of the Sanef media audit (see p. 11) of the edition of Ecquid Novi). As Mark Deuze, one of the commentators puts it: The threats and challenges to contemporary journalism have caused scholars, publics, journalists, and thus journalism educators, to reconsider their approaches, definitions, roles, and function in community and society. Widely recognized as the four main changes or challenges facing education programmes in journalism are: the multicultural society; the rise and establishment of infotainment genres; the convergence of existing and new media technologies (cf. multimedia); and the internationalization or ‘glocalization’ of the media and journalism playing field. The four mentioned challenges and developments could be seen as reflected in the 2002 Sanef audit. The report particularly stresses the ‘new culture’ within which journalists are expected to do their work. This is a culture determined by fragmented audiences; a widening gap between journalists and their publics; and an increased need for quality information. It is also a culture of enhanced interactivity and media accountability; intercultural communication; recognition of cultural diversity; and dealing with ‘nonhierarchical’ management styles. Journalism education, in other words, is gearing up to face a tough challenge: keeping the best practices of the teaching context and practical skills courses on the one hand, and including cultural and critical reflective didactics on the other. This is not the

88

Ecquid Novi

traditional theory versus skills debate of old – this is definitely something ‘new’ – as is clearly shown in the Sanef audit. In this respect the Sanef audit stands out for its discourse of emphasizing changes in journalism and news culture, rather than simply advocating more or less theory- or skills-based curricula. Daar is geen kitsantwoorde op die probleme wat deur Sanef se oudit uitgewys is nie, volgens Danie Jordaan, een van die kommentators op die oudit. Opleidingsinstansies kan die probleme wat in die verslag genoem word, nie in isolasie aanspreek nie. Wedersydse samewerking tussen die die akademie en die praktyk is die enigte opsie, maar dit verg ongelukkig meer as net entoesiasme en bereidwilligheid onder mediawerkers en akademici om saam te werk. Uiteindelik sal die mediabedryf en die opleidingsinstansies substansieel vir sodanige samewerking moet begroot. Slegs dan sal begin kan word om van die leemtes reg te stel wat die verslag uitwys. Die verslag behoort uiters waardevol te wees vir programleiers en ander akademici wat met kurrikulumontwikkeling gemoeid is, want dit is nou moontlik om kurrikula aan te pas, of selfs grondig te hervorm, op grond van bevindinge wat empiries gesteun word, en dan wel binne die konteks van die Suid-Afrikaanse mediabedryf. Vroeër was diegene wat met kurrikulering gemoeid is te afhanklik van oorsese insette oor tendense in die media-industrie en media-verwante opleiding. Die Sanef-oudit lewer om die rede ‘n waardevolle bydrae uit eie bodem.

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

89

Dr Mark Deuze Amsterdam School of Communications Research ASCoR, Amsterdam, The Netherlands [[email protected]]

Global journalism education and the Sanef audit: major issues to be taken seriously Developments in a changing social and professional economical environment, media-technological advancements and declining prestige in the eyes of the publics are cause of concern and unrest within journalism. The ‘heavy’ or ‘high’ modernistic view on journalism as being (intrinsically) ‘objective, free and fair’ is waning – particularly in well-established elective democracies, where one would expect print and broadcasting news media to have professionalised beyond a point of return (Hallin, 1992). In polytechnics and academia in most democracies the fields of journalism studies and education, research and theory are gaining prominence on the agenda, albeit sometimes embedded in broadly defined and correspondingly structured communications schools or departments (Gaunt, 1992). Such developments both call for and inspire new approaches towards educating media professionals, both locally as well as internationally. Widely recognized as the four main changes or challenges facing education programmes in journalism are: [1] the multicultural society, [2] the rise and establishment of infotainment genres, [3] the convergence of existing and new media technologies (cf. multimedia), and [4] the internationalization (some say ‘glocalization’) of the media and journalism playing field (Deuze, 2001a; Holm, 2002). Although change in journalism is nothing new, the threats and challenges to contemporary journalism have caused scholars, publics, journalists and thus journalism educators to reconsider their approaches, definitions, roles and function in community and society (De Beer, 1995; Medsger, 1996; Reese, 1999).

Journalists work in a ‘new culture’ The four mentioned challenges and developments can be seen as reflected in the Sanef audit, as the report particularly stresses the ‘new culture’ within which journalists are expected to do their work; a culture of fragmented audiences, a widening gap between journalists and their publics, increased need for quality information but also enhanced interactivity and media accountability, intercultural communication, a recognition of cultural diversity, and dealing with ‘non-hierarchical’ management styles.

90

Ecquid Novi

Journalism education, in other words, is gearing up to face a tough challenge: keeping the best practices of teaching context and practical skills courses on the one hand, and including cultural and critical reflective didactics on the other. This is not the traditional theory versus skills debate of old – this is definitely something ‘new’. Journalism education in most countries around the world has traditionally covered the ground of practical skills and standards training on the one hand and general contextual education and liberal arts courses on the other. Although the specific needs and demands of the media system differ from region to region and are largely determined by (and are a reflection of) the particular culture and foundation in law and history, the delicate balance between practical and contextual knowledge has always been the main area of attention within journalism programs worldwide (Gaunt, 1992). From analyses of programs and discussion about change in several countries and regions in the world regarding journalism (studies and education) three general conclusions can be drawn. Firstly it seems that much of the debate about journalism training issues takes place within the different national contexts. This in contrast with the nature of contemporary media innovations and developments, which is distinctively international. Secondly, almost everywhere one can observe a heightened awareness and range of initiatives regarding journalism (further) training and education; a sense of urgency or even immediacy – which seems to be a sign of the times indeed, particularly when it comes to reconnecting journalism with developing or established democracy (another system in turmoil), and when it comes to implementation of new media strategies. A third and most troubling conclusion must be a certain lack of focus, even confusion concerning the overall pattern of media change, and little systematic response to media innovation in the professional (training) world. Changes and challenges abound, but at the same time, there seems to be a lack of vision, of strategies to master the current situation, and work out a sustainable change model (Deuze, 2001a). In this respect the Sanef audit stands out for its discourse of emphasizing changes in journalism and news culture, rather than simply advocating more or less theory- or skills-based curricula.

International audits Fourthly, what this argument and the report – one of many recent (inter-) national audits of journalism education programs – connect to, is a reevaluation of what journalism education in fact is or should be in the context of fast-paced shifts in society. These audits generally assess the ‘state of the art’ in a given national setting, contextualizing the report with one

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

89

Dr Mark Deuze Amsterdam School of Communications Research ASCoR, Amsterdam, The Netherlands [[email protected]]

Global journalism education and the Sanef audit: major issues to be taken seriously Developments in a changing social and professional economical environment, media-technological advancements and declining prestige in the eyes of the publics are cause of concern and unrest within journalism. The ‘heavy’ or ‘high’ modernistic view on journalism as being (intrinsically) ‘objective, free and fair’ is waning – particularly in well-established elective democracies, where one would expect print and broadcasting news media to have professionalised beyond a point of return (Hallin, 1992). In polytechnics and academia in most democracies the fields of journalism studies and education, research and theory are gaining prominence on the agenda, albeit sometimes embedded in broadly defined and correspondingly structured communications schools or departments (Gaunt, 1992). Such developments both call for and inspire new approaches towards educating media professionals, both locally as well as internationally. Widely recognized as the four main changes or challenges facing education programmes in journalism are: [1] the multicultural society, [2] the rise and establishment of infotainment genres, [3] the convergence of existing and new media technologies (cf. multimedia), and [4] the internationalization (some say ‘glocalization’) of the media and journalism playing field (Deuze, 2001a; Holm, 2002). Although change in journalism is nothing new, the threats and challenges to contemporary journalism have caused scholars, publics, journalists and thus journalism educators to reconsider their approaches, definitions, roles and function in community and society (De Beer, 1995; Medsger, 1996; Reese, 1999).

Journalists work in a ‘new culture’ The four mentioned challenges and developments can be seen as reflected in the Sanef audit, as the report particularly stresses the ‘new culture’ within which journalists are expected to do their work; a culture of fragmented audiences, a widening gap between journalists and their publics, increased need for quality information but also enhanced interactivity and media accountability, intercultural communication, a recognition of cultural diversity, and dealing with ‘non-hierarchical’ management styles.

90

Ecquid Novi

Journalism education, in other words, is gearing up to face a tough challenge: keeping the best practices of teaching context and practical skills courses on the one hand, and including cultural and critical reflective didactics on the other. This is not the traditional theory versus skills debate of old – this is definitely something ‘new’. Journalism education in most countries around the world has traditionally covered the ground of practical skills and standards training on the one hand and general contextual education and liberal arts courses on the other. Although the specific needs and demands of the media system differ from region to region and are largely determined by (and are a reflection of) the particular culture and foundation in law and history, the delicate balance between practical and contextual knowledge has always been the main area of attention within journalism programs worldwide (Gaunt, 1992). From analyses of programs and discussion about change in several countries and regions in the world regarding journalism (studies and education) three general conclusions can be drawn. Firstly it seems that much of the debate about journalism training issues takes place within the different national contexts. This in contrast with the nature of contemporary media innovations and developments, which is distinctively international. Secondly, almost everywhere one can observe a heightened awareness and range of initiatives regarding journalism (further) training and education; a sense of urgency or even immediacy – which seems to be a sign of the times indeed, particularly when it comes to reconnecting journalism with developing or established democracy (another system in turmoil), and when it comes to implementation of new media strategies. A third and most troubling conclusion must be a certain lack of focus, even confusion concerning the overall pattern of media change, and little systematic response to media innovation in the professional (training) world. Changes and challenges abound, but at the same time, there seems to be a lack of vision, of strategies to master the current situation, and work out a sustainable change model (Deuze, 2001a). In this respect the Sanef audit stands out for its discourse of emphasizing changes in journalism and news culture, rather than simply advocating more or less theory- or skills-based curricula.

International audits Fourthly, what this argument and the report – one of many recent (inter-) national audits of journalism education programs – connect to, is a reevaluation of what journalism education in fact is or should be in the context of fast-paced shifts in society. These audits generally assess the ‘state of the art’ in a given national setting, contextualizing the report with one

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

91

or more societal developments: new media technologies, further training wants and needs, globalization, convergence, and media differentiation. Some examples of such recent audits (next to the Sanef report) are: • Germany: Meyn & Chill (2001) offer an overview of journalism schools and training programs, focusing heavily on down-to-earth practical skills; • United States: Kees (2002) presents a report of a survey among news companies about newsroom training efforts, concluding that two thirds of American journalists receive no regular skills training; • Europe: at the recent annual meeting of the Forum for European Journalism Students (FEJS) in Helsinki, Koskinen and Sederholm (2002) presented a survey among students of 51 educational institutions from 28 countries, concluding that most journalism schools have not innovated their programs to meet future demands of new media convergence, multimedia, and multiskilling of journalists; Netherlands: Drok (2002) concludes in a critical overview of • The media trends and developments linked to the status quo at Dutch vocational training schools, similar to the Sanef report, that communication skills, ethics, analytical skills and a unequivocal commitment to ‘the democratic mission’ should guide any and all journalism education efforts; • United States: Pavlik, Morgan & Henderson (2001) assess the implications of information technology on journalism education, and conclude that medium-independent training of journalists indeed leads to a ‘renaissance’ of those across-media skills: critical thinking, excellent storytelling and ethics. Contemporary changes on the level of society, economy and technology are well-documented and apparent in most, if not all, elective democracies. Individualization, commercialization, fragmentation, disintermediation are some of the key concepts used in this context to signal challenges to the way one defines journalism. Its not who a journalist is what matters – its who acts ‘journalistically’ in the context of a (national) news culture (Deuze, 2002). The act or attitude of journalism is generally defined on an ideological level, using terms such as objectivity, ethics, public service, immediacy and autonomy. But what do these terms mean when you’re covering underprivileged communities? Or when you’re facing political or commercial pressures? When your colleagues only see the colour of your skin instead of your inidividual talents and competences? How, in other words, can a journalist learn to cope with the myriad influences on their daily work

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and still enable her/himself to make a personal contribution to solving the issues of contemporary society and (thus) democracy? The Sanef report among others calls for a renewed emphasis on ‘life skills’ on the level of communication, motivation, professionalization and ethical perception. It can be seen as a concerted effort to enhance the ‘critical reflectiveness’ of media practitioners, educating for thinking, or, in other words, the professionalization of journalism education to correspond with emerging trends in news work (Reese & Cohen, 2000). Particularly the internationalization and increased cultural complexity of contemporary society demands of its journalists critical awareness and sensitivity towards issues of representation and diversity, while maintaining professional standards of storytelling. Recent studies on how internationalization (in Europe), multimedialization and multiculturalism impact upon teaching standards and methods, suggest that these developments profoundly challenge the way journalism education organizes itself – for example in terms of developing individual versus team competences, adopting interdisciplinary or ‘cross-departmental’ approaches to media production, addressing knowledge, representation and responsibility issues within a single class format (see respectively Bierhoff et al., 2000; Deuze, 2001b; Kennedy, 2002).

It is not a ‘skills vs. theory debate’ As journalism and democracy have developed and professionalized, journalism education must now act correspondingly. Professionalization brings organization, increased public self-criticism, constant evaluation and willingness to change. We must be aware of our own vocabulary and discourse as scholars and educators, which both enables and constrains us when we are considering what can or must change in our ways of doing things. Not only do journalists today work in a different setting and context – but the educators must also evolve to cope with a new and changing news (management) culture as well. This, again, is NOT a skills versus theory debate. It is a cultural and ideological debate – one that is addressed at the 2002 annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) in Miami, Florida (USA), in a special session on educating ‘new’ journalists. Journalism education has national particularities, but as journalism and its practice of training and learning professionalizes, some more or less global issues arise that need international attention, and exchange. To engage the changes and developments interrogated by (inter-) national audits, one needs global awareness of best practices, identification of common problems, and an overview of practical implications from across the literature.

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

91

or more societal developments: new media technologies, further training wants and needs, globalization, convergence, and media differentiation. Some examples of such recent audits (next to the Sanef report) are: • Germany: Meyn & Chill (2001) offer an overview of journalism schools and training programs, focusing heavily on down-to-earth practical skills; • United States: Kees (2002) presents a report of a survey among news companies about newsroom training efforts, concluding that two thirds of American journalists receive no regular skills training; • Europe: at the recent annual meeting of the Forum for European Journalism Students (FEJS) in Helsinki, Koskinen and Sederholm (2002) presented a survey among students of 51 educational institutions from 28 countries, concluding that most journalism schools have not innovated their programs to meet future demands of new media convergence, multimedia, and multiskilling of journalists; Netherlands: Drok (2002) concludes in a critical overview of • The media trends and developments linked to the status quo at Dutch vocational training schools, similar to the Sanef report, that communication skills, ethics, analytical skills and a unequivocal commitment to ‘the democratic mission’ should guide any and all journalism education efforts; • United States: Pavlik, Morgan & Henderson (2001) assess the implications of information technology on journalism education, and conclude that medium-independent training of journalists indeed leads to a ‘renaissance’ of those across-media skills: critical thinking, excellent storytelling and ethics. Contemporary changes on the level of society, economy and technology are well-documented and apparent in most, if not all, elective democracies. Individualization, commercialization, fragmentation, disintermediation are some of the key concepts used in this context to signal challenges to the way one defines journalism. Its not who a journalist is what matters – its who acts ‘journalistically’ in the context of a (national) news culture (Deuze, 2002). The act or attitude of journalism is generally defined on an ideological level, using terms such as objectivity, ethics, public service, immediacy and autonomy. But what do these terms mean when you’re covering underprivileged communities? Or when you’re facing political or commercial pressures? When your colleagues only see the colour of your skin instead of your inidividual talents and competences? How, in other words, can a journalist learn to cope with the myriad influences on their daily work

92

Ecquid Novi

and still enable her/himself to make a personal contribution to solving the issues of contemporary society and (thus) democracy? The Sanef report among others calls for a renewed emphasis on ‘life skills’ on the level of communication, motivation, professionalization and ethical perception. It can be seen as a concerted effort to enhance the ‘critical reflectiveness’ of media practitioners, educating for thinking, or, in other words, the professionalization of journalism education to correspond with emerging trends in news work (Reese & Cohen, 2000). Particularly the internationalization and increased cultural complexity of contemporary society demands of its journalists critical awareness and sensitivity towards issues of representation and diversity, while maintaining professional standards of storytelling. Recent studies on how internationalization (in Europe), multimedialization and multiculturalism impact upon teaching standards and methods, suggest that these developments profoundly challenge the way journalism education organizes itself – for example in terms of developing individual versus team competences, adopting interdisciplinary or ‘cross-departmental’ approaches to media production, addressing knowledge, representation and responsibility issues within a single class format (see respectively Bierhoff et al., 2000; Deuze, 2001b; Kennedy, 2002).

It is not a ‘skills vs. theory debate’ As journalism and democracy have developed and professionalized, journalism education must now act correspondingly. Professionalization brings organization, increased public self-criticism, constant evaluation and willingness to change. We must be aware of our own vocabulary and discourse as scholars and educators, which both enables and constrains us when we are considering what can or must change in our ways of doing things. Not only do journalists today work in a different setting and context – but the educators must also evolve to cope with a new and changing news (management) culture as well. This, again, is NOT a skills versus theory debate. It is a cultural and ideological debate – one that is addressed at the 2002 annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) in Miami, Florida (USA), in a special session on educating ‘new’ journalists. Journalism education has national particularities, but as journalism and its practice of training and learning professionalizes, some more or less global issues arise that need international attention, and exchange. To engage the changes and developments interrogated by (inter-) national audits, one needs global awareness of best practices, identification of common problems, and an overview of practical implications from across the literature.

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

93

References Bierhoff, J., Deuze, M., & De Vreese, C. 2000. Media innovation, professional debate and media training: a European analysis. European Journalism Centre Report. http://www.ejc.nl/hp/mi/contents.html [2002, June 5]. De Beer, A.S. 1995. The ‘professional teaching of journalism as a science’ approach – an introduction. Ecquid Nov, 16(1):3-40. Drok, N. 2002. Drift en koers: trends op de journalistieke arbeidsmarkt. Utrecht: TUZE. Deuze, M. 2001a. Educating 'new' journalists: challenges to the curriculum. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 56(1):4-17. Deuze, M. 2001b. Journalism education and multiculturalism: enhancing the curriculum. Asia Pacific Media Educator, 10:127-147. Deuze, M. 2002. National news cultures: Towards a profile of journalists using crossnational survey findings. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 79(1):134-149. Gaunt, P. 1992. Making the newsmakers: international handbook on journalism training. Westport: Greenwood Press. Hallin, D. 1992. The passing of the ‘high modernism’ of American journalism. Journal of Communication, 42(3):14-25. Holm, H. 2002. The forgotten globalization of journalism education. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 56(4):67-71. Kees, B. 2002. Newsroom training: where’s the investment? Poynter Institute ‘Today’s centerpiece’ posted April 9, 2002. http://www.poynter.org/centerpiece.newsroomstraining.htm [2002, April 10]. Kennedy, H. 2002. Postgraduate multimedia education: practices, themes and issues. Infonomics report, April 2002. http://cmd.infonomics.nl/reports.htm [2002, Apr.20]. Koskinen, P., Sederholm, E. 2002. Survey on journalism education in Europe. FEJS Report. http://www.sockom.helsinki.fi/fejs/archives/00000082.htm [2002, June 13]. Medsger, B. 1996. Winds of Change: Challenges confronting journalism education. The Freedom Forum Report. http://www.freedomforum.org/freedomforum/resources/journalism/journalis m_edu/winds_of_change/ [1999, July 14]. Meyn, H., Chill, H. 2001. Journalistic training in Germany. Bildung & Wissenschaft 4. Pavlik, J., Morgan, G., Henderson, B. 2001. Information technology: implications for the future of journalism and mass communication education. Report of the AEJMC Task Force on Teaching and Learning in the New Millenium. http://www.aejmc.org/pubs/2001.html [2001, May 8]. Reese, S.D. 1999. The progressive potential of journalism education: recasting the academic vs. professional debate. Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 4(4):70-94. Reese, S.D., Cohen, J. 2000. Educating for journalism: the professionalism of scholarship. Journalism Studies, 1(2):213-227.

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Dr J. Oliver Boyd-Barrett Professor, Department of Communication, California State Polytechnic University, USA [[email protected]]

More research needed on changing nature of journalism re ‘commercial’ and ‘public’ spheres First of all, I believe that the report compares favourably with other such reports that I have seen internationally. The presentation is excellent. The methodology is transparent, reasonable and credible. While the focus is upon skills and skills training, there is a healthy and well-articulated awareness of contextual factors, both intrinsic and extrinsic, that relate to skill levels and, one might add, to how skills are defined. The concluding recommendations are important, well substantiated and clearly expressed, and I hope that the report can be disseminated and networked in such a way as to open up strong dialogue between tertiary institutions and the news media. Perhaps there can be further consideration of the opportunities for and quality of internship experiences at tertiary level. There should be more debate as to whether the profession as a whole is sufficiently ‘graduate’, with assessment as to the merits or disadvantages of moving more towards a situation whereby most journalists will have achieved a university degree in a non-journalistic subject, followed by a one-year post-graduate diploma in journalism. The report contains good representation of the views of various stakeholders in journalism training, although I wondered whether the audience (other than the government) was sufficiently visible. I also wondered why news agencies had not been included. The analysis of skills is courageous, refined and practical, although with more space and more resources, I thought that more could have been said about differences in skill definition and requirements between the different types of media. In the discussion about skills I also thought that more could have been said about news sources, documentary and other, the quality of the information and of presentation through such sources, and the skills related to making sense of, interrogating as well as summarizing information and substantive issues from such sources. This relates to contextual issues of time and other resource constraints and the attitude of the news institution to the quantity and quality of coverage that is expected. Perhaps not enough is therefore said about how the very nature of journalism is defined and is changing, and how the respective struggle between

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References Bierhoff, J., Deuze, M., & De Vreese, C. 2000. Media innovation, professional debate and media training: a European analysis. European Journalism Centre Report. http://www.ejc.nl/hp/mi/contents.html [2002, June 5]. De Beer, A.S. 1995. The ‘professional teaching of journalism as a science’ approach – an introduction. Ecquid Nov, 16(1):3-40. Drok, N. 2002. Drift en koers: trends op de journalistieke arbeidsmarkt. Utrecht: TUZE. Deuze, M. 2001a. Educating 'new' journalists: challenges to the curriculum. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 56(1):4-17. Deuze, M. 2001b. Journalism education and multiculturalism: enhancing the curriculum. Asia Pacific Media Educator, 10:127-147. Deuze, M. 2002. National news cultures: Towards a profile of journalists using crossnational survey findings. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 79(1):134-149. Gaunt, P. 1992. Making the newsmakers: international handbook on journalism training. Westport: Greenwood Press. Hallin, D. 1992. The passing of the ‘high modernism’ of American journalism. Journal of Communication, 42(3):14-25. Holm, H. 2002. The forgotten globalization of journalism education. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 56(4):67-71. Kees, B. 2002. Newsroom training: where’s the investment? Poynter Institute ‘Today’s centerpiece’ posted April 9, 2002. http://www.poynter.org/centerpiece.newsroomstraining.htm [2002, April 10]. Kennedy, H. 2002. Postgraduate multimedia education: practices, themes and issues. Infonomics report, April 2002. http://cmd.infonomics.nl/reports.htm [2002, Apr.20]. Koskinen, P., Sederholm, E. 2002. Survey on journalism education in Europe. FEJS Report. http://www.sockom.helsinki.fi/fejs/archives/00000082.htm [2002, June 13]. Medsger, B. 1996. Winds of Change: Challenges confronting journalism education. The Freedom Forum Report. http://www.freedomforum.org/freedomforum/resources/journalism/journalis m_edu/winds_of_change/ [1999, July 14]. Meyn, H., Chill, H. 2001. Journalistic training in Germany. Bildung & Wissenschaft 4. Pavlik, J., Morgan, G., Henderson, B. 2001. Information technology: implications for the future of journalism and mass communication education. Report of the AEJMC Task Force on Teaching and Learning in the New Millenium. http://www.aejmc.org/pubs/2001.html [2001, May 8]. Reese, S.D. 1999. The progressive potential of journalism education: recasting the academic vs. professional debate. Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 4(4):70-94. Reese, S.D., Cohen, J. 2000. Educating for journalism: the professionalism of scholarship. Journalism Studies, 1(2):213-227.

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Ecquid Novi

Dr J. Oliver Boyd-Barrett Professor, Department of Communication, California State Polytechnic University, USA [[email protected]]

More research needed on changing nature of journalism re ‘commercial’ and ‘public’ spheres First of all, I believe that the report compares favourably with other such reports that I have seen internationally. The presentation is excellent. The methodology is transparent, reasonable and credible. While the focus is upon skills and skills training, there is a healthy and well-articulated awareness of contextual factors, both intrinsic and extrinsic, that relate to skill levels and, one might add, to how skills are defined. The concluding recommendations are important, well substantiated and clearly expressed, and I hope that the report can be disseminated and networked in such a way as to open up strong dialogue between tertiary institutions and the news media. Perhaps there can be further consideration of the opportunities for and quality of internship experiences at tertiary level. There should be more debate as to whether the profession as a whole is sufficiently ‘graduate’, with assessment as to the merits or disadvantages of moving more towards a situation whereby most journalists will have achieved a university degree in a non-journalistic subject, followed by a one-year post-graduate diploma in journalism. The report contains good representation of the views of various stakeholders in journalism training, although I wondered whether the audience (other than the government) was sufficiently visible. I also wondered why news agencies had not been included. The analysis of skills is courageous, refined and practical, although with more space and more resources, I thought that more could have been said about differences in skill definition and requirements between the different types of media. In the discussion about skills I also thought that more could have been said about news sources, documentary and other, the quality of the information and of presentation through such sources, and the skills related to making sense of, interrogating as well as summarizing information and substantive issues from such sources. This relates to contextual issues of time and other resource constraints and the attitude of the news institution to the quantity and quality of coverage that is expected. Perhaps not enough is therefore said about how the very nature of journalism is defined and is changing, and how the respective struggle between

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‘commercial’ and ‘public sphere’ functions of the media is playing out over time, and with what implications for the culture of the newsroom, how the new reporter sees the job and anticipates what is required of him or her. The movement towards ‘lifestyle’ reporting is one element of this: but does this also suggest that journalism is increasingly commercial, even becoming an adjunct to merchandising? How might this affect how young journalists regard their profession? In addition to asking how well journalists are doing their job, it is also reasonable to ask whether news institutions are defining the nature of the job in a suitably challenging and worthwhile way. I was particularly struck by the decline of in-house training and what this says about owner commitment to quality. I thought that the discussion about the advisability of focusing training attention on slightly older or more seasoned journalists had much to recommend it. I fully support concerns that emerge in the report with respect to social changes in ‘reading culture’, and I can readily offer assurance that these concerns are in no way peculiar to South Africa. It is a problem as much for young journalists and their news editors as it is for their consumers. Maybe it is time, before we rush to judgment, to undertake a broader look at the changing nature of ‘literacy’ in society, and then determine how the nature of literacy and literacy skills needs to be redefined in the context of journalism.

Dr George Claassen* Adjunk-redakteur van Die Burger en Sanef se Wes-Kaapse verteenwoordiger. [[email protected]]

Media bring lig in donker, ondanks booshede Die media is kermende rykaards van negatiwiteit. Só het William Safire, toespraakskrywer van vise-pres. Spiro Agnew, joernaliste in een van die siedendste aanvalle van die vroeë 1970s beskryf toe verset teen Amerikaanse betrokkenheid in Viëtnam op 'n hoogtepunt was. (Safire se beskrywing van die media as ‘nattering nabobs of negativity’ is vandag 'n klassieke voorbeeld van die venynigheid waarmee politici dikwels verslaggewers en hul base benader.)

*

Die artikel het oorspronklik in Die Burger (2002-06-08:07) verskyn.

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Maar wat is die stand van die joernalistiek werklik, en is die gerieflike manier waarop die media deesdae vir alles die skuld moet dra, inderdaad geregverdig? Hierdie vrae kan met reg gestel word nadat die resultate van die Sanef oudit heelwat aspekte van kritiek aangetoon het oor die wyse waarop joernaliste hul werk verrig. Die ondersoek is gedoen deur Elanie Steyn van Scribe Communications; Media Tenor/Imasa (Instituut vir Media-analise in Suid-Afrika), en Arrie de Beer, dosent in joernalistiek aan die Skool vir Kommunikasiestudies aan die Potchefstroomse Universiteit. Die oudit is onder meer uitgevoer deur middel van 'n vraelys wat jong joernaliste met tussen 2 en 5 jaar ondervinding moes voltooi, en het onderhoude met redakteurs en nuusredakteurs ingesluit. Dit het leemtes en behoeftes in die mondering en opleiding van joernaliste probeer aantoon.

Skrywers in die joernalistiek geslyp Redakteurs het onder meer die gevoel uitgespreek dat die vaardighede waaroor joernaliste behoort te beskik, nie behoorlik aandag kry nie. Dit sluit in joernaliste se kennis van en opleiding in vakke soos ekonomie, eietydse geskiedenis en politieke wetenskap. Die gevoel is uitgespreek dat joernaliste in sodanige vakke opleiding aan tersiêre instellings moet ondergaan om hul vaardighede in kontekstualisering te verbeter. Joernaliste se numeriese en berekeningsvaardighede het ook kritiek ontvang. Maar weerspieël Norman Mailer se snedige opmerking oor joernaliste in Herman Wasserman se bydrae in hierdie afdeling van Ecquid Novi die werklikheid as Mailer as opgeleide lugvaartingenieur die joernalistiek self gebruik het om sy vaardighede as romanskrywer te kan uitbou? En wat dan van groot skrywers (ja, ook Nobelpryswenners) wat hul vaardighede in die vertelkuns, taalbehendigheid en skerp waarnemingsvermoë in die joernalistiek geslyp het en steeds slyp? Dink maar aan Ernest Hemingway en George Orwell se betrokkenheid as joernaliste tydens die Spaanse burgeroorlog, John Steinbeck, Tom Wolfe, Larry Collins en Dominique Lapierre, Jay McInerney, Ken Follett, William Styron, Antonia Swinson, Helen Dunne, Paul Erdman, Upton Sinclair, Truman Capote, Koos Prinsloo, André le Roux, C. Louis Leipoldt, Henry Miller, Marita van der Vyver - almal skrywers wat ondanks ander beroepe ook deurdrenk was of is in joernalistieke denke en tegnieke. Mailer se beskuldiging is maar een voorbeeld van die onregverdige wyse waarop joernaliste dikwels deur kritici as die skuim van beroepe uitgemaak word. Asof verslaggewers bloot van die straat aangestel word sonder behoorlike beroepsprofiele en -opleiding. Wat is die werklikheid in Suid-Afrika? Die dae dat onopgeleide verslaggewers aangestel word by

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

95

‘commercial’ and ‘public sphere’ functions of the media is playing out over time, and with what implications for the culture of the newsroom, how the new reporter sees the job and anticipates what is required of him or her. The movement towards ‘lifestyle’ reporting is one element of this: but does this also suggest that journalism is increasingly commercial, even becoming an adjunct to merchandising? How might this affect how young journalists regard their profession? In addition to asking how well journalists are doing their job, it is also reasonable to ask whether news institutions are defining the nature of the job in a suitably challenging and worthwhile way. I was particularly struck by the decline of in-house training and what this says about owner commitment to quality. I thought that the discussion about the advisability of focusing training attention on slightly older or more seasoned journalists had much to recommend it. I fully support concerns that emerge in the report with respect to social changes in ‘reading culture’, and I can readily offer assurance that these concerns are in no way peculiar to South Africa. It is a problem as much for young journalists and their news editors as it is for their consumers. Maybe it is time, before we rush to judgment, to undertake a broader look at the changing nature of ‘literacy’ in society, and then determine how the nature of literacy and literacy skills needs to be redefined in the context of journalism.

Dr George Claassen* Adjunk-redakteur van Die Burger en Sanef se Wes-Kaapse verteenwoordiger. [[email protected]]

Media bring lig in donker, ondanks booshede Die media is kermende rykaards van negatiwiteit. Só het William Safire, toespraakskrywer van vise-pres. Spiro Agnew, joernaliste in een van die siedendste aanvalle van die vroeë 1970s beskryf toe verset teen Amerikaanse betrokkenheid in Viëtnam op 'n hoogtepunt was. (Safire se beskrywing van die media as ‘nattering nabobs of negativity’ is vandag 'n klassieke voorbeeld van die venynigheid waarmee politici dikwels verslaggewers en hul base benader.)

*

Die artikel het oorspronklik in Die Burger (2002-06-08:07) verskyn.

96

Ecquid Novi

Maar wat is die stand van die joernalistiek werklik, en is die gerieflike manier waarop die media deesdae vir alles die skuld moet dra, inderdaad geregverdig? Hierdie vrae kan met reg gestel word nadat die resultate van die Sanef oudit heelwat aspekte van kritiek aangetoon het oor die wyse waarop joernaliste hul werk verrig. Die ondersoek is gedoen deur Elanie Steyn van Scribe Communications; Media Tenor/Imasa (Instituut vir Media-analise in Suid-Afrika), en Arrie de Beer, dosent in joernalistiek aan die Skool vir Kommunikasiestudies aan die Potchefstroomse Universiteit. Die oudit is onder meer uitgevoer deur middel van 'n vraelys wat jong joernaliste met tussen 2 en 5 jaar ondervinding moes voltooi, en het onderhoude met redakteurs en nuusredakteurs ingesluit. Dit het leemtes en behoeftes in die mondering en opleiding van joernaliste probeer aantoon.

Skrywers in die joernalistiek geslyp Redakteurs het onder meer die gevoel uitgespreek dat die vaardighede waaroor joernaliste behoort te beskik, nie behoorlik aandag kry nie. Dit sluit in joernaliste se kennis van en opleiding in vakke soos ekonomie, eietydse geskiedenis en politieke wetenskap. Die gevoel is uitgespreek dat joernaliste in sodanige vakke opleiding aan tersiêre instellings moet ondergaan om hul vaardighede in kontekstualisering te verbeter. Joernaliste se numeriese en berekeningsvaardighede het ook kritiek ontvang. Maar weerspieël Norman Mailer se snedige opmerking oor joernaliste in Herman Wasserman se bydrae in hierdie afdeling van Ecquid Novi die werklikheid as Mailer as opgeleide lugvaartingenieur die joernalistiek self gebruik het om sy vaardighede as romanskrywer te kan uitbou? En wat dan van groot skrywers (ja, ook Nobelpryswenners) wat hul vaardighede in die vertelkuns, taalbehendigheid en skerp waarnemingsvermoë in die joernalistiek geslyp het en steeds slyp? Dink maar aan Ernest Hemingway en George Orwell se betrokkenheid as joernaliste tydens die Spaanse burgeroorlog, John Steinbeck, Tom Wolfe, Larry Collins en Dominique Lapierre, Jay McInerney, Ken Follett, William Styron, Antonia Swinson, Helen Dunne, Paul Erdman, Upton Sinclair, Truman Capote, Koos Prinsloo, André le Roux, C. Louis Leipoldt, Henry Miller, Marita van der Vyver - almal skrywers wat ondanks ander beroepe ook deurdrenk was of is in joernalistieke denke en tegnieke. Mailer se beskuldiging is maar een voorbeeld van die onregverdige wyse waarop joernaliste dikwels deur kritici as die skuim van beroepe uitgemaak word. Asof verslaggewers bloot van die straat aangestel word sonder behoorlike beroepsprofiele en -opleiding. Wat is die werklikheid in Suid-Afrika? Die dae dat onopgeleide verslaggewers aangestel word by

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

97

Media24, sambreelfiliaal van Naspers wat Die Burger en sy susterskoerante Beeld, Volksblad, Rapport, City Press en tientalle streekkoerante soos Eikestadnuus, Weslander, Potchefstroom Herald, Vaal Weekblad en Hermanus Times insluit, is lank reeds iets van die verlede. Die minimum aanstellingsvereistes vir jong joernaliste is minstens 'n driejarige naskoolse kwalifikasie wat gewoonlik 'n driejarige graad, diploma of honneursgraad in joernalistiek insluit. Aanstellings geskied dikwels in noue samewerking met universiteite en technikons wat studente in joernalistiekprogramme deur middel van beurse van Media24 laat studeer. Die beurse word eers toegeken nadat streng keuringsvereistes nagekom is. Die feit is dat joernaliste deesdae aan sommige universiteite en technikons goed opgelei word in gespesialiseerde joernalistiekprogramme. Die Universiteit van Stellenbosch se nagraadse BPhil-joernalistiekprogram, gebaseer op die model van die beroemde nagraadse program aan die Columbia-universiteit in New York wat reeds sedert 1909 bestaan, het byvoorbeeld sedert 1978 reeds meer as 20 redakteurs van SuidAfrikaanse publikasies en 'n korps van pryswennende senior en junior joernaliste in die Suid-Afrikaanse media in Afrikaans sowel as Engels gelewer. Ongelukkig is die gehalte van joernalistieke opleiding aan tersiêre instellings in die meeste gevalle nie op standaard nie en is die ooraanbod nie juis bevorderlik vir die vereistes wat die bedryf stel nie. Die enigste ander joernalistieke skole buiten Stellenbosch wat in Suid-Afrika in sekere mate voldoen aan die vereistes wat geld in uitmuntende joernalistiekskole soos Columbia (New York), Missouri-Columbia, Wisconsin (Madison) en Berkeley (Kalifornië) is Rhodes Universiteit, Potchefstroomse Universiteit, Pretoria Technikon en Skiereilandse Technikon, met die Universiteit van die Witwatersrand se nuwe program wat sy merk begin maak. En selfs in van hierdie plaaslike joernalistiekskole is keuringsvereistes heeltemal te laag en word uitmuntende taalvaardigheid, 'n breë verwysingsraamwerk en voldoende beroepsingesteldheid nie na behore getoets voordat studente tot joernalistiekkursusse toegelaat word nie.

Joernalistiek vereis geletterdheid J. Herbert Altschull, ervare joernalis van Associated Press en The New York Times en later dosent in joernalistiek aan die Johns Hopkins Universiteit, wys tereg op kritiek teen joernaliste dat hulle geen begrip van geskiedenis en geen langtermynperspektief het om ingewikkelde politieke, ekonomiese, maatskaplike en psigologiese gebeure te verduidelik en te interpreteer nie.‘Geen werk of beroep vereis 'n groter mate van kulturele geletterdheid as die joernalistiek nie,’ skryf Altschull in sy meesterlike

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boek From Milton to McLuhan: The Ideas Behind American Journalism (Longman). As Suid-Afrika sy joernalistieke gehalte wil verbeter, behoort die ooraanbod van joernalistieke programme aan universiteite en technikons onmiddellik aandag te kry en behoort die media net studente aan te stel wat kom uit joernalistiekskole wat aan die bedryf se vereistes voldoen. As aptekerskole, mediese en tandheelkunde-opleiding net tot sekere tersiêre instellings beperk word, hoekom geld dit nie ook vir joernalistiek nie? word gevra. Onlangs is 'n vloedgolf mediastudieprogramme aan universiteite soos Pretoria, Wes-Kaap, Kaapstad en Port Elizabeth ingestel wat hoegenaamd nie voldoen aan die beroepsopleidingsvereistes van die joernalistiek nie en is die reeds bestaande ooraanbod net vererger. Joernalistiek word toenemend in Suid-Afrika in suiwer joernalistieke of verwaterde kommunikasiekundeprogramme (laasgenoemde met min wesenlike praktiese ingesteldheid op die beroep) aan minstens 18 tersiêre instellings by universiteite en technikons aangebied, asook 'n magdom minderwaardige kursusse in ander naskoolse instellings wat verwagtinge by studente skep oor beroepsgeleenthede waaraan die bedryf nie kan voldoen nie. Die Sanef oudit was net gerig op joernaliste met 2-5 jaar ondervinding en het probeer vasstel watter vaardighede ontbreek wanneer junior verslaggewers by die media aangestel word ná voltooiing van hul universiteits-, technikon- en ander tersiêre opleiding. Media24 se erns met sy opleidingsprogramme is deur die navorsers uitgesonder. Die oudit het bevind dat waar daardie vaardighede afwesig is, dit duidelik is dat die nuusmedia in die algemeen (met sekere duidelike uitsonderings soos dié by Media24) 'n gebrek het aan 'n opleidingsbeleid, personeelkapasiteit, finansiële bronne en tyd om opleiding informeel deur portuurgroepondersteuning of formeel deur indiensopleiding te verskaf. Beperkte hulpbronne verhinder media-instellings om junior verslaggewers deur 'n tradisionele proses van 'n mentorstelsel, leiding en ‘osmose’ (soos die Sanef-verslag dit noem) te neem waardeur hulle die vereiste vaardigheidsvlakke aan die voete van senior verslaggewers kan leer.

Heropleiding is noodsaaklik Media24 se joernaliste ondergaan gereelde heropleiding ná aanstelling. Intern deur eie opleidingsessies, maar ook deur bywoning van gevorderde kursusse wat deur die Institute for the Advancement of Journalism (IAJ) in Johannesburg aangebied word, of deur buitelandse programme wat deur die Poynter-instituut van St. Petersburg in Florida, Amerika, en die

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

97

Media24, sambreelfiliaal van Naspers wat Die Burger en sy susterskoerante Beeld, Volksblad, Rapport, City Press en tientalle streekkoerante soos Eikestadnuus, Weslander, Potchefstroom Herald, Vaal Weekblad en Hermanus Times insluit, is lank reeds iets van die verlede. Die minimum aanstellingsvereistes vir jong joernaliste is minstens 'n driejarige naskoolse kwalifikasie wat gewoonlik 'n driejarige graad, diploma of honneursgraad in joernalistiek insluit. Aanstellings geskied dikwels in noue samewerking met universiteite en technikons wat studente in joernalistiekprogramme deur middel van beurse van Media24 laat studeer. Die beurse word eers toegeken nadat streng keuringsvereistes nagekom is. Die feit is dat joernaliste deesdae aan sommige universiteite en technikons goed opgelei word in gespesialiseerde joernalistiekprogramme. Die Universiteit van Stellenbosch se nagraadse BPhil-joernalistiekprogram, gebaseer op die model van die beroemde nagraadse program aan die Columbia-universiteit in New York wat reeds sedert 1909 bestaan, het byvoorbeeld sedert 1978 reeds meer as 20 redakteurs van SuidAfrikaanse publikasies en 'n korps van pryswennende senior en junior joernaliste in die Suid-Afrikaanse media in Afrikaans sowel as Engels gelewer. Ongelukkig is die gehalte van joernalistieke opleiding aan tersiêre instellings in die meeste gevalle nie op standaard nie en is die ooraanbod nie juis bevorderlik vir die vereistes wat die bedryf stel nie. Die enigste ander joernalistieke skole buiten Stellenbosch wat in Suid-Afrika in sekere mate voldoen aan die vereistes wat geld in uitmuntende joernalistiekskole soos Columbia (New York), Missouri-Columbia, Wisconsin (Madison) en Berkeley (Kalifornië) is Rhodes Universiteit, Potchefstroomse Universiteit, Pretoria Technikon en Skiereilandse Technikon, met die Universiteit van die Witwatersrand se nuwe program wat sy merk begin maak. En selfs in van hierdie plaaslike joernalistiekskole is keuringsvereistes heeltemal te laag en word uitmuntende taalvaardigheid, 'n breë verwysingsraamwerk en voldoende beroepsingesteldheid nie na behore getoets voordat studente tot joernalistiekkursusse toegelaat word nie.

Joernalistiek vereis geletterdheid J. Herbert Altschull, ervare joernalis van Associated Press en The New York Times en later dosent in joernalistiek aan die Johns Hopkins Universiteit, wys tereg op kritiek teen joernaliste dat hulle geen begrip van geskiedenis en geen langtermynperspektief het om ingewikkelde politieke, ekonomiese, maatskaplike en psigologiese gebeure te verduidelik en te interpreteer nie.‘Geen werk of beroep vereis 'n groter mate van kulturele geletterdheid as die joernalistiek nie,’ skryf Altschull in sy meesterlike

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boek From Milton to McLuhan: The Ideas Behind American Journalism (Longman). As Suid-Afrika sy joernalistieke gehalte wil verbeter, behoort die ooraanbod van joernalistieke programme aan universiteite en technikons onmiddellik aandag te kry en behoort die media net studente aan te stel wat kom uit joernalistiekskole wat aan die bedryf se vereistes voldoen. As aptekerskole, mediese en tandheelkunde-opleiding net tot sekere tersiêre instellings beperk word, hoekom geld dit nie ook vir joernalistiek nie? word gevra. Onlangs is 'n vloedgolf mediastudieprogramme aan universiteite soos Pretoria, Wes-Kaap, Kaapstad en Port Elizabeth ingestel wat hoegenaamd nie voldoen aan die beroepsopleidingsvereistes van die joernalistiek nie en is die reeds bestaande ooraanbod net vererger. Joernalistiek word toenemend in Suid-Afrika in suiwer joernalistieke of verwaterde kommunikasiekundeprogramme (laasgenoemde met min wesenlike praktiese ingesteldheid op die beroep) aan minstens 18 tersiêre instellings by universiteite en technikons aangebied, asook 'n magdom minderwaardige kursusse in ander naskoolse instellings wat verwagtinge by studente skep oor beroepsgeleenthede waaraan die bedryf nie kan voldoen nie. Die Sanef oudit was net gerig op joernaliste met 2-5 jaar ondervinding en het probeer vasstel watter vaardighede ontbreek wanneer junior verslaggewers by die media aangestel word ná voltooiing van hul universiteits-, technikon- en ander tersiêre opleiding. Media24 se erns met sy opleidingsprogramme is deur die navorsers uitgesonder. Die oudit het bevind dat waar daardie vaardighede afwesig is, dit duidelik is dat die nuusmedia in die algemeen (met sekere duidelike uitsonderings soos dié by Media24) 'n gebrek het aan 'n opleidingsbeleid, personeelkapasiteit, finansiële bronne en tyd om opleiding informeel deur portuurgroepondersteuning of formeel deur indiensopleiding te verskaf. Beperkte hulpbronne verhinder media-instellings om junior verslaggewers deur 'n tradisionele proses van 'n mentorstelsel, leiding en ‘osmose’ (soos die Sanef-verslag dit noem) te neem waardeur hulle die vereiste vaardigheidsvlakke aan die voete van senior verslaggewers kan leer.

Heropleiding is noodsaaklik Media24 se joernaliste ondergaan gereelde heropleiding ná aanstelling. Intern deur eie opleidingsessies, maar ook deur bywoning van gevorderde kursusse wat deur die Institute for the Advancement of Journalism (IAJ) in Johannesburg aangebied word, of deur buitelandse programme wat deur die Poynter-instituut van St. Petersburg in Florida, Amerika, en die

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Commonwealth Press Union beskikbaar gestel word. Media24 is ook een van die weinige mediagroepe in Suid-Afrika wat sy eie opleidingsafdeling het onder leiding van 'n ervare oudstudent van die Potchefstroomse Universiteit, Dolf Els, wat benewens sy joernalistieke ervaring 'n deeltydse dosent in joernalistiek op Stellenbosch was. Heelwat redakteurs en nuusredakteurs het tydens die oudit hul ernstige bedenkinge uitgespreek oor die gehalte van praktiese kennis en ondervinding van joernalistieke dosente aan tersiêre inrigtings wat joernalistiek aanbied. Dit lei daartoe dat joernalistiekstudente die beroep betree sonder dat hulle weet wat op hulle wag. Gevolglik duur dit langer totdat junior verslaggewers hul voete vind. Volgens die redakteurs behoort alle tersiêre instellings wat joernalistiek aanbied, prominente rolspelers van media-organisasies in hul adviesrade aan te stel. Dié kundiges kan 'n aansienlike bydrae lewer om die vaardigheidsopleiding aan die instellings te verbeter, doodeenvoudig vanweë hul praktiese ervaring van die tendense in die mediabedryf.

Ja, die media het soos alle beroepe duidelike foute, maar die mate van arrogansie van die verlede het plek gemaak vir nederigheid en selfondersoek ten einde die demokratiese bestel in Suid-Afrika tot voordeel te kan strek. Dit beteken nie dat die media afstand doen van die funksies wat die politieke wetenskaplike Harold Lasswell vir die media uitgespel het nie, naamlik dat dit as waghond van die samelewing optree in belang van die belastingbetaler, dit 'n forum vir debat skep wat tot 'n beter samelewing kan lei, en as opvoeder optree, weer eens tot groter kennis en welvaart in gemeenskappe. Ten spyte van Agnew se tirade, belig die woorde van die ervare fotojoernalis George Guthrie waarom die keuse vir 'n vrye joernalistiek in 'n oop samelewing so belangrik is (soos bewoord deur Altschull in bogenoemde boek): ‘Ek was al op baie plekke. Mense doen aaklige dinge aan mekaar. Maar dit is erger op plekke waar mense in die duister gehou word. Dit is werklik so. Inligting is lig. Inligting op sigself, oor enigiets, is lig. Dit is al wat jy werklik kan sê.’

Sanef se proses moet deurlopend wees

Pedro Diederichs

Sanef se oudit moet gesien word as 'n deurlopende proses waardeur die media deur middel van hul georganiseerde strukture die kritiek teen joernaliste onder oë neem en foute in die bedryf probeer uitskakel. Wat die publiek en politici veral nie aldag besef nie, is dat joernaliste in die druken uitsaaimedia wie se publikasies en televisie- en radiostasies onderskeidelik geaffilieer is by Drukmedia SA en die Nasionale Uitsaaivereniging, aan streng etiese mediakodes onderworpe is. 'n Lid van die publiek wat ontevrede is met wat koerante druk of wat die televisie of radio uitsaai, kan 'n klag indien by onderskeidelik die Persombudsman of die Uitsaaiklagte-kommissie van Suid-Afrika. Sanef se selfondersoek as belangrikste liggaam wat die belange van joernaliste op die hart dra, het verlede jaar ook uiting gevind in die Sun City-beraad toe Sanef se hoofbestuur met die kabinet vergader het en die twee partye geskille tussen die media en die owerheid bespreek en probeer oplos het. Een van die uitvloeisels was ‘n groter begrip onder kabinetslede vir die media se rol in 'n demokrasie. Dié intense selfondersoek het gelei tot die onlangse publikasie van twee belangrike boeke oor die media-etiek in Suid-Afrika: Lucas M. Oosthuizen se Media ethics in the South African context (2002, Juta) en Johan Retief se Media Ethics An Introduction to Responsible Journalism (2002, Oxford University Press). Veral Retief se boek gebruik uitmuntende gevallestudies wat as riglyne kan geld vir redakteurs en verslaggewers om etiese vrae te beantwoord in die rapportering van nuus.

Head: Department of Journalism, Pretoria Technikon, South Africa [[email protected]]

Audit reinforces what is already known, but hard work lies ahead Commenting on the media audit, I wholeheartedly support all positive feedback about it but I especially want to support the action and results ‘from industry, for industry’ that were achieved by the project. For a first and very time-strapped project, it has served its purpose. It is good to hear that solid follow-ups will be on their way. From the education side, colleagues will agree that we were not overly surprised by most of the findings (Scribe) as we deal with most of those ‘shockers’ daily. Colleague Fanie Groenewald, lecturer and managing editor of our community training newspaper, Rekord West News (18 000 FDV), quipped: ‘I did not know they had the skills audit at our paper!’ He was referring to common mistakes made by second year students that are responsible for this weekly. Therefore yes, in our training programmes we are acutely aware of the basic problems confronting juniors and yes, we do our utmost to get students as well trained as humanly possible within the two years of journalism training at technikons. But no, it is not fair to try and blame only

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Commonwealth Press Union beskikbaar gestel word. Media24 is ook een van die weinige mediagroepe in Suid-Afrika wat sy eie opleidingsafdeling het onder leiding van 'n ervare oudstudent van die Potchefstroomse Universiteit, Dolf Els, wat benewens sy joernalistieke ervaring 'n deeltydse dosent in joernalistiek op Stellenbosch was. Heelwat redakteurs en nuusredakteurs het tydens die oudit hul ernstige bedenkinge uitgespreek oor die gehalte van praktiese kennis en ondervinding van joernalistieke dosente aan tersiêre inrigtings wat joernalistiek aanbied. Dit lei daartoe dat joernalistiekstudente die beroep betree sonder dat hulle weet wat op hulle wag. Gevolglik duur dit langer totdat junior verslaggewers hul voete vind. Volgens die redakteurs behoort alle tersiêre instellings wat joernalistiek aanbied, prominente rolspelers van media-organisasies in hul adviesrade aan te stel. Dié kundiges kan 'n aansienlike bydrae lewer om die vaardigheidsopleiding aan die instellings te verbeter, doodeenvoudig vanweë hul praktiese ervaring van die tendense in die mediabedryf.

Ja, die media het soos alle beroepe duidelike foute, maar die mate van arrogansie van die verlede het plek gemaak vir nederigheid en selfondersoek ten einde die demokratiese bestel in Suid-Afrika tot voordeel te kan strek. Dit beteken nie dat die media afstand doen van die funksies wat die politieke wetenskaplike Harold Lasswell vir die media uitgespel het nie, naamlik dat dit as waghond van die samelewing optree in belang van die belastingbetaler, dit 'n forum vir debat skep wat tot 'n beter samelewing kan lei, en as opvoeder optree, weer eens tot groter kennis en welvaart in gemeenskappe. Ten spyte van Agnew se tirade, belig die woorde van die ervare fotojoernalis George Guthrie waarom die keuse vir 'n vrye joernalistiek in 'n oop samelewing so belangrik is (soos bewoord deur Altschull in bogenoemde boek): ‘Ek was al op baie plekke. Mense doen aaklige dinge aan mekaar. Maar dit is erger op plekke waar mense in die duister gehou word. Dit is werklik so. Inligting is lig. Inligting op sigself, oor enigiets, is lig. Dit is al wat jy werklik kan sê.’

Sanef se proses moet deurlopend wees

Pedro Diederichs

Sanef se oudit moet gesien word as 'n deurlopende proses waardeur die media deur middel van hul georganiseerde strukture die kritiek teen joernaliste onder oë neem en foute in die bedryf probeer uitskakel. Wat die publiek en politici veral nie aldag besef nie, is dat joernaliste in die druken uitsaaimedia wie se publikasies en televisie- en radiostasies onderskeidelik geaffilieer is by Drukmedia SA en die Nasionale Uitsaaivereniging, aan streng etiese mediakodes onderworpe is. 'n Lid van die publiek wat ontevrede is met wat koerante druk of wat die televisie of radio uitsaai, kan 'n klag indien by onderskeidelik die Persombudsman of die Uitsaaiklagte-kommissie van Suid-Afrika. Sanef se selfondersoek as belangrikste liggaam wat die belange van joernaliste op die hart dra, het verlede jaar ook uiting gevind in die Sun City-beraad toe Sanef se hoofbestuur met die kabinet vergader het en die twee partye geskille tussen die media en die owerheid bespreek en probeer oplos het. Een van die uitvloeisels was ‘n groter begrip onder kabinetslede vir die media se rol in 'n demokrasie. Dié intense selfondersoek het gelei tot die onlangse publikasie van twee belangrike boeke oor die media-etiek in Suid-Afrika: Lucas M. Oosthuizen se Media ethics in the South African context (2002, Juta) en Johan Retief se Media Ethics An Introduction to Responsible Journalism (2002, Oxford University Press). Veral Retief se boek gebruik uitmuntende gevallestudies wat as riglyne kan geld vir redakteurs en verslaggewers om etiese vrae te beantwoord in die rapportering van nuus.

Head: Department of Journalism, Pretoria Technikon, South Africa [[email protected]]

Audit reinforces what is already known, but hard work lies ahead Commenting on the media audit, I wholeheartedly support all positive feedback about it but I especially want to support the action and results ‘from industry, for industry’ that were achieved by the project. For a first and very time-strapped project, it has served its purpose. It is good to hear that solid follow-ups will be on their way. From the education side, colleagues will agree that we were not overly surprised by most of the findings (Scribe) as we deal with most of those ‘shockers’ daily. Colleague Fanie Groenewald, lecturer and managing editor of our community training newspaper, Rekord West News (18 000 FDV), quipped: ‘I did not know they had the skills audit at our paper!’ He was referring to common mistakes made by second year students that are responsible for this weekly. Therefore yes, in our training programmes we are acutely aware of the basic problems confronting juniors and yes, we do our utmost to get students as well trained as humanly possible within the two years of journalism training at technikons. But no, it is not fair to try and blame only

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

101

the poor training of students or the school system as the reason why some of them fared so hopelessly even after 2-5 years in the media business. Where interns or other students were found to be lacking basic skills needed to develop into good journalists, what did industry do? Did they go back to the institutions and complained? Did they just stop appointing those students? Did they do anything to set standards? Did they arrange or ask for remedial action?

Effective partnerships needed The responsibility for the quality of South Africa’s journalists does not only lie with the training they get, but also with the employer, as this research has once again pointed out. There must be more effective partnerships between these two main players. Only then will quality improve. In short, two other aspects: It is a pity that industry chose to play down the results of this research. There was a press release and conference on a Friday (24 May, 2002) and this timing surely hampered coverage in print and electronic media. As far as I am aware, not a single investigative report or serious editorial column or reference to the ‘quality’ theme featured in the media until middle June. It certainly discouraged me from giving comment when the industry itself did not seem to be interested. No debate was initiated, here and there a reader’s letter. But was that it? More importantly: if the results showed the opposite, would it still have been presented in this way? Please prove me wrong, as it would be a sad day if it were a case of more PR than journalism. I’ll leave it there. In the Sanef audit, much attention was paid to, inter alia, journalists’ poor frame of reference, lack of life skills and sensitivity to issues and of course juniorisation. I want to refer to the first mentioned here: general knowledge. It is true that there is a dire need for this amongst most school leavers and students, as we experience with our journalism selection tests at tertiary institutions year after year. But I think industry has looked at the wrong place to solve the problem. It is not good enough to place the blame on educational systems and expect that that would miraculously change everything. What about our society? What did government, social organisations, South Africans do themselves to foster and kindle the need to know?

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Role of parents in a reading culture What about those parents who themselves do not read, who do not get a newspaper, who fall in category of the a-literates, and are themselves oblivious to the need to know? As information and knowledge brokers, the finger must also point to us. What have we done to package our products in such a way that made them impossible to ignore? What have we done to focus on the new generation’s needs when we saw what was happening? How long did it take us to start ‘newspapers in classrooms’ projects and who is still actively promoting that? What about ‘Contemporary history/Life skills/Ethics’ or similar themes as subjects at school? Why wait till government or the education system decides if and when this is compulsory? We have now moved from the Information Age to the Knowledge Age. There is an infrastructure in place – where it is faulty, correct it and build on better performances that will bring about a more knowledgeable society and more readers/listeners. And of course: more profits. Isn’t that what it is all about anyway?

Susan Tyler Eastman Professor: Department of Telecommunications, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA [[email protected]]

Managers must take responsibility for the level of expertise of the next generation of journalists Introduction My field is telecommunications, and at my university, journalism is taught separately. Because both my Department of Telecommunications and the School of Journalism are overwhelmed by large numbers of majors, only a few undergraduates take courses in both units. While journalism focuses on news and public affairs and emphasizes the print media, telecommunications focuses on the entertainment and business sides of the electronic media, with considerable overlap in areas of new technology, such as the Internet. Nonetheless, many of the problems in preparation for careers that were identified in Sanef’s audit apply equally well to the American education situation in both journalism and telecommunications. For example,

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

101

the poor training of students or the school system as the reason why some of them fared so hopelessly even after 2-5 years in the media business. Where interns or other students were found to be lacking basic skills needed to develop into good journalists, what did industry do? Did they go back to the institutions and complained? Did they just stop appointing those students? Did they do anything to set standards? Did they arrange or ask for remedial action?

Effective partnerships needed The responsibility for the quality of South Africa’s journalists does not only lie with the training they get, but also with the employer, as this research has once again pointed out. There must be more effective partnerships between these two main players. Only then will quality improve. In short, two other aspects: It is a pity that industry chose to play down the results of this research. There was a press release and conference on a Friday (24 May, 2002) and this timing surely hampered coverage in print and electronic media. As far as I am aware, not a single investigative report or serious editorial column or reference to the ‘quality’ theme featured in the media until middle June. It certainly discouraged me from giving comment when the industry itself did not seem to be interested. No debate was initiated, here and there a reader’s letter. But was that it? More importantly: if the results showed the opposite, would it still have been presented in this way? Please prove me wrong, as it would be a sad day if it were a case of more PR than journalism. I’ll leave it there. In the Sanef audit, much attention was paid to, inter alia, journalists’ poor frame of reference, lack of life skills and sensitivity to issues and of course juniorisation. I want to refer to the first mentioned here: general knowledge. It is true that there is a dire need for this amongst most school leavers and students, as we experience with our journalism selection tests at tertiary institutions year after year. But I think industry has looked at the wrong place to solve the problem. It is not good enough to place the blame on educational systems and expect that that would miraculously change everything. What about our society? What did government, social organisations, South Africans do themselves to foster and kindle the need to know?

102

Ecquid Novi

Role of parents in a reading culture What about those parents who themselves do not read, who do not get a newspaper, who fall in category of the a-literates, and are themselves oblivious to the need to know? As information and knowledge brokers, the finger must also point to us. What have we done to package our products in such a way that made them impossible to ignore? What have we done to focus on the new generation’s needs when we saw what was happening? How long did it take us to start ‘newspapers in classrooms’ projects and who is still actively promoting that? What about ‘Contemporary history/Life skills/Ethics’ or similar themes as subjects at school? Why wait till government or the education system decides if and when this is compulsory? We have now moved from the Information Age to the Knowledge Age. There is an infrastructure in place – where it is faulty, correct it and build on better performances that will bring about a more knowledgeable society and more readers/listeners. And of course: more profits. Isn’t that what it is all about anyway?

Susan Tyler Eastman Professor: Department of Telecommunications, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA [[email protected]]

Managers must take responsibility for the level of expertise of the next generation of journalists Introduction My field is telecommunications, and at my university, journalism is taught separately. Because both my Department of Telecommunications and the School of Journalism are overwhelmed by large numbers of majors, only a few undergraduates take courses in both units. While journalism focuses on news and public affairs and emphasizes the print media, telecommunications focuses on the entertainment and business sides of the electronic media, with considerable overlap in areas of new technology, such as the Internet. Nonetheless, many of the problems in preparation for careers that were identified in Sanef’s audit apply equally well to the American education situation in both journalism and telecommunications. For example,

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

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to operate effectively, all media students, whatever the particular position in whatever medium they aspire toward, need a solid background in history, politics, science, and sociology, as well as writing, mathematics, and exposure to other languages and cultures.

General education One question is how to achieve as much of this background as possible. The solution at most US colleges and universities is to separate general education courses from specialized training in a major. Most general education is intended to take place in the first two years of college, with most specialized coursework in the last two years. Most US higher education institutions reinstated a rigorous set of course requirements following a laissez-faire period in the 1970s, and nowadays, lower-level courses in English, mathematics, foreign language must be taken by all students irrespective of their major field of study. These requirements are accompanied by mandated introductory courses in hard and social sciences, advanced writing instruction, and upper-level courses in either a minority American or a foreign culture. While a great deal of choice among courses is provided in a large university and only a narrow range in a small college, the principle remains the same. The idea is that students must be educated in the fundamentals (writing, math, science, foreign language) before tackling career preparation. Whether many such general education courses actually serve the intended purposes as well as possible can be debated, but the goal is laudable. In the US higher education system, career preparation is usually seen as something that comes after general education—at least in institutions with a liberal arts orientation. However, two-year programs and small departments with a more directly professional orientation do exist in the United States. While undergraduate students may find them more ‘fun,’ they are in the minority and fading rapidly for two reasons. First, there is so much for even the most narrowly focused student to learn - I need not explain to readers of this publication how much the media world has expanded in recent years. Second, the highly-competitive print and electronic industries that our graduates want jobs in demand broad and deep preparation.

Telecommunications specialties After and while completing their general education courses, within my own Department of Telecommunications, students can choose one of three tracks (‘areas of emphasis’). We do offer a handful of non-major lecture courses at the lowest introductory levels, largely as service to the

104

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university (and as generators of all those lovely credit hours). In the major, all students are required to take at least one course in each of the three areas of our 60+ course curriculum. About three-quarters of our majors opt for either Design & Production or Management & Industry. The production track focuses on creating and producing electronic content for video or the web. It includes a structured sequence of courses in script and continuity writing, field and studio video and sound production, video post-production, graphics, digital modeling and animation, beginning and advanced directing and producing, and several applied courses in new media (called ‘transmedia’ courses at this time, though such things change). Courses in the second area, Management & Industry, are necessarily less hierarchical, allowing quite different emphases for individual students, and permitting students at different educational levels to fill up the seats in lecture-style courses (this, of course, introduces other problems, but at least it prevents most bottlenecks). This area of study includes basic and advanced courses in advertising, programming, promotion and marketing, professional ethics, policymaking and government regulation, audience analysis, network design (for traditional broadcast, telephony, and the Internet), data and broadband communications, and management and leadership. Finally, there is a third track called Media & Society that attracts many students to individual courses but mostly students who are pre-law or pre-masters tend to choose it as their area of emphasis. The track includes courses in media history, media and politics, media and sports, media and children, and media research, comparative media systems, international communications, and public communication campaigns. Thus, you can see that the major, at least at my university, does not require specialty historical and political study of all students. Those courses appear at lower levels, taught by the departments in the field (history by the Department of History, for example). Ideally, all students should take both general and media history, for example, as well as research as taught in science courses and in media courses, but there aren’t enough hours in the day (or credit hours for a degree, or seats in the classrooms, or teachers to teach every possible course…).

The journalism skills audit One aspect of the audit of journalism practitioners in South Africa should be of particular interest to educators in my field. It is the separation of those kinds of background and skills that formal education can and must be responsible for, those skills that can be taught or updated in in-service

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

103

to operate effectively, all media students, whatever the particular position in whatever medium they aspire toward, need a solid background in history, politics, science, and sociology, as well as writing, mathematics, and exposure to other languages and cultures.

General education One question is how to achieve as much of this background as possible. The solution at most US colleges and universities is to separate general education courses from specialized training in a major. Most general education is intended to take place in the first two years of college, with most specialized coursework in the last two years. Most US higher education institutions reinstated a rigorous set of course requirements following a laissez-faire period in the 1970s, and nowadays, lower-level courses in English, mathematics, foreign language must be taken by all students irrespective of their major field of study. These requirements are accompanied by mandated introductory courses in hard and social sciences, advanced writing instruction, and upper-level courses in either a minority American or a foreign culture. While a great deal of choice among courses is provided in a large university and only a narrow range in a small college, the principle remains the same. The idea is that students must be educated in the fundamentals (writing, math, science, foreign language) before tackling career preparation. Whether many such general education courses actually serve the intended purposes as well as possible can be debated, but the goal is laudable. In the US higher education system, career preparation is usually seen as something that comes after general education—at least in institutions with a liberal arts orientation. However, two-year programs and small departments with a more directly professional orientation do exist in the United States. While undergraduate students may find them more ‘fun,’ they are in the minority and fading rapidly for two reasons. First, there is so much for even the most narrowly focused student to learn - I need not explain to readers of this publication how much the media world has expanded in recent years. Second, the highly-competitive print and electronic industries that our graduates want jobs in demand broad and deep preparation.

Telecommunications specialties After and while completing their general education courses, within my own Department of Telecommunications, students can choose one of three tracks (‘areas of emphasis’). We do offer a handful of non-major lecture courses at the lowest introductory levels, largely as service to the

104

Ecquid Novi

university (and as generators of all those lovely credit hours). In the major, all students are required to take at least one course in each of the three areas of our 60+ course curriculum. About three-quarters of our majors opt for either Design & Production or Management & Industry. The production track focuses on creating and producing electronic content for video or the web. It includes a structured sequence of courses in script and continuity writing, field and studio video and sound production, video post-production, graphics, digital modeling and animation, beginning and advanced directing and producing, and several applied courses in new media (called ‘transmedia’ courses at this time, though such things change). Courses in the second area, Management & Industry, are necessarily less hierarchical, allowing quite different emphases for individual students, and permitting students at different educational levels to fill up the seats in lecture-style courses (this, of course, introduces other problems, but at least it prevents most bottlenecks). This area of study includes basic and advanced courses in advertising, programming, promotion and marketing, professional ethics, policymaking and government regulation, audience analysis, network design (for traditional broadcast, telephony, and the Internet), data and broadband communications, and management and leadership. Finally, there is a third track called Media & Society that attracts many students to individual courses but mostly students who are pre-law or pre-masters tend to choose it as their area of emphasis. The track includes courses in media history, media and politics, media and sports, media and children, and media research, comparative media systems, international communications, and public communication campaigns. Thus, you can see that the major, at least at my university, does not require specialty historical and political study of all students. Those courses appear at lower levels, taught by the departments in the field (history by the Department of History, for example). Ideally, all students should take both general and media history, for example, as well as research as taught in science courses and in media courses, but there aren’t enough hours in the day (or credit hours for a degree, or seats in the classrooms, or teachers to teach every possible course…).

The journalism skills audit One aspect of the audit of journalism practitioners in South Africa should be of particular interest to educators in my field. It is the separation of those kinds of background and skills that formal education can and must be responsible for, those skills that can be taught or updated in in-service

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

105

courses, and those highly specialized attitudes and skills that only mentors and editors can instill. We have all heard young people claim that ‘they learned more in the first year on the job than they did in their whole educations!’ (few would say that some years later, of course). But what they really mean is that the embarrassment of erring in front of editors, directors, producers, or whomever they report to, had a powerful and lasting impact. A boss’s red pencil carries far more clout than a teacher’s. Although educators in colleges and universities cannot and should not use embarrassment as a teaching technique (or wield the immense power of salary and job cuts), public or even private shaming can be a mammothly motivating tool for young people when it first occurs. In my view, the most salient portions of the conclusions in the report are the sections on what Sanef and management can do. Providing workshops to fill the gaps in journalism education for individuals is a meaningful service to those journalists and, perhaps more important, to the public. A democratic society, especially one in the throes of social and economic dislocation, needs informed and reliable reporting of its news. While formal education and in-service training cannot make the very young age any more quickly, workshops and the like can aid by training in the day-to-day of the profession, reiterating the values of the profession, and providing contact with a wide range of professionals in the fields. Thus, such on-going education can serve to generate valuable experiences outside the limits of a single job. In particular, it can help in the acquisition of the sense of larger context that is commonly missing among the young. Management’s role should be to create the conditions for successful maturation, mentoring, and on-going education of their staffs. Editors and senior reporters need to expect that mentoring to be part of their responsibilities, and time and rewards should be built into the systems. In addition, providing released time and paying registration fees and travel costs are practical ways that management can support the development of the high quality of journalism it claims to want. Managers must take responsibility for the level of expertise of the next generation of journalists. Providing for professional development is both an obligation and a need in South Africa and elsewhere, and cross-industry organizations as well in individual media companies can address a great many the problems identified in this journalism audit.

106

Ecquid Novi

Dr Danie Jordaan Professor en direkteur: Skool vir Taal, Media en Kommunikasie, Universiteit van Port Elizabeth, Suid-Afrika [[email protected]]

Audit nie net vir media van belang nie, maar ook vir opleidinginstansies Die Sanef-verslag is nie net van groot waarde vir die media-industrie nie, dis net so relevant vir akademici aan opleidingsinstansies wat studente in media-verwante rigtings oplei. Diegene wat die navorsing geïnisieer het, asook die joernaliste wat meegewerk het, verdien dus om gekomplimenteer te word. Sommige van die bevindinge in die verslag bring nie juis nuwe insigte nie. So byvoorbeeld is die bevinding dat onrusbarend min joernaliste oor die vermoë beskik om te kan kontekstualiseer, en dus nie in staat is om genuanseerd te interpreteer nie, reeds tydens die Sanef/Rhodes colloquium oor joernalistieke opleiding in Johannesburg van 18 tot 20 Oktober 2000 bespreek. Tydens hierdie colloquium het Brian Pottinger, Uitvoerende Direkteur van wat toe bekend was as die Times Media-groep, beklemtoon dat een van die knellende probleme wat redakteurs met nuwelingjoernaliste ondervind, die feit is dat die meerderheid van hulle (uitsluitlik?) tegnies en tegnologies geletterd is. Dié jong graduandi en gediplomeerdes ken al die jongste sagtewareprogramme, hulle weet presies watter knoppies om te druk, maar uiteindelik bly dit, soos hy dit tydens ‘n persoonlike gesprek aan my gestel het, ‘n kwessie van ‘adequate form without substantive content’. As mens dit minder vriendelik moet stel, was sy (en vele ander mediaringkoppe) se beswaar dit: dat kultureelongeletterde metteurs die joernalistiek betree in plaas van belese auteurs. Overgeset synde: gegradueerdes en gediplomeerdes wat tegnies bedrewe is, maar met ernstige leemtes in hul kulturele, politieke en etiese mondering.

Sanef-verslag behoort van waarde te wees Die waarde van die Sanef-verslag word nie hierdeur verminder nie, want dit bevestig aan die hand van empiriese gegewens oordele en menings onder joernaliste en akademici wat tot dusver grootliks op eng persoonlike ervaring berus het. Die verslag behoort dus uiters waardevol te wees vir programleiers en ander akademici wat met kurrikulumontwik-

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courses, and those highly specialized attitudes and skills that only mentors and editors can instill. We have all heard young people claim that ‘they learned more in the first year on the job than they did in their whole educations!’ (few would say that some years later, of course). But what they really mean is that the embarrassment of erring in front of editors, directors, producers, or whomever they report to, had a powerful and lasting impact. A boss’s red pencil carries far more clout than a teacher’s. Although educators in colleges and universities cannot and should not use embarrassment as a teaching technique (or wield the immense power of salary and job cuts), public or even private shaming can be a mammothly motivating tool for young people when it first occurs. In my view, the most salient portions of the conclusions in the report are the sections on what Sanef and management can do. Providing workshops to fill the gaps in journalism education for individuals is a meaningful service to those journalists and, perhaps more important, to the public. A democratic society, especially one in the throes of social and economic dislocation, needs informed and reliable reporting of its news. While formal education and in-service training cannot make the very young age any more quickly, workshops and the like can aid by training in the day-to-day of the profession, reiterating the values of the profession, and providing contact with a wide range of professionals in the fields. Thus, such on-going education can serve to generate valuable experiences outside the limits of a single job. In particular, it can help in the acquisition of the sense of larger context that is commonly missing among the young. Management’s role should be to create the conditions for successful maturation, mentoring, and on-going education of their staffs. Editors and senior reporters need to expect that mentoring to be part of their responsibilities, and time and rewards should be built into the systems. In addition, providing released time and paying registration fees and travel costs are practical ways that management can support the development of the high quality of journalism it claims to want. Managers must take responsibility for the level of expertise of the next generation of journalists. Providing for professional development is both an obligation and a need in South Africa and elsewhere, and cross-industry organizations as well in individual media companies can address a great many the problems identified in this journalism audit.

106

Ecquid Novi

Dr Danie Jordaan Professor en direkteur: Skool vir Taal, Media en Kommunikasie, Universiteit van Port Elizabeth, Suid-Afrika [[email protected]]

Audit nie net vir media van belang nie, maar ook vir opleidinginstansies Die Sanef-verslag is nie net van groot waarde vir die media-industrie nie, dis net so relevant vir akademici aan opleidingsinstansies wat studente in media-verwante rigtings oplei. Diegene wat die navorsing geïnisieer het, asook die joernaliste wat meegewerk het, verdien dus om gekomplimenteer te word. Sommige van die bevindinge in die verslag bring nie juis nuwe insigte nie. So byvoorbeeld is die bevinding dat onrusbarend min joernaliste oor die vermoë beskik om te kan kontekstualiseer, en dus nie in staat is om genuanseerd te interpreteer nie, reeds tydens die Sanef/Rhodes colloquium oor joernalistieke opleiding in Johannesburg van 18 tot 20 Oktober 2000 bespreek. Tydens hierdie colloquium het Brian Pottinger, Uitvoerende Direkteur van wat toe bekend was as die Times Media-groep, beklemtoon dat een van die knellende probleme wat redakteurs met nuwelingjoernaliste ondervind, die feit is dat die meerderheid van hulle (uitsluitlik?) tegnies en tegnologies geletterd is. Dié jong graduandi en gediplomeerdes ken al die jongste sagtewareprogramme, hulle weet presies watter knoppies om te druk, maar uiteindelik bly dit, soos hy dit tydens ‘n persoonlike gesprek aan my gestel het, ‘n kwessie van ‘adequate form without substantive content’. As mens dit minder vriendelik moet stel, was sy (en vele ander mediaringkoppe) se beswaar dit: dat kultureelongeletterde metteurs die joernalistiek betree in plaas van belese auteurs. Overgeset synde: gegradueerdes en gediplomeerdes wat tegnies bedrewe is, maar met ernstige leemtes in hul kulturele, politieke en etiese mondering.

Sanef-verslag behoort van waarde te wees Die waarde van die Sanef-verslag word nie hierdeur verminder nie, want dit bevestig aan die hand van empiriese gegewens oordele en menings onder joernaliste en akademici wat tot dusver grootliks op eng persoonlike ervaring berus het. Die verslag behoort dus uiters waardevol te wees vir programleiers en ander akademici wat met kurrikulumontwik-

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keling gemoeid is, want dit is nou moontlik om kurrikula aan te pas, of selfs grondig te hervorm, op grond van bevindinge wat empiries gesteun word, en dan wel binne die konteks van die Suid-Afrikaanse mediabedryf. Vroeër was diegene van ons wat met kurrikulering gemoeid is te veel afhanklik van oorsese insette oor tendense in die media-industrie en media-verwante opleiding. Die Sanef-verslag is in sekere opsigte egter ook problematies, en die skrywers dui, soos dit goeie navorsers betaam, dié probleme aan wat ‘n impak op die navorsing en die bevindinge gehad het. So meld die verslag duidelik dat die vraag oor watter instansies werklik uitstekende opleiding vir mediawerkers bied ‘impressionisties’ is omdat dit die mening van subredakteurs weerspieël en noodwendig gebaseer is op daardie individue se persoonlike ervaring met nuwelingjoernaliste. Wat die saak verder kompliseer is dat die subredakteurs se taksering van die doeltreffendheid van die joernaliste se opleiding grootliks berus op dié mate waarin die nuwelinge gereed is om van dag een af te funksioneer in hul nuwe werkomgewing. Redakteurs is onder druk om met die minimum personeel te funksioneer, wat tot gevolg het dat daar beswaarlik ‘n stelsel van mentorskap gehandhaaf kan word. Op sy beurt het dit tot gevolg dat die waarde van analitiese denke, die vermoë om te konseptualiseer en ‘n gegronde sosiale, politieke, etiese en kulturele bewussyn geringgeskat word ten gunste van praktiese vaardighede. Dit lei weer daartoe dat opleidingsinstellings op daardie aspekte konsentreer (veral op voorgraadse vlak of op die vlak van ‘n eerste diploma), wat beteken dat een van die grootste leemtes wat die verslag uitwys, naamlik die onvermoë om bevredigend te kan kontekstualiseer (ek sou ook wou byvoeg konseptualiseer) as gevolg van gebrekkige agtergrondkennis op die terrein van die ekonomie, eietydse geskiedenis, politieke wetenskap en kultuur, ‘n bose spiraal word.

Adviesrade kan ‘n belangrike rol speel Indien die mediabedryf werklik ernstig is oor puik opleiding en dienslewering sal ernstige aandag aan hierdie vraagstuk gegee moet word. Dit is nie genoeg om aan te beveel dat adviesrade by opleidingsinstansies in die lewe geroep word bloot omdat prominente rolspelers van mediaorganisasies in hul adviesrade bydraes kan maak vanweë hul praktiese ervaring van tendense in die mediabedryf nie. Adviesrade kan ‘n belangrike rol speel om die gehalte en doeltreffendheid van opleiding te verbeter, maar dan moet diegene uit die mediabedryf wat op sodanige adviesrade dien die ekstra myl loop en hulself indringend vergewis van die situasie by dié instelling waar hulle dien. Slegs dan sal hulle waardevolle bydraes

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kan lewer in die vorm van advies oor kurrikulering en die assessering van standaarde. Dit vereis natuurlik ook van opleidingsinstansies ‘n daadwerklike poging om die lede van adviesrade werklik te betrek by beplanning en opleiding, en nie die adviesraad te sien as ‘n rubberstempel nie. Gesien die druk waaronder senior mediapersoneel werk as gevolg daarvan dat ekonomiese oorwegings dikteer dat die minimum personeel aangestel word, is dit te betwyfel of dit wel binne hul vermoë sal wees om in hierdie mate betrokke te wees by opleidingsinstansies. Die direksies van die groot mediagroepe sal beslis hul personeelbeleid (en begrotings) moet aanpas as dit hul erns is om die gebreke wat die verslag uitwys, aan te spreek. ‘n Kwessie wat ook verband hou met bogenoemde is die klem wat op die lewering van ‘kitsjoernaliste’ geplaas word. Slegs wanneer dit nie meer as ‘n ‘luukse’ beskou word om oor genoegsame personeel te beskik om mentorskap haalbaar te maak nie, sal die huidige gebruik om by voorkeur diegene aan te stel wat onmiddellik ‘produktief’ kan wees as joernalis, ten koste van ‘langtermynaanstellings’ van personeel wat ‘n breë, vormende opleiding ondergaan het, verander kan word. ‘n Moontlike oplossing vir die probleem is dat voornemende mediawerkers ‘n eerste graad in mediastudies verwerf, en daarna ‘n diploma in toegepaste joernalistiek (moontlik oor een jaar) verwerf. ‘n Nagraadse kwalifikasie soortgelyk aan die Universiteit van Stellenbosch se BPhil in joernalistiek is ‘n ander moontlikheid.

Gebrek aan lewens- en sosiale vaardighede ‘n Laaste probleemarea wat die verslag uitwys is die gebrekkige lewensen sosiale vaardighede van sommige nuweling-mediawerkers. ‘n Voordie-hand-liggende oplossing is om aan te beveel dat opleidingsinstansies modules ontwikkel om hierdie vaardighede by studente te ontwikkel. Dié oplossing is egter nie eenvoudig nie, omdat dit opleidingsinstansies voor dié probleem plaas: moet sodanige modules ‘n verpligte onderdeel van die kurrikulum vorm, kan dit keuse-modules wees, of moet studente na dié kursusse verwys word op grond van toetsing? Die ervaring het geleer dat nie een van hierdie opsies sonder probleme is nie. Verkies die instelling om studente te kanaliseer op grond van die uitslag van een of ander toets, en dié groep studente wat verwys word is oorwegend deel van ‘n benadeelde groep, word die klag van rassisme gou geopper. Dwing die instelling alle studente om kursusse in lewens- en sosiale vaardighede te volg, ook diegene wat weens hul (bevoorregte) posisies en goeie skoolopleiding reeds oor dié vaardighede beskik, frustreer jy ‘n deel van jou studentekorps. Maak die instelling dit ‘n keusevak, skryf niemand vir

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

107

keling gemoeid is, want dit is nou moontlik om kurrikula aan te pas, of selfs grondig te hervorm, op grond van bevindinge wat empiries gesteun word, en dan wel binne die konteks van die Suid-Afrikaanse mediabedryf. Vroeër was diegene van ons wat met kurrikulering gemoeid is te veel afhanklik van oorsese insette oor tendense in die media-industrie en media-verwante opleiding. Die Sanef-verslag is in sekere opsigte egter ook problematies, en die skrywers dui, soos dit goeie navorsers betaam, dié probleme aan wat ‘n impak op die navorsing en die bevindinge gehad het. So meld die verslag duidelik dat die vraag oor watter instansies werklik uitstekende opleiding vir mediawerkers bied ‘impressionisties’ is omdat dit die mening van subredakteurs weerspieël en noodwendig gebaseer is op daardie individue se persoonlike ervaring met nuwelingjoernaliste. Wat die saak verder kompliseer is dat die subredakteurs se taksering van die doeltreffendheid van die joernaliste se opleiding grootliks berus op dié mate waarin die nuwelinge gereed is om van dag een af te funksioneer in hul nuwe werkomgewing. Redakteurs is onder druk om met die minimum personeel te funksioneer, wat tot gevolg het dat daar beswaarlik ‘n stelsel van mentorskap gehandhaaf kan word. Op sy beurt het dit tot gevolg dat die waarde van analitiese denke, die vermoë om te konseptualiseer en ‘n gegronde sosiale, politieke, etiese en kulturele bewussyn geringgeskat word ten gunste van praktiese vaardighede. Dit lei weer daartoe dat opleidingsinstellings op daardie aspekte konsentreer (veral op voorgraadse vlak of op die vlak van ‘n eerste diploma), wat beteken dat een van die grootste leemtes wat die verslag uitwys, naamlik die onvermoë om bevredigend te kan kontekstualiseer (ek sou ook wou byvoeg konseptualiseer) as gevolg van gebrekkige agtergrondkennis op die terrein van die ekonomie, eietydse geskiedenis, politieke wetenskap en kultuur, ‘n bose spiraal word.

Adviesrade kan ‘n belangrike rol speel Indien die mediabedryf werklik ernstig is oor puik opleiding en dienslewering sal ernstige aandag aan hierdie vraagstuk gegee moet word. Dit is nie genoeg om aan te beveel dat adviesrade by opleidingsinstansies in die lewe geroep word bloot omdat prominente rolspelers van mediaorganisasies in hul adviesrade bydraes kan maak vanweë hul praktiese ervaring van tendense in die mediabedryf nie. Adviesrade kan ‘n belangrike rol speel om die gehalte en doeltreffendheid van opleiding te verbeter, maar dan moet diegene uit die mediabedryf wat op sodanige adviesrade dien die ekstra myl loop en hulself indringend vergewis van die situasie by dié instelling waar hulle dien. Slegs dan sal hulle waardevolle bydraes

108

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kan lewer in die vorm van advies oor kurrikulering en die assessering van standaarde. Dit vereis natuurlik ook van opleidingsinstansies ‘n daadwerklike poging om die lede van adviesrade werklik te betrek by beplanning en opleiding, en nie die adviesraad te sien as ‘n rubberstempel nie. Gesien die druk waaronder senior mediapersoneel werk as gevolg daarvan dat ekonomiese oorwegings dikteer dat die minimum personeel aangestel word, is dit te betwyfel of dit wel binne hul vermoë sal wees om in hierdie mate betrokke te wees by opleidingsinstansies. Die direksies van die groot mediagroepe sal beslis hul personeelbeleid (en begrotings) moet aanpas as dit hul erns is om die gebreke wat die verslag uitwys, aan te spreek. ‘n Kwessie wat ook verband hou met bogenoemde is die klem wat op die lewering van ‘kitsjoernaliste’ geplaas word. Slegs wanneer dit nie meer as ‘n ‘luukse’ beskou word om oor genoegsame personeel te beskik om mentorskap haalbaar te maak nie, sal die huidige gebruik om by voorkeur diegene aan te stel wat onmiddellik ‘produktief’ kan wees as joernalis, ten koste van ‘langtermynaanstellings’ van personeel wat ‘n breë, vormende opleiding ondergaan het, verander kan word. ‘n Moontlike oplossing vir die probleem is dat voornemende mediawerkers ‘n eerste graad in mediastudies verwerf, en daarna ‘n diploma in toegepaste joernalistiek (moontlik oor een jaar) verwerf. ‘n Nagraadse kwalifikasie soortgelyk aan die Universiteit van Stellenbosch se BPhil in joernalistiek is ‘n ander moontlikheid.

Gebrek aan lewens- en sosiale vaardighede ‘n Laaste probleemarea wat die verslag uitwys is die gebrekkige lewensen sosiale vaardighede van sommige nuweling-mediawerkers. ‘n Voordie-hand-liggende oplossing is om aan te beveel dat opleidingsinstansies modules ontwikkel om hierdie vaardighede by studente te ontwikkel. Dié oplossing is egter nie eenvoudig nie, omdat dit opleidingsinstansies voor dié probleem plaas: moet sodanige modules ‘n verpligte onderdeel van die kurrikulum vorm, kan dit keuse-modules wees, of moet studente na dié kursusse verwys word op grond van toetsing? Die ervaring het geleer dat nie een van hierdie opsies sonder probleme is nie. Verkies die instelling om studente te kanaliseer op grond van die uitslag van een of ander toets, en dié groep studente wat verwys word is oorwegend deel van ‘n benadeelde groep, word die klag van rassisme gou geopper. Dwing die instelling alle studente om kursusse in lewens- en sosiale vaardighede te volg, ook diegene wat weens hul (bevoorregte) posisies en goeie skoolopleiding reeds oor dié vaardighede beskik, frustreer jy ‘n deel van jou studentekorps. Maak die instelling dit ‘n keusevak, skryf niemand vir

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

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die kursus in nie, omdat dit (volgens studente se persepsie) neerkom op ‘n erkenning dat jy nie op peil is in terme van sosiale ontwikkeling nie. Ten slotte: daar is geen kitsantwoorde op die probleme wat deur die Sanef-verslag uitgewys is nie. Om te verwag dat opleidingsinstansies die probleme aanspreek in isolasie, is nie haalbaar nie. Wedersydse samewerking tussen die akademie en die praktyk is die enigte opsie, maar dit verg ongelukkig meer as net entoesiasme en bereidwilligheid onder mediawerkers en akademici om saam te werk. Uiteindelik sal die mediabedryf en die opleidingsinstansies substansieel moet begroot vir sodanige samewerking. Slegs dan sal begin kan word om van die leemtes reg te stel wat die verslag uitwys.

Dr P Eric Louw Director of Communication Programmes, School of Journalism & Communication, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia [[email protected]]

Improving South African journalism standards There is a long-standing tradition of journalists being unpopular with South African governments, with both the apartheid and post-apartheid governments complaining about media coverage of their actions. It is all too easy to dismiss such complaints, and accuse politicians of picking on the Press. However, journalists are not always blameless – and now an extensive survey of South Africa’s journalists reveals that all is not well, and that South African journalism is not in good shape. The Sanef audit provides a comprehensive list of the problems facing the industry – and reveals that many share the blame for the sad state of journalism, including: media owners & managers; media educators & trainers; and journalists themselves. The problems identified by the audit are of three broad types. The first two of these are not entirely unique to South Africa – (1) problems arising due to shifts in newsroom dynamics; (2) problems with journalism training; and (3) problems arising from contextual issues that are uniquely South African.

Shifting newsroom dynamics The Sanef audit reveals that shifting newsroom dynamics have undermined the quality of journalism. Many of these shifts have been caused by managements seeking to flatten organizational hierarchies, and reduce personnel budgets by cutting staff numbers and employing more junior

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(and hence cheaper) people. This is part of a wider international pattern of media management associated with the economics of globalization. The result is that news organizations become skewed – with a burgeoning number of ill-equipped junior staffers (effectively only equipped to process media releases), a greatly reduced number of middle managers, and a growing number of people promoted to senior positions often before they are ready. The result is ‘juniorisation’ at both the bottom and top-ends of the organization. This results in poorer management, and a dramatically reduced organizational capacity for staff mentoring, which in turn generates reduced job satisfaction for newcomers. The high staff turnover revealed by the audit would seem to bear this out. Journalism training and educators must presumably also bear some responsibility for the generally poor quality of South African journalism. The audit, in fact, revealed a shocking state of affairs – with many practicing journalists having little ability to identify stories, follow-up on stories, conduct competent interviews, organize the facts, or write competently and accurately. Part of the problem seems to be the mushrooming of journalism courses which appear to be producing low quality graduates who posses few technical skills and even lower levels of the sort of general knowledge and understanding of society required to be competent journalists. (This is not a uniquely South African problem). But in this regard, media managements must be seen as at least partly culpable in the survival of such low quality educational institutions – because by employing their poor quality graduates (presumably cheaply) they allow poor courses to survive. The Sanef audit notes that South Africa does possess three centers of quality journalism education, namely Rhodes, Stellenbosch and Pretoria Technikon. Perhaps the media industry should encourage the growth of these three centers of excellence, and consider withdrawing support from the poorer quality institutions.

Five problem areas uniquely South African The Sanef Audit did reveal five problems that were uniquely South African. Three of these relate to South Africa’s complex ethnic-dynamic. Multi-lingualism means many journalists are not able to work in their home-language – which necessarily lowers language-competency. There are also ethnic tensions that can complicate newsroom management decisions, for example, when a white sub-editor needs to improve a black journalist’s copy. Further, South African media managers are confronted by a highly complex mix of ethnic, racial and lifestyle variables when defining their

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

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die kursus in nie, omdat dit (volgens studente se persepsie) neerkom op ‘n erkenning dat jy nie op peil is in terme van sosiale ontwikkeling nie. Ten slotte: daar is geen kitsantwoorde op die probleme wat deur die Sanef-verslag uitgewys is nie. Om te verwag dat opleidingsinstansies die probleme aanspreek in isolasie, is nie haalbaar nie. Wedersydse samewerking tussen die akademie en die praktyk is die enigte opsie, maar dit verg ongelukkig meer as net entoesiasme en bereidwilligheid onder mediawerkers en akademici om saam te werk. Uiteindelik sal die mediabedryf en die opleidingsinstansies substansieel moet begroot vir sodanige samewerking. Slegs dan sal begin kan word om van die leemtes reg te stel wat die verslag uitwys.

Dr P Eric Louw Director of Communication Programmes, School of Journalism & Communication, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia [[email protected]]

Improving South African journalism standards There is a long-standing tradition of journalists being unpopular with South African governments, with both the apartheid and post-apartheid governments complaining about media coverage of their actions. It is all too easy to dismiss such complaints, and accuse politicians of picking on the Press. However, journalists are not always blameless – and now an extensive survey of South Africa’s journalists reveals that all is not well, and that South African journalism is not in good shape. The Sanef audit provides a comprehensive list of the problems facing the industry – and reveals that many share the blame for the sad state of journalism, including: media owners & managers; media educators & trainers; and journalists themselves. The problems identified by the audit are of three broad types. The first two of these are not entirely unique to South Africa – (1) problems arising due to shifts in newsroom dynamics; (2) problems with journalism training; and (3) problems arising from contextual issues that are uniquely South African.

Shifting newsroom dynamics The Sanef audit reveals that shifting newsroom dynamics have undermined the quality of journalism. Many of these shifts have been caused by managements seeking to flatten organizational hierarchies, and reduce personnel budgets by cutting staff numbers and employing more junior

110

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(and hence cheaper) people. This is part of a wider international pattern of media management associated with the economics of globalization. The result is that news organizations become skewed – with a burgeoning number of ill-equipped junior staffers (effectively only equipped to process media releases), a greatly reduced number of middle managers, and a growing number of people promoted to senior positions often before they are ready. The result is ‘juniorisation’ at both the bottom and top-ends of the organization. This results in poorer management, and a dramatically reduced organizational capacity for staff mentoring, which in turn generates reduced job satisfaction for newcomers. The high staff turnover revealed by the audit would seem to bear this out. Journalism training and educators must presumably also bear some responsibility for the generally poor quality of South African journalism. The audit, in fact, revealed a shocking state of affairs – with many practicing journalists having little ability to identify stories, follow-up on stories, conduct competent interviews, organize the facts, or write competently and accurately. Part of the problem seems to be the mushrooming of journalism courses which appear to be producing low quality graduates who posses few technical skills and even lower levels of the sort of general knowledge and understanding of society required to be competent journalists. (This is not a uniquely South African problem). But in this regard, media managements must be seen as at least partly culpable in the survival of such low quality educational institutions – because by employing their poor quality graduates (presumably cheaply) they allow poor courses to survive. The Sanef audit notes that South Africa does possess three centers of quality journalism education, namely Rhodes, Stellenbosch and Pretoria Technikon. Perhaps the media industry should encourage the growth of these three centers of excellence, and consider withdrawing support from the poorer quality institutions.

Five problem areas uniquely South African The Sanef Audit did reveal five problems that were uniquely South African. Three of these relate to South Africa’s complex ethnic-dynamic. Multi-lingualism means many journalists are not able to work in their home-language – which necessarily lowers language-competency. There are also ethnic tensions that can complicate newsroom management decisions, for example, when a white sub-editor needs to improve a black journalist’s copy. Further, South African media managers are confronted by a highly complex mix of ethnic, racial and lifestyle variables when defining their

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

111

audiences. This complicates the task of editing, and hence managing newsroom production. Add to this the fact that South Africa is experiencing a skills crisis (which is one of the reasons for ‘juniorisation’) and it is clear that running a successful newsroom is far from easy. This is exacerbated by a generational shift in newsrooms – many older journalists (from the apartheid era) were socially-committed journalists. But today’s recruits are motivated not by social conscience but by a desire for celebrity (through their by-lines). This creates a form of inter-generational tension between the older senior staffers and the younger staffers who they often have to supervise. Given these issues, it is perhaps not surprising that South African journalism is experiencing a number of quality problems associated with newsroom management. It could be that special training is required to deal with these sorts of issues. What is clear is that there is a lot of room for improvement in contemporary South African journalism. Improving standards will require that both journalism educators and media managers rethink their practices. It also requires that educators and managers work together to develop joint strategies for both upgrading the performance of existing journalists and ensuring that the next generation of journalists is better qualified.

Need of upgrading performance Upgrading the performance of existing journalists will only occur if media managements create the incentives for this to happen. What appears to be required is the creation of graduate diplomas, graduate certificates and even short courses that are specifically designed for upgrading existing media workers. The Sanef audit has already identified the sorts of upgrading programs and courses that are required, namely: • • • •

Media management, human relations and mentoring; Producing stories (including research and writing skills); Language and writing skills (for non-English speakers); Sub-editing (with a special emphasis on how to deal with lowquality copy); • Social studies (drawing on political studies, economics, sociology and history); and • Media law & ethics. If such upgrading programs are to be successful, it would seem desirable that the media industry and selected journalism educators/institutions

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work together to identify the most desirable and effective way to create and operation of such programs in terms of content, timing, location, etc. When it comes to ensuring that the next generation of journalists is better qualified, it would seem helpful if those working at universities and technikons began to conceptualize of their job as journalism educators and not journalism trainers. Producing good journalists requires students be taught both technical skills (a training function) and an understanding of politics, economics, law, their society and other societies. The latter is a function of education, not skills-training. The production of competent journalists requires all of these. But if South African journalism is to be improved, it is not simply a function of more and better education. In addition, media employers need to recognize the industry has been complicit in allowing the problems to develop through their tolerance of low standards. The media industry now needs to examine what it can do to improve standards through the following: • Introduce mentoring schemes; • Encourage (by incentive schemes?) both journalists and managers to upgrade themselves via graduate diplomas, graduate certificates and short courses; • Improving the quality of sub-editing; • Work with Journalism educators to ensure that there are places for journalism internships; • Possibly stop employing graduates from institutions who produce poor quality journalists as a way of forcing them to improve their standards; and • Address the problems caused by ‘juniorization’. What is at stake is whether South Africa has a media sector able to produce and circulate the information required to produce an informed citizenry, and to ensure that the government is held accountable to the principles of good governance.

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

111

audiences. This complicates the task of editing, and hence managing newsroom production. Add to this the fact that South Africa is experiencing a skills crisis (which is one of the reasons for ‘juniorisation’) and it is clear that running a successful newsroom is far from easy. This is exacerbated by a generational shift in newsrooms – many older journalists (from the apartheid era) were socially-committed journalists. But today’s recruits are motivated not by social conscience but by a desire for celebrity (through their by-lines). This creates a form of inter-generational tension between the older senior staffers and the younger staffers who they often have to supervise. Given these issues, it is perhaps not surprising that South African journalism is experiencing a number of quality problems associated with newsroom management. It could be that special training is required to deal with these sorts of issues. What is clear is that there is a lot of room for improvement in contemporary South African journalism. Improving standards will require that both journalism educators and media managers rethink their practices. It also requires that educators and managers work together to develop joint strategies for both upgrading the performance of existing journalists and ensuring that the next generation of journalists is better qualified.

Need of upgrading performance Upgrading the performance of existing journalists will only occur if media managements create the incentives for this to happen. What appears to be required is the creation of graduate diplomas, graduate certificates and even short courses that are specifically designed for upgrading existing media workers. The Sanef audit has already identified the sorts of upgrading programs and courses that are required, namely: • • • •

Media management, human relations and mentoring; Producing stories (including research and writing skills); Language and writing skills (for non-English speakers); Sub-editing (with a special emphasis on how to deal with lowquality copy); • Social studies (drawing on political studies, economics, sociology and history); and • Media law & ethics. If such upgrading programs are to be successful, it would seem desirable that the media industry and selected journalism educators/institutions

112

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work together to identify the most desirable and effective way to create and operation of such programs in terms of content, timing, location, etc. When it comes to ensuring that the next generation of journalists is better qualified, it would seem helpful if those working at universities and technikons began to conceptualize of their job as journalism educators and not journalism trainers. Producing good journalists requires students be taught both technical skills (a training function) and an understanding of politics, economics, law, their society and other societies. The latter is a function of education, not skills-training. The production of competent journalists requires all of these. But if South African journalism is to be improved, it is not simply a function of more and better education. In addition, media employers need to recognize the industry has been complicit in allowing the problems to develop through their tolerance of low standards. The media industry now needs to examine what it can do to improve standards through the following: • Introduce mentoring schemes; • Encourage (by incentive schemes?) both journalists and managers to upgrade themselves via graduate diplomas, graduate certificates and short courses; • Improving the quality of sub-editing; • Work with Journalism educators to ensure that there are places for journalism internships; • Possibly stop employing graduates from institutions who produce poor quality journalists as a way of forcing them to improve their standards; and • Address the problems caused by ‘juniorization’. What is at stake is whether South Africa has a media sector able to produce and circulate the information required to produce an informed citizenry, and to ensure that the government is held accountable to the principles of good governance.

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

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Dr Doug Newsom Professor of Journalism, Texas Christian University, USA [[email protected]]

More than just skills – management and educators need to address new issues The Sanef audit indicates something more fundamental than just skills. At the heart of the problems identified, are issues that need to be addressed by management and educators. Management needs to concentrate on diversity in hiring, gender as well as racial diversity, and rewarding good performers to keep them. Furthermore, they need to give them the tools to help-Internet resources for research, for example, email, and let them use spell check! Educators need to focus on teaching students to think. Improvement in cognitive skills comes from stimulating thought processes and giving students background information to think about. When I taught a workshop in writing for public relations at ML Sultan Technikon in Durban in 1992, the students were primarily black, and I discovered that having been deprived of advanced mathematics for decades, had affected their ability to reason and think abstractly. Despite this, they were catching up and Sultan was teaching engineering. So, helping with the cognitive process is possible.

Responsibility of educators At the skills level, it is the responsibility of educators to get the students internships and to mentor them, even after they leave, because they are not getting critical examination of their work on the job. This is not very different from the US. However, in the US there is an emphasis on internships. That should help South Africa by offering more partnering of education and industry. The universities and technikons might also want to re-examine the diploma process. Initially that was important, but now might be a time to discontinue that except as a continuing education offering. Readers of this report need to address information in the footnotes. Like many reports of this kind, some keys to understanding the facts presented here are in the footnotes. For example, the internship information in footnote 21 and the diploma data in footnote 34. Having been in education many years, it appears that one of the problems in both education and management, but especially management,

114

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is a generation gap. You cannot correct problems unless you understand why the problem occurs. This audit is a valuable tool that both media managers and educators in South Africa need to incorporate in their planning.

Dr Stephen Quinn Director, Center for Media Training and Research, College of Communication and Media Sciences, Zayed University, Dubai, UAE [[email protected]]

It is similar all over the world The conclusions the audit arives at are common to many countries. I've taught journalism in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Hong Kong and now the United Arab Emirates and the issues that the report highlights are common in those countries as well. Some thoughts in relation to the conclusions: The lack of basic practical skills can be improved through inhouse and online training courses. But journlists need time to devote to them. Managers must be willing to invest in their staff, and actively encourage (and pay for) people to attend courses. If newspapers are to become exciting places to work, they must foster the development of intellectual capital among the staff. The lack of language skills can be helped by encouraging people to read widely and often from an early age. Lock away the television. Give children rewards to spend at least an hour reading. With time they will find their own rewards in reading. People cannot write unless they have read. The lack of conceptual skills is usually the result of an education system that focusses too much on skills and training, and not enough on education. Things people learn at university by studying philosophy, economics, poetry, history and the like become important years later. The lack of life skills? Can't comment here because I don't know enough about the environment in which people grow up. One option that some countries adopt is to employ older people as reporters (in their late 20s and early 30s), after they've done some growing up doing something else. Media ethics and law are best learned experientially - on the job combined with a chance to reflect - rather than at tertiary institutions where students can only relate to these subjects as theory. So media or-

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

113

Dr Doug Newsom Professor of Journalism, Texas Christian University, USA [[email protected]]

More than just skills – management and educators need to address new issues The Sanef audit indicates something more fundamental than just skills. At the heart of the problems identified, are issues that need to be addressed by management and educators. Management needs to concentrate on diversity in hiring, gender as well as racial diversity, and rewarding good performers to keep them. Furthermore, they need to give them the tools to help-Internet resources for research, for example, email, and let them use spell check! Educators need to focus on teaching students to think. Improvement in cognitive skills comes from stimulating thought processes and giving students background information to think about. When I taught a workshop in writing for public relations at ML Sultan Technikon in Durban in 1992, the students were primarily black, and I discovered that having been deprived of advanced mathematics for decades, had affected their ability to reason and think abstractly. Despite this, they were catching up and Sultan was teaching engineering. So, helping with the cognitive process is possible.

Responsibility of educators At the skills level, it is the responsibility of educators to get the students internships and to mentor them, even after they leave, because they are not getting critical examination of their work on the job. This is not very different from the US. However, in the US there is an emphasis on internships. That should help South Africa by offering more partnering of education and industry. The universities and technikons might also want to re-examine the diploma process. Initially that was important, but now might be a time to discontinue that except as a continuing education offering. Readers of this report need to address information in the footnotes. Like many reports of this kind, some keys to understanding the facts presented here are in the footnotes. For example, the internship information in footnote 21 and the diploma data in footnote 34. Having been in education many years, it appears that one of the problems in both education and management, but especially management,

114

Ecquid Novi

is a generation gap. You cannot correct problems unless you understand why the problem occurs. This audit is a valuable tool that both media managers and educators in South Africa need to incorporate in their planning.

Dr Stephen Quinn Director, Center for Media Training and Research, College of Communication and Media Sciences, Zayed University, Dubai, UAE [[email protected]]

It is similar all over the world The conclusions the audit arives at are common to many countries. I've taught journalism in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Hong Kong and now the United Arab Emirates and the issues that the report highlights are common in those countries as well. Some thoughts in relation to the conclusions: The lack of basic practical skills can be improved through inhouse and online training courses. But journlists need time to devote to them. Managers must be willing to invest in their staff, and actively encourage (and pay for) people to attend courses. If newspapers are to become exciting places to work, they must foster the development of intellectual capital among the staff. The lack of language skills can be helped by encouraging people to read widely and often from an early age. Lock away the television. Give children rewards to spend at least an hour reading. With time they will find their own rewards in reading. People cannot write unless they have read. The lack of conceptual skills is usually the result of an education system that focusses too much on skills and training, and not enough on education. Things people learn at university by studying philosophy, economics, poetry, history and the like become important years later. The lack of life skills? Can't comment here because I don't know enough about the environment in which people grow up. One option that some countries adopt is to employ older people as reporters (in their late 20s and early 30s), after they've done some growing up doing something else. Media ethics and law are best learned experientially - on the job combined with a chance to reflect - rather than at tertiary institutions where students can only relate to these subjects as theory. So media or-

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

115

ganisations need to invest in training courses for their staff. Short and often are probably better than one long session.

Dr Lizette Rabe Professor and head: Department of Journalism, Stellenbosch University, South Africa [[email protected]]

The Fourth Estate under siege – a call for synergy The importance of a skilled journalistic corps in any country, but especially in a country described as a ‘fledgling democracy’, such as ours, cannot be stressed enough. A society in transformation needs well-trained and well-educated journalists. But also a responsible media management that acknowledges the role it plays to ensure professional day to day journalism practice in our newsrooms once these professionally trained and educated journalists become their responsibility. A synergistic relationship, in other words, is needed between media trainers and educators and media management. The researchers, Steyn & De Beer (2002), must be congratulated with well-researched and thorough work – something long overdue in the media industry in South Africa. Although the report has opened many issues for discussion, I want to concentrate on what I regard as the core problem to the current situation: the role that media management should play in addressing the issues. The focus of my commentary therefore would be what I see as the core malady of our industry: bottom-line driven journalism. Doug Underwood’s fears of When MBAs rule the newsroom (1995) have come true – as elsewhere in the world – also in South Africa. The ‘question of margins’ (Laventhol, 2001:18) is blinding managers, resulting in the current state of affairs in newsrooms. The mere fact that Sanef could not raise the funding for this research through South African media groups, is indicative of the real problem. That funding from abroad had to be used to identify a South Africa specific problem, indicates just how serious the problem is.

116

Ecquid Novi

A big challenge for media management The report states that the present challenges facing the media as far as news coverage is concerned, are to be found in reporters’ skills to properly perform the task at hand (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:1). My conclusion is that the biggest challenge for media is for management to acknowledge the fact that there are serious problems in our newsrooms. This must get attention as a priority strategy – before the number crunching even begins. The majority of the problems identified, but especially findings such as juniorisation, is a media management issue. Training and education institutions can do just that: train and educate a new generation of journalists. But, they are still beginners. News/media managers cannot expect juniors to do complex assignments. Yet, this happens, because there are no experienced journalists available; because management have not cared for and nurtured them enough. Especially in South Africa, where we have such a complex society in transition, juniors are bound to make mistakes because they just do not have the experience and exposure needed for more complex news stories. This anecdote as an illustration: a junior applies for a senior editorial position. The applicant wants a reference from a journalist under whom she has worked for a short time. The referee declines to give a reference, saying that it is impossible for the applicant to perform as is expected for the position, purely because of a lack of experience. Unfortunately, many inexperienced applicants do get such positions – as we know too well. We see the results on our front pages. The resulting – and justifiable – mistrust from government (although, of course, there must always be healthy mistrust between government and media) is one aspect. The resulting mistrust of our audiences is a much bigger issue.

Hostility towards the media Hostility towards the media is apparently bigger than ever before. The public’s contempt for media, as can be concluded from a recent SABC programme (Kloot, 2002:9) is much more serious. A ‘public sense of betrayal’ (Fibich, 1995:18) is evident. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll in the USA in January 2001 found that 50% of adults had either ‘somewhat negative’ of ‘very negative’ impressions of the media. A survey by the Times Mirror Center compared views of the media among the public and the press. An overwhelming 80% of national journalists and 75% of local

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

115

ganisations need to invest in training courses for their staff. Short and often are probably better than one long session.

Dr Lizette Rabe Professor and head: Department of Journalism, Stellenbosch University, South Africa [[email protected]]

The Fourth Estate under siege – a call for synergy The importance of a skilled journalistic corps in any country, but especially in a country described as a ‘fledgling democracy’, such as ours, cannot be stressed enough. A society in transformation needs well-trained and well-educated journalists. But also a responsible media management that acknowledges the role it plays to ensure professional day to day journalism practice in our newsrooms once these professionally trained and educated journalists become their responsibility. A synergistic relationship, in other words, is needed between media trainers and educators and media management. The researchers, Steyn & De Beer (2002), must be congratulated with well-researched and thorough work – something long overdue in the media industry in South Africa. Although the report has opened many issues for discussion, I want to concentrate on what I regard as the core problem to the current situation: the role that media management should play in addressing the issues. The focus of my commentary therefore would be what I see as the core malady of our industry: bottom-line driven journalism. Doug Underwood’s fears of When MBAs rule the newsroom (1995) have come true – as elsewhere in the world – also in South Africa. The ‘question of margins’ (Laventhol, 2001:18) is blinding managers, resulting in the current state of affairs in newsrooms. The mere fact that Sanef could not raise the funding for this research through South African media groups, is indicative of the real problem. That funding from abroad had to be used to identify a South Africa specific problem, indicates just how serious the problem is.

116

Ecquid Novi

A big challenge for media management The report states that the present challenges facing the media as far as news coverage is concerned, are to be found in reporters’ skills to properly perform the task at hand (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:1). My conclusion is that the biggest challenge for media is for management to acknowledge the fact that there are serious problems in our newsrooms. This must get attention as a priority strategy – before the number crunching even begins. The majority of the problems identified, but especially findings such as juniorisation, is a media management issue. Training and education institutions can do just that: train and educate a new generation of journalists. But, they are still beginners. News/media managers cannot expect juniors to do complex assignments. Yet, this happens, because there are no experienced journalists available; because management have not cared for and nurtured them enough. Especially in South Africa, where we have such a complex society in transition, juniors are bound to make mistakes because they just do not have the experience and exposure needed for more complex news stories. This anecdote as an illustration: a junior applies for a senior editorial position. The applicant wants a reference from a journalist under whom she has worked for a short time. The referee declines to give a reference, saying that it is impossible for the applicant to perform as is expected for the position, purely because of a lack of experience. Unfortunately, many inexperienced applicants do get such positions – as we know too well. We see the results on our front pages. The resulting – and justifiable – mistrust from government (although, of course, there must always be healthy mistrust between government and media) is one aspect. The resulting mistrust of our audiences is a much bigger issue.

Hostility towards the media Hostility towards the media is apparently bigger than ever before. The public’s contempt for media, as can be concluded from a recent SABC programme (Kloot, 2002:9) is much more serious. A ‘public sense of betrayal’ (Fibich, 1995:18) is evident. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll in the USA in January 2001 found that 50% of adults had either ‘somewhat negative’ of ‘very negative’ impressions of the media. A survey by the Times Mirror Center compared views of the media among the public and the press. An overwhelming 80% of national journalists and 75% of local

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

117

press agreed that ‘too little attention is paid to complex issues’ (Fibich, 2000:19). The Sanef report has made many similar findings in our country. South Africa, however, has a much more diverse set of complexities. Society is in a complete transition, and journalists must be educated (conceptual skills) and trained (practical skills) to understand these changes to enable them to report in an accurate, fair, informed and responsible way. Yes, education and training institutions will have to revise curricula to ensure beginner journalists are equipped with the conceptual and practical skills needed to deliver productive juniors. Curricula must be ‘tested’ in the newsrooms. The 2002 honours class (BPhil Journalism) of the postgraduate department of journalism at the University of Stellenbosch was awarded an average of 82% by the media industry for their compulsory internships. This is, amongst others, thanks to the approach of teaching professional skills by skilled professionals. Stellenbosch is also already working on introducing the much needed ‘Life Skills’ in its course, as identified as an issue to be addressed on tertiary level in the Sanef report. But: media management must acknowledge its responsibility in providing the platform for good journalism. Management needs to address the following issues: • create news-room environments where beginners will be mentored, where they can grow into the seniors who can, in their turn, nurture the next generation of juniors; • assess certain management values: if people are the biggest resources a company can have – treat them that way; • acknowledge the conditions and circumstances under which media practitioners work and which they have to cope with – eg. supply trauma counselling on a regular basis; • budgets that would keep experienced journalists in the newsrooms and that would provide for training courses; • become more involved in tertiary programmes to ensure industryspecific, well-trained beginners – financially involved as well as in terms of curricula planning. The synergy between Stellenbosch and Media24 is a good example of what can be achieved; this is partly why Stellenbosch could be identified in Sanef’s report as one of the ‘centres of excellence’. As Joseph Pulitzer (1904), father of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, on which the Stellenbosch school is modelled, once said:

118

Ecquid Novi

Our Republic and its press will rise or fall together. An able, disinterested, public spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery. A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself. The power to mould the future of the republic will be in the hands of the journalists of future generations. In South Africa the issues are more complex. The Sanef report has for instance just touched on another pressing issue in South African media: diversity, also gender diversity – not only of media producers, but also representations. Just one recent example: in one single sports news bulletin on SABC TV, tennis player Anna Kournikova was twice referred to in a derogatory way which had nothing to do with her abilities as an athlete, but her appearance (SABC2, 2002). The Fourth Estate owes it to society to get its house in order. An informed society is an empowered society – our country needs professional journalists who can act in a professional way according to the demands of our profession. But media houses are the first in line to enable the profession to do just that. Synergy between media academe and media industry can ensure that the minds (conceptual skills) and the hands (practical skills) are in place to ensure the well-being of the Fourth Estate. Through this synergy, we will be able to keep the heart of our profession intact.

Practical solutions And now for some practical solutions: • That every publication/news institution appoints an ombudsperson and publicise it widely; • That the ombudsperson’s phone number and e-mail address is prominent in a box on the front page. Yes, a lack of space can be problematic, but it can be the size of the bar code, and there is always space for that, isn’t there? The ombudsperson’s box should be as important as the bar code: the latter for the financial wellbeing of the paper, the other for the moral well-being. Consumers should be encouraged to bring everything, including the misspelling of names, to the attention of the publication; • That senior journalists, as part of their job description, each gets a junior journalist assigned whom they can mentor. This should not

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

117

press agreed that ‘too little attention is paid to complex issues’ (Fibich, 2000:19). The Sanef report has made many similar findings in our country. South Africa, however, has a much more diverse set of complexities. Society is in a complete transition, and journalists must be educated (conceptual skills) and trained (practical skills) to understand these changes to enable them to report in an accurate, fair, informed and responsible way. Yes, education and training institutions will have to revise curricula to ensure beginner journalists are equipped with the conceptual and practical skills needed to deliver productive juniors. Curricula must be ‘tested’ in the newsrooms. The 2002 honours class (BPhil Journalism) of the postgraduate department of journalism at the University of Stellenbosch was awarded an average of 82% by the media industry for their compulsory internships. This is, amongst others, thanks to the approach of teaching professional skills by skilled professionals. Stellenbosch is also already working on introducing the much needed ‘Life Skills’ in its course, as identified as an issue to be addressed on tertiary level in the Sanef report. But: media management must acknowledge its responsibility in providing the platform for good journalism. Management needs to address the following issues: • create news-room environments where beginners will be mentored, where they can grow into the seniors who can, in their turn, nurture the next generation of juniors; • assess certain management values: if people are the biggest resources a company can have – treat them that way; • acknowledge the conditions and circumstances under which media practitioners work and which they have to cope with – eg. supply trauma counselling on a regular basis; • budgets that would keep experienced journalists in the newsrooms and that would provide for training courses; • become more involved in tertiary programmes to ensure industryspecific, well-trained beginners – financially involved as well as in terms of curricula planning. The synergy between Stellenbosch and Media24 is a good example of what can be achieved; this is partly why Stellenbosch could be identified in Sanef’s report as one of the ‘centres of excellence’. As Joseph Pulitzer (1904), father of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, on which the Stellenbosch school is modelled, once said:

118

Ecquid Novi

Our Republic and its press will rise or fall together. An able, disinterested, public spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery. A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself. The power to mould the future of the republic will be in the hands of the journalists of future generations. In South Africa the issues are more complex. The Sanef report has for instance just touched on another pressing issue in South African media: diversity, also gender diversity – not only of media producers, but also representations. Just one recent example: in one single sports news bulletin on SABC TV, tennis player Anna Kournikova was twice referred to in a derogatory way which had nothing to do with her abilities as an athlete, but her appearance (SABC2, 2002). The Fourth Estate owes it to society to get its house in order. An informed society is an empowered society – our country needs professional journalists who can act in a professional way according to the demands of our profession. But media houses are the first in line to enable the profession to do just that. Synergy between media academe and media industry can ensure that the minds (conceptual skills) and the hands (practical skills) are in place to ensure the well-being of the Fourth Estate. Through this synergy, we will be able to keep the heart of our profession intact.

Practical solutions And now for some practical solutions: • That every publication/news institution appoints an ombudsperson and publicise it widely; • That the ombudsperson’s phone number and e-mail address is prominent in a box on the front page. Yes, a lack of space can be problematic, but it can be the size of the bar code, and there is always space for that, isn’t there? The ombudsperson’s box should be as important as the bar code: the latter for the financial wellbeing of the paper, the other for the moral well-being. Consumers should be encouraged to bring everything, including the misspelling of names, to the attention of the publication; • That senior journalists, as part of their job description, each gets a junior journalist assigned whom they can mentor. This should not

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

119

be ad hoc, but something the senior must also be assessed on in terms of performance evaluation.

References Steyn, E. & De Beer, A.S. 2002. Sanef’s ‘2002 South African National Journalism Skills Audit’. Unpublished report, prepared for the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) and the Sanef Education and Training Committee (ETC). May 2002. Fibich, L. 1995. Under Siege. American Journalism Review. September 1995:16-23. Kloot, L. 2002. Media has a lot of cleaning up to do if it is to avoid taking the blame for society’s problems. Cape Times, 2002-05-29:09. Laventhol, David. 2001. Profit Pressures. Columbia Journalism Review. May/June 2001:18-22. Pulitzer, J. 1904. North American Review. May 1904. Quotation as on the plaque in the lobby of the Columbia School of Journalism, New York. SABC2. 2002. Newsbulletin. 2002-05-29:7 pm. Underwood, Doug. 1995. When MBAs rule the newsroom. New York: Columbia University Press.

Lynette Steenveld Independent Newspapers Chair of Media Transformation, Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University. [[email protected]]

Key issues need renewed discussion about the media’s role in our new democracy The need for communication in a democracy The South African Human Rights Commission’s (HRC) Inquiry into Racism in the Media (1999), its subsequent Media Hearings (March 2000), followed by its report, Faultlines: Inquiry into Racism in the Media (August 2000), and all the media debates, workshops and conferences which have emanated from this process, have posed fundamental questions about the role of the media in a newly democratised state. To understand the importance of the media in this new (for South Africa) social context, it might be helpful to review some key ideas about democracy and citizenship. Briefly, (liberal) ‘democracy’ is a form of state based on the ideal of the participation of all its citizens in the arrangements for their self-governance. Citizenship describes the condition of one’s membership, and 3 main dimensions of citizenship have been

120

Ecquid Novi

identified, with their associated rights and the institutional means for securing them (Murdock & Golding 1989:181; Dahlgren 2000:317). The first of these sets of rights is political rights, which ensures the rights of democratic participation in the exercise of political power. The second set of citizenship rights, civil rights guarantee the individual’s freedom within ‘civil society’. And social rights secure members’ general life circumstances within the state, and refer to such areas as social security, welfare, education, health care etc. In other words, social rights refer to ‘the whole range from the right to a modicum of economic welfare and security to the right to share to the full in the social heritage and to live the life of a civilized being according to the standards prevailing in society’ (Marshall, T.E. qtd. Murdock & Golding 1989:182). This range of rights was what the struggle for South African citizenship was about, and what was potentially signified by the 1994 elections. The importance of communication in relation to citizenship, is that it is one of the means by which citizenship is developed and secured. Communications are necessary for making citizens aware of their rights; they provide access to the variety of information citizens need to make informed political decisions; and they provide the means through which citizens ‘recognize themselves and their aspirations in the range of representations’ which confirm and construct their personhood, and their identity as citizens (Golding & Murdock 1989:183). The media are judged by the extent to which they facilitate and promote the various dimensions of citizenship. These were the kinds of issues that were aired in various ways in the public domain - in newspaper articles, letters to editors, radio talk shows, within media organizations, within media education institutions - and no doubt, in private homes as well. In this review paper I will briefly focus on two media research initiatives that were a response to the perceived ‘state of the media’ as highlighted by the HRC’s Inquiry. The first, chronologically, was a colloquium boldly titled ‘Training for Media Transformation and Democracy’, which I jointly organised with Sanef in October 2000. The second was a National Skills Audit commissioned by Sanef (and its Education and Training sub-committee) in early 2002. Both were concerned with the state of South African journalism, and both implicitly saw ‘media training’ as a ‘remedy’.

Colloquium: Training for Media Transformation and Democracy The Colloquium was organised as a response to various changes taking place in the media industry. Collectively, the problems are discussed as

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

119

be ad hoc, but something the senior must also be assessed on in terms of performance evaluation.

References Steyn, E. & De Beer, A.S. 2002. Sanef’s ‘2002 South African National Journalism Skills Audit’. Unpublished report, prepared for the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) and the Sanef Education and Training Committee (ETC). May 2002. Fibich, L. 1995. Under Siege. American Journalism Review. September 1995:16-23. Kloot, L. 2002. Media has a lot of cleaning up to do if it is to avoid taking the blame for society’s problems. Cape Times, 2002-05-29:09. Laventhol, David. 2001. Profit Pressures. Columbia Journalism Review. May/June 2001:18-22. Pulitzer, J. 1904. North American Review. May 1904. Quotation as on the plaque in the lobby of the Columbia School of Journalism, New York. SABC2. 2002. Newsbulletin. 2002-05-29:7 pm. Underwood, Doug. 1995. When MBAs rule the newsroom. New York: Columbia University Press.

Lynette Steenveld Independent Newspapers Chair of Media Transformation, Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University. [[email protected]]

Key issues need renewed discussion about the media’s role in our new democracy The need for communication in a democracy The South African Human Rights Commission’s (HRC) Inquiry into Racism in the Media (1999), its subsequent Media Hearings (March 2000), followed by its report, Faultlines: Inquiry into Racism in the Media (August 2000), and all the media debates, workshops and conferences which have emanated from this process, have posed fundamental questions about the role of the media in a newly democratised state. To understand the importance of the media in this new (for South Africa) social context, it might be helpful to review some key ideas about democracy and citizenship. Briefly, (liberal) ‘democracy’ is a form of state based on the ideal of the participation of all its citizens in the arrangements for their self-governance. Citizenship describes the condition of one’s membership, and 3 main dimensions of citizenship have been

120

Ecquid Novi

identified, with their associated rights and the institutional means for securing them (Murdock & Golding 1989:181; Dahlgren 2000:317). The first of these sets of rights is political rights, which ensures the rights of democratic participation in the exercise of political power. The second set of citizenship rights, civil rights guarantee the individual’s freedom within ‘civil society’. And social rights secure members’ general life circumstances within the state, and refer to such areas as social security, welfare, education, health care etc. In other words, social rights refer to ‘the whole range from the right to a modicum of economic welfare and security to the right to share to the full in the social heritage and to live the life of a civilized being according to the standards prevailing in society’ (Marshall, T.E. qtd. Murdock & Golding 1989:182). This range of rights was what the struggle for South African citizenship was about, and what was potentially signified by the 1994 elections. The importance of communication in relation to citizenship, is that it is one of the means by which citizenship is developed and secured. Communications are necessary for making citizens aware of their rights; they provide access to the variety of information citizens need to make informed political decisions; and they provide the means through which citizens ‘recognize themselves and their aspirations in the range of representations’ which confirm and construct their personhood, and their identity as citizens (Golding & Murdock 1989:183). The media are judged by the extent to which they facilitate and promote the various dimensions of citizenship. These were the kinds of issues that were aired in various ways in the public domain - in newspaper articles, letters to editors, radio talk shows, within media organizations, within media education institutions - and no doubt, in private homes as well. In this review paper I will briefly focus on two media research initiatives that were a response to the perceived ‘state of the media’ as highlighted by the HRC’s Inquiry. The first, chronologically, was a colloquium boldly titled ‘Training for Media Transformation and Democracy’, which I jointly organised with Sanef in October 2000. The second was a National Skills Audit commissioned by Sanef (and its Education and Training sub-committee) in early 2002. Both were concerned with the state of South African journalism, and both implicitly saw ‘media training’ as a ‘remedy’.

Colloquium: Training for Media Transformation and Democracy The Colloquium was organised as a response to various changes taking place in the media industry. Collectively, the problems are discussed as

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

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the need for the ‘transformation’ of the industry. This is often articulated as relating to media ownership (understood specifically as more Black ownership), staffing (a need for equitable staffing in terms of colour and gender), and content (that media should reflect the interests of all South Africans, not specific groups). These macro concerns are experienced within newsrooms in the following ways: • a perception of the ‘juniorisation’ of newsrooms, and a consequent loss of editorial leadership and mentorship; • a tightening of belts within newsrooms which leads to a more pressurised production cycle, with less time for thought and reflection - leading to questions about the ‘quality’ of South African journalism and what is needed to be done to improve it; • calls for more equitable staffing within newsrooms in terms of colour and gender; and • concerns about the relationship between staffing and content (for a full account of the Colloquium, see Steenveld, 2002). One of the assumptions of the Colloquium was that ‘the cornerstones of a democratic media system are greater and more diverse access to the media, and thus a diversity of expression within the media system’ (Steenveld 2002, 10). Our rationale was that we needed to understand the social context, and the social dynamics and relationship between the key constituents in order to begin to understand where ‘training’, and what kind of ‘training,’ could enable the hoped for ‘transformation’ of the media. We called it a ‘colloquium’, a ‘talking together’, as the idea was to use our collective experiences and understandings of the current state of the media to provide a staging post from which we could begin to plan the kinds of improvements that were deemed necessary. The participants thus included members of civil society organisations, media owners/managers, editors, journalists, and media educators/trainers. Four distinct perspectives were elicited: that of management, editors, trainers/educators, and informed critique (National Community Radio Forum, the Gender Commission, independent ‘left-wing’ journalist, independent foreign journalist/trainer). We also had four ‘work-shopped’ sessions: training, research, news values, and the newsroom as a training environment. In this way, we hoped to capture the views of the various constituencies that had a stake in ‘transforming’ the media, and in this sense, the Colloquium could be seen as a form of qualitative research.

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Key views on the ‘state’ of the media These emerged from the various discussions, and are grouped thematically. Many of the statements about the media are expressed in terms of what ‘ought’ or ‘should happen’, and this is perhaps indicative of what is absent from the media. The following is an excerpt from the recorded discussions (Steenveld, 2000:91-92). The role of the media, and transformation • Media’s transformation role was discussed in terms of its potential, not actual, achievements; • Media should act as catalyst in the transformation of society; • Media coverage should be progressively tilted towards the poor and marginalised communities; • Gender issues should be mainstreamed. Media practitioners should monitor and challenge their peers - its shouldn’t only be left to women; • Media are not neutral conveyors of information. They promote values and points of view. Because of this they have a powerful role to play in the democratisation process; • Media are potentially vehicles for making voices heard. This positive aspect should be harnessed for transformation; • We need freedom of expression for all - we cannot afford to have the forces of racism pushed underground; • Media should highlight social ills; • Two media products (the Mail & Guardian and AM Live) were identified as having small audiences, but as being significant media; • Community radio also made a case for being small, but effective. Transformation of the media • No one can now pretend that they don’t know that the media need transformation; • Purported difference noted between ‘black’ and ‘white’ media practitioners: ‘white media’ were deemed to come from the perspective where press freedom, editorial independence and respect for the law are over-riding concerns; whereas ‘black practitioners’ expressed the need to take from the history of liberation journalism and contextualise in terms of community needs, not press freedom.

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the need for the ‘transformation’ of the industry. This is often articulated as relating to media ownership (understood specifically as more Black ownership), staffing (a need for equitable staffing in terms of colour and gender), and content (that media should reflect the interests of all South Africans, not specific groups). These macro concerns are experienced within newsrooms in the following ways: • a perception of the ‘juniorisation’ of newsrooms, and a consequent loss of editorial leadership and mentorship; • a tightening of belts within newsrooms which leads to a more pressurised production cycle, with less time for thought and reflection - leading to questions about the ‘quality’ of South African journalism and what is needed to be done to improve it; • calls for more equitable staffing within newsrooms in terms of colour and gender; and • concerns about the relationship between staffing and content (for a full account of the Colloquium, see Steenveld, 2002). One of the assumptions of the Colloquium was that ‘the cornerstones of a democratic media system are greater and more diverse access to the media, and thus a diversity of expression within the media system’ (Steenveld 2002, 10). Our rationale was that we needed to understand the social context, and the social dynamics and relationship between the key constituents in order to begin to understand where ‘training’, and what kind of ‘training,’ could enable the hoped for ‘transformation’ of the media. We called it a ‘colloquium’, a ‘talking together’, as the idea was to use our collective experiences and understandings of the current state of the media to provide a staging post from which we could begin to plan the kinds of improvements that were deemed necessary. The participants thus included members of civil society organisations, media owners/managers, editors, journalists, and media educators/trainers. Four distinct perspectives were elicited: that of management, editors, trainers/educators, and informed critique (National Community Radio Forum, the Gender Commission, independent ‘left-wing’ journalist, independent foreign journalist/trainer). We also had four ‘work-shopped’ sessions: training, research, news values, and the newsroom as a training environment. In this way, we hoped to capture the views of the various constituencies that had a stake in ‘transforming’ the media, and in this sense, the Colloquium could be seen as a form of qualitative research.

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Key views on the ‘state’ of the media These emerged from the various discussions, and are grouped thematically. Many of the statements about the media are expressed in terms of what ‘ought’ or ‘should happen’, and this is perhaps indicative of what is absent from the media. The following is an excerpt from the recorded discussions (Steenveld, 2000:91-92). The role of the media, and transformation • Media’s transformation role was discussed in terms of its potential, not actual, achievements; • Media should act as catalyst in the transformation of society; • Media coverage should be progressively tilted towards the poor and marginalised communities; • Gender issues should be mainstreamed. Media practitioners should monitor and challenge their peers - its shouldn’t only be left to women; • Media are not neutral conveyors of information. They promote values and points of view. Because of this they have a powerful role to play in the democratisation process; • Media are potentially vehicles for making voices heard. This positive aspect should be harnessed for transformation; • We need freedom of expression for all - we cannot afford to have the forces of racism pushed underground; • Media should highlight social ills; • Two media products (the Mail & Guardian and AM Live) were identified as having small audiences, but as being significant media; • Community radio also made a case for being small, but effective. Transformation of the media • No one can now pretend that they don’t know that the media need transformation; • Purported difference noted between ‘black’ and ‘white’ media practitioners: ‘white media’ were deemed to come from the perspective where press freedom, editorial independence and respect for the law are over-riding concerns; whereas ‘black practitioners’ expressed the need to take from the history of liberation journalism and contextualise in terms of community needs, not press freedom.

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Good Journalism • • • • •

A transforming society means a transforming readership Not sycophantic, but courageous; Based on sound ethics; Well-researched and informed about subject matter; Well-crafted technically; Truthful, responsible and gender sensitive.

• What’s news is what happens that matters to us as citizens; • ‘We’ are diverse; • Keep an ear to the ground: write/broadcast for all of us. The fundamentals: A passion for journalism

Broader contextual factors to be considered • Economic context and globalisation create demands that can be in conflict with the ethics of journalism; • There wasn’t a common understanding of what was meant by a ‘democratic’ state; • Relationship between the government and media was highlighted, but it was noted that the relationship between the media and the private sector is equally important; • The advertising sector is in urgent need of transformation, since it has a powerful influence on audiences and is not guided by any policy; • Role of community radio: variously seen as a ‘threat’, or ‘important’, especially pre-elections; • Impact of the new media on the organisation of the media sector; • Culture of curiosity is absent; • ‘Poaching’ of journalists a problem for organisations. Key views on media training Start at the top • ‘Training’ is a means to effect change: get a buy-in from all concerned; put everyone in the picture; see it holistically; • Clarify what needs to change, and how ‘training’ can effect that change; • Leadership should not be exempt from ‘training’; • Change is stressful: create structures and processes that take this into account; • Training becomes effective when the leadership enables journalists to practise the skills they have learnt; • The paradox: the change agent should also be responsible for putting the brakes on if the integrity of journalism is to be preserved.

• • • • • • • • • • •

Mentoring: pass on what you know; support junior colleagues; Promote a culture of curiosity; Emphasise research before going out on a story; Better note-taking; Better interviewing skills; Finding the news; Developing a network of sources; Getting more sources into stories; Developing follow-up questions, and follow-ups to the follow-up; Develop ‘beat’ expertise; Value and promote critical thinking.

As noted above, implicit in these views about the kind of training that’s needed, is a view of the current short-comings of the media. Many of these views are supported by the findings of the Sanef Audit.

The Sanef Audit According to Sanef, the Audit ‘arose from a concern about the quality and standard of journalism in this country, and a need to establish the extent of the problem and ways of dealing with it’ (http://www.sanef.org.za). In view of this, the organisation commissioned Scribe Communications to ‘audit’ the media industry. ‘The purpose … was to conduct a situation analysis of journalism reporting, writing, and accuracy skills among reporters with between 2-5 years experience. Fieldwork (consisting of news evaluations, questionnaires and interviews) was conducted at media sites in Durban, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Cape Town’ (http://www.sanef.org). [For the full Research Report, see Scribe’s website: http://www.scribe.co.za] The audit raised issues that journalists and trainers are themselves aware of. However, for many, both within the media and the media education/training community, it provided ‘hard’ evidence that gave ‘scien-

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Good Journalism • • • • •

A transforming society means a transforming readership Not sycophantic, but courageous; Based on sound ethics; Well-researched and informed about subject matter; Well-crafted technically; Truthful, responsible and gender sensitive.

• What’s news is what happens that matters to us as citizens; • ‘We’ are diverse; • Keep an ear to the ground: write/broadcast for all of us. The fundamentals: A passion for journalism

Broader contextual factors to be considered • Economic context and globalisation create demands that can be in conflict with the ethics of journalism; • There wasn’t a common understanding of what was meant by a ‘democratic’ state; • Relationship between the government and media was highlighted, but it was noted that the relationship between the media and the private sector is equally important; • The advertising sector is in urgent need of transformation, since it has a powerful influence on audiences and is not guided by any policy; • Role of community radio: variously seen as a ‘threat’, or ‘important’, especially pre-elections; • Impact of the new media on the organisation of the media sector; • Culture of curiosity is absent; • ‘Poaching’ of journalists a problem for organisations. Key views on media training Start at the top • ‘Training’ is a means to effect change: get a buy-in from all concerned; put everyone in the picture; see it holistically; • Clarify what needs to change, and how ‘training’ can effect that change; • Leadership should not be exempt from ‘training’; • Change is stressful: create structures and processes that take this into account; • Training becomes effective when the leadership enables journalists to practise the skills they have learnt; • The paradox: the change agent should also be responsible for putting the brakes on if the integrity of journalism is to be preserved.

• • • • • • • • • • •

Mentoring: pass on what you know; support junior colleagues; Promote a culture of curiosity; Emphasise research before going out on a story; Better note-taking; Better interviewing skills; Finding the news; Developing a network of sources; Getting more sources into stories; Developing follow-up questions, and follow-ups to the follow-up; Develop ‘beat’ expertise; Value and promote critical thinking.

As noted above, implicit in these views about the kind of training that’s needed, is a view of the current short-comings of the media. Many of these views are supported by the findings of the Sanef Audit.

The Sanef Audit According to Sanef, the Audit ‘arose from a concern about the quality and standard of journalism in this country, and a need to establish the extent of the problem and ways of dealing with it’ (http://www.sanef.org.za). In view of this, the organisation commissioned Scribe Communications to ‘audit’ the media industry. ‘The purpose … was to conduct a situation analysis of journalism reporting, writing, and accuracy skills among reporters with between 2-5 years experience. Fieldwork (consisting of news evaluations, questionnaires and interviews) was conducted at media sites in Durban, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Cape Town’ (http://www.sanef.org). [For the full Research Report, see Scribe’s website: http://www.scribe.co.za] The audit raised issues that journalists and trainers are themselves aware of. However, for many, both within the media and the media education/training community, it provided ‘hard’ evidence that gave ‘scien-

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tific’ weight to their existing perceptions. I will briefly comment on key issues raised by the audit.

therefore, the findings are better read as qualitative indicators, than as quantitative ones.

Research methodology

Some significant findings on the industry’s role

All quantitative research stands or falls by its methodology. As noted above, the aim of the research was to focus on the skills of journalists with 2-5 years experience. However this criterion was not met (Scribe, 2002:3), so there are serious inconsistencies in the surveyed sample that make quantifiable findings impossible. The authors write that the ‘…emphasis was on getting cooperation from at least 5 reporters per site, whether they were falling in the 2-5 years group or not’ (8), and later in the Report, mention is made of journalists with 10 years experience (25). This is problematic as the findings are treated as if they relate to the 2-5 years experience sample. Also, cognisance needs to be taken of the fact that only 112 reporters in all were sampled, and we don’t know what percentage of the total population of reporters (falling into what range of experience) this is. Another methodological inconsistency relates to the self-administered questionnaires that were used to test the journalists’ general knowledge. The Report notes that ‘…a number of instances were recorded where reporters either asked colleagues what the correct answer to the questions would be, or used external resources (eg. the Internet) to obtain answers’ (11). This in itself invalidates the use of data obtained from all these questionnaires, as no information is reported about at what stage this was found out, and whether material from these sites was discarded; or the extent to which this was a problem. [The lesson to be learnt from this is that such questionnaires need to be administered by the research team - the self-administered method is inappropriate]. Given these short-comings, the researchers are quite clear that the findings cannot be used as the basis to make generalisations about the industry as a whole (4, 11). However, having noted this, there is still a tendency to make generalisations about the findings. For example, general comparisons are made about journalists from different regions with regards to particular findings (such as general knowledge or accuracy etc.), but not the same number of reporters was surveyed from each region. Given that ‘the number of reporters ranged per site from 1-5, with an average of between 3 and 4 per site’ (8), such comparisons cannot be made. In view of these methodological problems, all reference to the quantification of the findings is ignored. Rather, as the authors of the Report suggest, the findings are used as an indication of significant issues regarding the current state of South African journalism (4). In many ways,

• Macro-level, contextual issues need addressing (9). One such factor is increased production rate: deadlines; increase circulation; produce ‘scoops’(43). The implication is that deadline pressures affect the quality of stories (which is exacerbated by juniorisation, cut in staff, insufficient money for training, no capacity for mentoring). ‘In the case of junior reporters, they also lack the depth of personal knowledge and/or experience on specific issues, exaggerating the situation. One news editor labeled this way of approaching news as a ‘production habit’ rather than a ‘research habit’ (43). This is an interesting distinction, and possibly relates to a distinction between some-one with ‘work experience’ and ‘general knowledge’ (see points made below) vis-à-vis someone who does not have these ‘skills’/‘habits’, but who can compensate for them via newly acquired skills, such as research skills (computer aided research and reporting [CARR], for example). • Minimal role of media themselves in training: ‘Where these skills were found wanting, it was apparent that the news media in general (with some very clear exceptions such as those found at Media24) lack training policies, staff, financial resources and time to adequately address the matter informally through peer-group support or sufficiently through formal in-house training. Limited resources prevent media institutions to take (sic) junior reporters through a (traditional) process of mentoring, guidance, and osmosis through which they can learn the ‘tricks of the trade’ from their senior counterparts’ (2); see also (26). • Mentoring is seen as the ‘preferred’ way of in-house training - despite the fact that this does not happen. (26) [‘learning by osmosis’ from senior peers . (2)] This lack of mentoring, as well as communication between the news editor and reporter, on the one hand, and the sub-editor and reporter on the other hand, could account for the following problem re ‘editorialising’: ‘Editors and news editors stressed that many reporters know very little about the difference between newspaper policy on one hand and the issue of editorialising on the other. Few seem to realize that newspapers do have a particular point of view, which influences not only story or topic

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tific’ weight to their existing perceptions. I will briefly comment on key issues raised by the audit.

therefore, the findings are better read as qualitative indicators, than as quantitative ones.

Research methodology

Some significant findings on the industry’s role

All quantitative research stands or falls by its methodology. As noted above, the aim of the research was to focus on the skills of journalists with 2-5 years experience. However this criterion was not met (Scribe, 2002:3), so there are serious inconsistencies in the surveyed sample that make quantifiable findings impossible. The authors write that the ‘…emphasis was on getting cooperation from at least 5 reporters per site, whether they were falling in the 2-5 years group or not’ (8), and later in the Report, mention is made of journalists with 10 years experience (25). This is problematic as the findings are treated as if they relate to the 2-5 years experience sample. Also, cognisance needs to be taken of the fact that only 112 reporters in all were sampled, and we don’t know what percentage of the total population of reporters (falling into what range of experience) this is. Another methodological inconsistency relates to the self-administered questionnaires that were used to test the journalists’ general knowledge. The Report notes that ‘…a number of instances were recorded where reporters either asked colleagues what the correct answer to the questions would be, or used external resources (eg. the Internet) to obtain answers’ (11). This in itself invalidates the use of data obtained from all these questionnaires, as no information is reported about at what stage this was found out, and whether material from these sites was discarded; or the extent to which this was a problem. [The lesson to be learnt from this is that such questionnaires need to be administered by the research team - the self-administered method is inappropriate]. Given these short-comings, the researchers are quite clear that the findings cannot be used as the basis to make generalisations about the industry as a whole (4, 11). However, having noted this, there is still a tendency to make generalisations about the findings. For example, general comparisons are made about journalists from different regions with regards to particular findings (such as general knowledge or accuracy etc.), but not the same number of reporters was surveyed from each region. Given that ‘the number of reporters ranged per site from 1-5, with an average of between 3 and 4 per site’ (8), such comparisons cannot be made. In view of these methodological problems, all reference to the quantification of the findings is ignored. Rather, as the authors of the Report suggest, the findings are used as an indication of significant issues regarding the current state of South African journalism (4). In many ways,

• Macro-level, contextual issues need addressing (9). One such factor is increased production rate: deadlines; increase circulation; produce ‘scoops’(43). The implication is that deadline pressures affect the quality of stories (which is exacerbated by juniorisation, cut in staff, insufficient money for training, no capacity for mentoring). ‘In the case of junior reporters, they also lack the depth of personal knowledge and/or experience on specific issues, exaggerating the situation. One news editor labeled this way of approaching news as a ‘production habit’ rather than a ‘research habit’ (43). This is an interesting distinction, and possibly relates to a distinction between some-one with ‘work experience’ and ‘general knowledge’ (see points made below) vis-à-vis someone who does not have these ‘skills’/‘habits’, but who can compensate for them via newly acquired skills, such as research skills (computer aided research and reporting [CARR], for example). • Minimal role of media themselves in training: ‘Where these skills were found wanting, it was apparent that the news media in general (with some very clear exceptions such as those found at Media24) lack training policies, staff, financial resources and time to adequately address the matter informally through peer-group support or sufficiently through formal in-house training. Limited resources prevent media institutions to take (sic) junior reporters through a (traditional) process of mentoring, guidance, and osmosis through which they can learn the ‘tricks of the trade’ from their senior counterparts’ (2); see also (26). • Mentoring is seen as the ‘preferred’ way of in-house training - despite the fact that this does not happen. (26) [‘learning by osmosis’ from senior peers . (2)] This lack of mentoring, as well as communication between the news editor and reporter, on the one hand, and the sub-editor and reporter on the other hand, could account for the following problem re ‘editorialising’: ‘Editors and news editors stressed that many reporters know very little about the difference between newspaper policy on one hand and the issue of editorialising on the other. Few seem to realize that newspapers do have a particular point of view, which influences not only story or topic

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choices, but also the presentation of those stories. On the other hand junior and senior reporters at some media tend to think that they could editorialise within an own personal context divorced from the medium’s news policy’ (44). • One of the recommendations of the Report is a call for a ‘wellregulated system of internships’ (63). This would necessitate better communication between the training institutions and the industry with respect to objectives, outcomes, remuneration of students, and feedback. However a key factor in the success of internships is the kind of mentoring that students receive. However, this has been indicated as one of the areas in which the media themselves lack capacity. • The expectations of reporters in the 2-5 years experience category: ‘…reporters should be taught and encouraged to be first with a story, read more, have an open mind towards news events in the world around them, and give a unique angle to a story already carried. They need to be able to be more adaptable, source information from reliable sources and provide a sense of continuity towards a story. If all these elements are attended to sufficiently, reporters will be put in a position where they will be able to provide more/better background information for a story and have a greater sense of other relevant issues in the news environment’ (44). • Juniorisation of the newsrooms (3). ‘Editors identified various causes for this situation, with the majority of newsrooms experiencing a high level of staff turnover’ (3). While reporter salaries were discarded as a factor (3), it could be significant in relation to the findings about the reporters’ work ethic. The Report notes that ‘Although there might be exceptions to this, the majority of younger reporters are of the opinion that their skills and expertise can/should be ‘bought’ for a specific price and that they will render a specific level of performance for the company/organization in return …. As one news editor put it: ‘Journalism has lost its social cause. It used to be about making a difference, now it is about getting rich’ (54). The researchers also note that, ‘deadline pressure might have become a good excuse to not thoroughly investigate all angles, gather all relevant information, and check the correctness of inputs used’ (43).

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Some significant findings of the skills/attitudes of journalists: • More original stories are submitted than follow-ups (42). Further research should be done to try to account for this. Perhaps it indicates that reporters from diverse backgrounds are coming up with stories - or even that as ‘young reporters’ they see stories that others don’t. This should be encouraged and developed. That there are fewer follow-ups, perhaps indicates a lack of understanding/knowing the bigger context, and then being able to apply critical reasoning skills which would enable further questioning, seeing angles, being able to make connections, seeing the need for further research etc. This is precisely the area that in situ mentoring could help. • In the view of editors who were asked to assess journalists’ work, three main problems were identified: the news gathering process (‘eg. gathering information, insight into depth/context of news, …an understanding of legal and ethical issues….’); writing the final product (‘eg. organizing the facts, writing the copy, using correct grammar and reporting style’); and accuracy (‘eg. spelling mistakes, typing errors, accurate presentation of facts and attributing information to sources’) (11). • Concerning the testing of reporters’ general knowledge, the Report notes that ‘significant numbers of reporters did not know the correct answers to some very basic questions’ (12). However, as noted in the critique of the methodology above, the actual quantification of these results is questionable, because of the problems in sampling. Notwithstanding this shortcoming, this view of reporters’ general knowledge is supported by the views of editors who ‘expressed the view that skills essential for modern-day reporters are not adequately addressed. These include knowledge of and training in subjects like economics, contemporary history, political science’ (13). • Weakness in providing background to stories was also highlighted (43). This could be related to the reporters’ knowledge of current affairs, but the Report also notes that this could be because ‘journalists increasingly regard news in the same way as their audiences (short, brief versions of the news reality)’ (43). This is an interesting reason, which should be followed up with further research.

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choices, but also the presentation of those stories. On the other hand junior and senior reporters at some media tend to think that they could editorialise within an own personal context divorced from the medium’s news policy’ (44). • One of the recommendations of the Report is a call for a ‘wellregulated system of internships’ (63). This would necessitate better communication between the training institutions and the industry with respect to objectives, outcomes, remuneration of students, and feedback. However a key factor in the success of internships is the kind of mentoring that students receive. However, this has been indicated as one of the areas in which the media themselves lack capacity. • The expectations of reporters in the 2-5 years experience category: ‘…reporters should be taught and encouraged to be first with a story, read more, have an open mind towards news events in the world around them, and give a unique angle to a story already carried. They need to be able to be more adaptable, source information from reliable sources and provide a sense of continuity towards a story. If all these elements are attended to sufficiently, reporters will be put in a position where they will be able to provide more/better background information for a story and have a greater sense of other relevant issues in the news environment’ (44). • Juniorisation of the newsrooms (3). ‘Editors identified various causes for this situation, with the majority of newsrooms experiencing a high level of staff turnover’ (3). While reporter salaries were discarded as a factor (3), it could be significant in relation to the findings about the reporters’ work ethic. The Report notes that ‘Although there might be exceptions to this, the majority of younger reporters are of the opinion that their skills and expertise can/should be ‘bought’ for a specific price and that they will render a specific level of performance for the company/organization in return …. As one news editor put it: ‘Journalism has lost its social cause. It used to be about making a difference, now it is about getting rich’ (54). The researchers also note that, ‘deadline pressure might have become a good excuse to not thoroughly investigate all angles, gather all relevant information, and check the correctness of inputs used’ (43).

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Some significant findings of the skills/attitudes of journalists: • More original stories are submitted than follow-ups (42). Further research should be done to try to account for this. Perhaps it indicates that reporters from diverse backgrounds are coming up with stories - or even that as ‘young reporters’ they see stories that others don’t. This should be encouraged and developed. That there are fewer follow-ups, perhaps indicates a lack of understanding/knowing the bigger context, and then being able to apply critical reasoning skills which would enable further questioning, seeing angles, being able to make connections, seeing the need for further research etc. This is precisely the area that in situ mentoring could help. • In the view of editors who were asked to assess journalists’ work, three main problems were identified: the news gathering process (‘eg. gathering information, insight into depth/context of news, …an understanding of legal and ethical issues….’); writing the final product (‘eg. organizing the facts, writing the copy, using correct grammar and reporting style’); and accuracy (‘eg. spelling mistakes, typing errors, accurate presentation of facts and attributing information to sources’) (11). • Concerning the testing of reporters’ general knowledge, the Report notes that ‘significant numbers of reporters did not know the correct answers to some very basic questions’ (12). However, as noted in the critique of the methodology above, the actual quantification of these results is questionable, because of the problems in sampling. Notwithstanding this shortcoming, this view of reporters’ general knowledge is supported by the views of editors who ‘expressed the view that skills essential for modern-day reporters are not adequately addressed. These include knowledge of and training in subjects like economics, contemporary history, political science’ (13). • Weakness in providing background to stories was also highlighted (43). This could be related to the reporters’ knowledge of current affairs, but the Report also notes that this could be because ‘journalists increasingly regard news in the same way as their audiences (short, brief versions of the news reality)’ (43). This is an interesting reason, which should be followed up with further research.

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• Weakness in providing insight into the significance of stories was also noted (45). One of the interesting reasons given for this in the Report is ‘a lack of curiosity about major issues occurring in the world around them, as well as a lack of enterprise to identify these issues and getting to know more about them’ (45). This is related to ‘Many reporters’ lack of interest in journalism as a specific occupation (differing it from any other job) [which] leads to a lack of extra effort in reading, networking’ (45). This view is startling, and again points to an area in which further research is needed, because it relates to the heart of the profession. • Sources. Researchers found through their interviews with editors that the most appropriate sources are not used, and that often only one source is used (47). This leads to reporting which is limited in perspective and understanding of the issue being reported. • Accuracy is noted as a major problem, especially in relation to ‘correctly reporting dignitaries’ titles, positions etc.’ (57). However, this is mitigated by commentary on the fact that often the information provided by government is less than accurate. However, the Report also commented on the relatively low level of accuracy in reporting events (57). • Language. A number of points were made in relation to language. Firstly, it was found that most reporters work in English and Afrikaans, regardless of their mother tongue (34). The view is expressed that this could exacerbate accuracy and expression problems testified to by editors (34). Secondly, the Report notes newsrooms’ concern with reporters’ poor language skills, suggesting that this should be a prime focus in training (34). And thirdly, the Report recommends ‘the importance of acquiring a third language (preferably an African language)’ (61). • Trend in the demand for by-lines. There are different views of bylines, and how they ‘work’ as incentive, or towards greater sense of responsibility and accountability of journalists (53). Perhaps open discussion of by-lines is needed in newsrooms, and a ‘policy’ established that all buy into - an issue that relates to the management of journalists, and their career paths.

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Conclusion This article has attempted to give an overview of two recent research initiatives by Sanef into the current state of the media. It noted that the key issues relate to renewed discussion about the media’s role in our new democracy. What is pertinent to this more general discussion, are questions concerning the significance of stories to a newly constituted citizenry, as well as how these issues are communicated to a diverse audience. What this comes down to for the media, are questions of significance, context, accuracy, and ultimately, expression. These are the issues that were highlighted by the participants in both of Sanef’s research initiatives.

References Dahlgren, P. 2000. Media, Citizenship and Civic Culture. In Curran, J & Gurevitch, M (eds.). Mass Media and Society. London: Arnold. Murdock, G & Golding, P. 1989. Information poverty and political inequality: citizenship in the age of privatised communications. Journal of Communication 39(3):180-195, Summer. Sanef’s ‘2002 South African National Journalism Skills Audit’. Htttp://www.scribe.co.za Steenveld, L. (ed.). 2002. Training for Media Transformation and Democracy. Johannesburg: Sanef and the Independent Newspapers Chair of Media Transformation.

Dr Robert L. Stevenson Kenan Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA [[email protected]]

Most of the trends in the Sanef report are familiar in journalism education in the USA By any standard, journalism education is booming. In the US in the fall of 2000, more than 168 000 were enrolled in undergraduate journalism and mass communication programs, an increase of 20% in a decade. That year, more than 38 000 graduated with bachelor’s degrees, another 3 000plus with master’s degrees. Journalism is taught in departments, schools, and colleges of more than 400 higher education institutions. And the numbers exclude most programs in communication, cultural, and critical studies that represent a separate branch of the field.

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• Weakness in providing insight into the significance of stories was also noted (45). One of the interesting reasons given for this in the Report is ‘a lack of curiosity about major issues occurring in the world around them, as well as a lack of enterprise to identify these issues and getting to know more about them’ (45). This is related to ‘Many reporters’ lack of interest in journalism as a specific occupation (differing it from any other job) [which] leads to a lack of extra effort in reading, networking’ (45). This view is startling, and again points to an area in which further research is needed, because it relates to the heart of the profession. • Sources. Researchers found through their interviews with editors that the most appropriate sources are not used, and that often only one source is used (47). This leads to reporting which is limited in perspective and understanding of the issue being reported. • Accuracy is noted as a major problem, especially in relation to ‘correctly reporting dignitaries’ titles, positions etc.’ (57). However, this is mitigated by commentary on the fact that often the information provided by government is less than accurate. However, the Report also commented on the relatively low level of accuracy in reporting events (57). • Language. A number of points were made in relation to language. Firstly, it was found that most reporters work in English and Afrikaans, regardless of their mother tongue (34). The view is expressed that this could exacerbate accuracy and expression problems testified to by editors (34). Secondly, the Report notes newsrooms’ concern with reporters’ poor language skills, suggesting that this should be a prime focus in training (34). And thirdly, the Report recommends ‘the importance of acquiring a third language (preferably an African language)’ (61). • Trend in the demand for by-lines. There are different views of bylines, and how they ‘work’ as incentive, or towards greater sense of responsibility and accountability of journalists (53). Perhaps open discussion of by-lines is needed in newsrooms, and a ‘policy’ established that all buy into - an issue that relates to the management of journalists, and their career paths.

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Conclusion This article has attempted to give an overview of two recent research initiatives by Sanef into the current state of the media. It noted that the key issues relate to renewed discussion about the media’s role in our new democracy. What is pertinent to this more general discussion, are questions concerning the significance of stories to a newly constituted citizenry, as well as how these issues are communicated to a diverse audience. What this comes down to for the media, are questions of significance, context, accuracy, and ultimately, expression. These are the issues that were highlighted by the participants in both of Sanef’s research initiatives.

References Dahlgren, P. 2000. Media, Citizenship and Civic Culture. In Curran, J & Gurevitch, M (eds.). Mass Media and Society. London: Arnold. Murdock, G & Golding, P. 1989. Information poverty and political inequality: citizenship in the age of privatised communications. Journal of Communication 39(3):180-195, Summer. Sanef’s ‘2002 South African National Journalism Skills Audit’. Htttp://www.scribe.co.za Steenveld, L. (ed.). 2002. Training for Media Transformation and Democracy. Johannesburg: Sanef and the Independent Newspapers Chair of Media Transformation.

Dr Robert L. Stevenson Kenan Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA [[email protected]]

Most of the trends in the Sanef report are familiar in journalism education in the USA By any standard, journalism education is booming. In the US in the fall of 2000, more than 168 000 were enrolled in undergraduate journalism and mass communication programs, an increase of 20% in a decade. That year, more than 38 000 graduated with bachelor’s degrees, another 3 000plus with master’s degrees. Journalism is taught in departments, schools, and colleges of more than 400 higher education institutions. And the numbers exclude most programs in communication, cultural, and critical studies that represent a separate branch of the field.

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Similar trends are noticeable in other countries. In Europe, a number of programs are shifting the traditional focus on academic cultural studies towards the mix of liberal arts and professional training typical of American programs. New programs, some with a strong emphasis on professional preparation, are springing up in places where journalism was once considered beneath university standards. The critical/cultural side of the field is probably losing out to the professional side in most countries. American-style journalism education is joining Microsoft and Starbucks as the newest symbol of – depending on your point of view – globalization with an American accent or American cultural imperialism. In the US, we have a larger database and longer experience to call on, but most of the trends in the Sanef report are familiar from similar American studies. We have most of the same strengths and weaknesses, similar pluses and minuses. Among the pluses: lots of students, a relatively strong claim to scarce university resources, a job market that despite grumbles snaps up our graduates. Among the minuses: too many students, not enough resources (technical and human), and a recurring suspicion that graduates of most journalism programs aren’t really up to the challenges they face in the real world. The best and brightest do well because of – or in spite of - a standard journalism education; the rest just make do. Aside from the similarity to American experiences in journalism education, what struck me most in the South African study was the low levels of knowledge in many areas. To paraphrase an old pop song, journalism students ‘don’t know much about history.’ Nor, one could add, about current events, mathematics, English grammar and usage, and the basic skills of journalism. It’s a lot of stuff to master in three or four years, of course, even if secondary schools were doing a better job. Journalism is pretty much everything about everything, including careerrelated skills like management and ethics on top of fast-changing technology. Maybe we could find a better way of doing it, and here is one suggestion. One clever idea most of the English-speaking countries took from Britain was a liberal arts undergraduate degree. Everyone dabbled in a number of areas and concentrated in a few. And emerged, as they used to say at Harvard graduation, as initiates into the company of educated men. The continental tradition, in contrast, started at the top with the academic doctorate as the first and only degree. Many of the professional areas that now drive American universities – business, education, public policy, in some cases even medicine – were the domain of separate and less prestigious technical institutions.

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Global convergence towards the American model There is now global convergence towards the American model of a tier of degrees and mingling of liberal arts instruction, academic scholarship, and professional technical training, but differences remain. I tell Germans heading to the United States that they should think of an American university as a mixture of a secondary-level Gymnasium, technical institute or Hochschule, and traditional university. In any single class, they may find students from all three camps. But as always, even in stodgy universities, change is underway. On the one hand, there is a tendency to move quasi-professional programs into the undergraduate curriculum. The result is that students are interested mostly in classes that teach them some useful – or at least marketable – skills, and the pressure is to make these programs more skills-oriented. Why major in a field that leads to a dead end at graduation? And why study ‘theoretical’ aspects of journalism that probably will have little or nothing to do with getting a job or moving up the career ladder? On the other hand, a counter-tendency is to concentrate specialized programs at the graduate level. Medical, law, and increasingly business schools, of course – the real professional programs – operate to their own drumbeat and their own rules. Journalism tries to be all things to all customers at all levels: undergraduate skills within a framework of broad study of the field; service courses to other disciplines; usually something similar at the master’s level but with some attention to research; purely research-oriented PhDs; publish-or-perish academic research requirements; some criticism of and assistance to the businesses that hire our graduates. Maybe we should think about a new division of labor. Traditional professional studies in the United States are carried out at the post-graduate level. You go to medical school or law school after earning a B.A., not at the same time. You know that the degree will prepare you to do medicine or law. If you want to study about these fields and do research on them, you need to make sure you’re in a PhD program, not one that leads to a J.D. or M.D. Some of the newer professional fields like education, library science, and business are moving in the same direction.

The Columbia model Why not journalism? A good undergraduate education in some field where the aspiring journalist hopes to concentrate his/her career, followed by an intensive, skills-oriented graduate program akin to medical or law

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Similar trends are noticeable in other countries. In Europe, a number of programs are shifting the traditional focus on academic cultural studies towards the mix of liberal arts and professional training typical of American programs. New programs, some with a strong emphasis on professional preparation, are springing up in places where journalism was once considered beneath university standards. The critical/cultural side of the field is probably losing out to the professional side in most countries. American-style journalism education is joining Microsoft and Starbucks as the newest symbol of – depending on your point of view – globalization with an American accent or American cultural imperialism. In the US, we have a larger database and longer experience to call on, but most of the trends in the Sanef report are familiar from similar American studies. We have most of the same strengths and weaknesses, similar pluses and minuses. Among the pluses: lots of students, a relatively strong claim to scarce university resources, a job market that despite grumbles snaps up our graduates. Among the minuses: too many students, not enough resources (technical and human), and a recurring suspicion that graduates of most journalism programs aren’t really up to the challenges they face in the real world. The best and brightest do well because of – or in spite of - a standard journalism education; the rest just make do. Aside from the similarity to American experiences in journalism education, what struck me most in the South African study was the low levels of knowledge in many areas. To paraphrase an old pop song, journalism students ‘don’t know much about history.’ Nor, one could add, about current events, mathematics, English grammar and usage, and the basic skills of journalism. It’s a lot of stuff to master in three or four years, of course, even if secondary schools were doing a better job. Journalism is pretty much everything about everything, including careerrelated skills like management and ethics on top of fast-changing technology. Maybe we could find a better way of doing it, and here is one suggestion. One clever idea most of the English-speaking countries took from Britain was a liberal arts undergraduate degree. Everyone dabbled in a number of areas and concentrated in a few. And emerged, as they used to say at Harvard graduation, as initiates into the company of educated men. The continental tradition, in contrast, started at the top with the academic doctorate as the first and only degree. Many of the professional areas that now drive American universities – business, education, public policy, in some cases even medicine – were the domain of separate and less prestigious technical institutions.

132

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Global convergence towards the American model There is now global convergence towards the American model of a tier of degrees and mingling of liberal arts instruction, academic scholarship, and professional technical training, but differences remain. I tell Germans heading to the United States that they should think of an American university as a mixture of a secondary-level Gymnasium, technical institute or Hochschule, and traditional university. In any single class, they may find students from all three camps. But as always, even in stodgy universities, change is underway. On the one hand, there is a tendency to move quasi-professional programs into the undergraduate curriculum. The result is that students are interested mostly in classes that teach them some useful – or at least marketable – skills, and the pressure is to make these programs more skills-oriented. Why major in a field that leads to a dead end at graduation? And why study ‘theoretical’ aspects of journalism that probably will have little or nothing to do with getting a job or moving up the career ladder? On the other hand, a counter-tendency is to concentrate specialized programs at the graduate level. Medical, law, and increasingly business schools, of course – the real professional programs – operate to their own drumbeat and their own rules. Journalism tries to be all things to all customers at all levels: undergraduate skills within a framework of broad study of the field; service courses to other disciplines; usually something similar at the master’s level but with some attention to research; purely research-oriented PhDs; publish-or-perish academic research requirements; some criticism of and assistance to the businesses that hire our graduates. Maybe we should think about a new division of labor. Traditional professional studies in the United States are carried out at the post-graduate level. You go to medical school or law school after earning a B.A., not at the same time. You know that the degree will prepare you to do medicine or law. If you want to study about these fields and do research on them, you need to make sure you’re in a PhD program, not one that leads to a J.D. or M.D. Some of the newer professional fields like education, library science, and business are moving in the same direction.

The Columbia model Why not journalism? A good undergraduate education in some field where the aspiring journalist hopes to concentrate his/her career, followed by an intensive, skills-oriented graduate program akin to medical or law

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school. The model is Columbia’s one-year, skills-only program. Students arrive in New York with the appropriate educational background and learn how to do journalism by lots of practice in the most intense laboratory in the world. Some attention is paid to legal and ethical considerations, but the theoretical material – which most students hate – is left to the relentlessly non-professional programs in Communication Studies and to the rest of us who try to do both. As long as the number of students who want to study journalism is well above the number who can be accommodated, we can crank up the entrance requirements just as they do in law and medical school. We might even demand competence in a foreign language, which would be a real novelty in the English-speaking world. Other professions recognize that MBAs and MDs are professional degrees, not PhD research degrees. A minority of students in those fields interested in research – as in journalism – can pursue separate programs that emphasize research, not professional practice, and earn a degree that recognizes the difference. In the US, the chi squares and green eyeshades – a now obsolete way of distinguishing between academics and practitioners – get along most of the time by making our programs journalism AND mass communication. We both co-exist less peacefully with communication and critical studies, but within a large university there is room for everyone. Students sometimes know the difference between mass communication and communication studies even if outsiders don’t. And there is certainly confusion among students and applicants about the differences in programs from trade school Columbia to ivory tower Annenberg at the University of Pennsylvania. In a country as large and unorganized as the United States, there will always be variety and confusion, but even here we could benefit from some efforts to rationalize the system of educating journalists and the large majority of our students who want to work in related fields. My vote is to concentrate technical training at the graduate level after a liberal arts undergraduate program and to separate the academic study of the media from the professional preparation. I can’t guarantee it would produce students who know more about history, and biology, English grammar, and foreign languages, but it might. And it might produce better-qualified journalists. Journalism as an endangered craft needs all the help it can get.

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Gert van Rooyen Senior vakkundige: joernalistiek en nuwe media, Skool vir Kommunikasiestudies, Potchefstroomse Universiteit, Suid-Afrika [[email protected]]

Kitsantwoorde bied geen oplossing nie – indringende samesprekings en samewerking wel As dosent in joernalistiek het ek, en ek dink seker baie ander kollegas in dieselfde bootjie, die persepsie dat jou afgestudeerde joernalistiekstudente alle pag en kennis van die beroep het en hulle by 'n koerant of radiostasie kan ‘instap en alles kan doen wat hulle moet doen’. Totdat 'n verslag soos dié een jou tussen die oë tref en jy besef dat jou persepsie van ‘alles kan doen’ nie is wat die bedryf daar buite ervaar nie. Toegegee, die verslag is nie die alfa en omega van dit wat in koerant- en radionuuskantore gebeur nie, maar dit wat daar staan, stem 'n mens, en des te meer 'n dosent in joernalistiek, tot onrus. Dadelik word die vraag gevra: waar het ek/ons gefaal? Wat kan ek/ons nog doen om hierdie situasie te beredder? Soos duidelik in die verslag bespreek word, is daar 'n paar kritiese areas waaraan dringend aandag gegee moet word - nie net in die opleiding van joernaliste nie, maar ook in die daaglikse werkinge by nuuskantore. Die feit dat daar nie meer, of bitter min, leiding aan junior verslaggewers gegee word deur seniors of deur middel van interne opleiding, maak die taak van die aanvanklike opleier ook nie maklik nie. Opleiding van joernalistiekstudente by tersiêre instellings fokus op die meer basiese en algemene vaardighede, soos hoe om inligting te versamel, hoe om 'n goeie inleidingsparagraaf te kan skryf, hoe om jou berig verder logiese uiteen te sit, hoe om 'n onderhoud te voer en van die ander vaardighede waarvan daar in die verslag melding gemaak word.

Lesinglokaal kan praktyk grootliks net naboots Maar, die spesifieke, kritiese vaardighede wat die joernalis net in 'n nuuskantoor kan opdoen soos hoe om te voldoen aan spertye, hoe om die nuusomgewing te hanteer, spesifieke taal- en stylvereistes, en so meer kan feitlik nooit in 'n klaskamer tot sy volle uiting kom nie. Dit kan dit hoogstens nageboots word, en dan is daar maar ook nog baie veranderlikes wat 'n rol speel: jy kan net soveel tyd met studente deurbring; samewerking van studente is ook nie altyd na wens nie; en, soos die ver-

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school. The model is Columbia’s one-year, skills-only program. Students arrive in New York with the appropriate educational background and learn how to do journalism by lots of practice in the most intense laboratory in the world. Some attention is paid to legal and ethical considerations, but the theoretical material – which most students hate – is left to the relentlessly non-professional programs in Communication Studies and to the rest of us who try to do both. As long as the number of students who want to study journalism is well above the number who can be accommodated, we can crank up the entrance requirements just as they do in law and medical school. We might even demand competence in a foreign language, which would be a real novelty in the English-speaking world. Other professions recognize that MBAs and MDs are professional degrees, not PhD research degrees. A minority of students in those fields interested in research – as in journalism – can pursue separate programs that emphasize research, not professional practice, and earn a degree that recognizes the difference. In the US, the chi squares and green eyeshades – a now obsolete way of distinguishing between academics and practitioners – get along most of the time by making our programs journalism AND mass communication. We both co-exist less peacefully with communication and critical studies, but within a large university there is room for everyone. Students sometimes know the difference between mass communication and communication studies even if outsiders don’t. And there is certainly confusion among students and applicants about the differences in programs from trade school Columbia to ivory tower Annenberg at the University of Pennsylvania. In a country as large and unorganized as the United States, there will always be variety and confusion, but even here we could benefit from some efforts to rationalize the system of educating journalists and the large majority of our students who want to work in related fields. My vote is to concentrate technical training at the graduate level after a liberal arts undergraduate program and to separate the academic study of the media from the professional preparation. I can’t guarantee it would produce students who know more about history, and biology, English grammar, and foreign languages, but it might. And it might produce better-qualified journalists. Journalism as an endangered craft needs all the help it can get.

134

Ecquid Novi

Gert van Rooyen Senior vakkundige: joernalistiek en nuwe media, Skool vir Kommunikasiestudies, Potchefstroomse Universiteit, Suid-Afrika [[email protected]]

Kitsantwoorde bied geen oplossing nie – indringende samesprekings en samewerking wel As dosent in joernalistiek het ek, en ek dink seker baie ander kollegas in dieselfde bootjie, die persepsie dat jou afgestudeerde joernalistiekstudente alle pag en kennis van die beroep het en hulle by 'n koerant of radiostasie kan ‘instap en alles kan doen wat hulle moet doen’. Totdat 'n verslag soos dié een jou tussen die oë tref en jy besef dat jou persepsie van ‘alles kan doen’ nie is wat die bedryf daar buite ervaar nie. Toegegee, die verslag is nie die alfa en omega van dit wat in koerant- en radionuuskantore gebeur nie, maar dit wat daar staan, stem 'n mens, en des te meer 'n dosent in joernalistiek, tot onrus. Dadelik word die vraag gevra: waar het ek/ons gefaal? Wat kan ek/ons nog doen om hierdie situasie te beredder? Soos duidelik in die verslag bespreek word, is daar 'n paar kritiese areas waaraan dringend aandag gegee moet word - nie net in die opleiding van joernaliste nie, maar ook in die daaglikse werkinge by nuuskantore. Die feit dat daar nie meer, of bitter min, leiding aan junior verslaggewers gegee word deur seniors of deur middel van interne opleiding, maak die taak van die aanvanklike opleier ook nie maklik nie. Opleiding van joernalistiekstudente by tersiêre instellings fokus op die meer basiese en algemene vaardighede, soos hoe om inligting te versamel, hoe om 'n goeie inleidingsparagraaf te kan skryf, hoe om jou berig verder logiese uiteen te sit, hoe om 'n onderhoud te voer en van die ander vaardighede waarvan daar in die verslag melding gemaak word.

Lesinglokaal kan praktyk grootliks net naboots Maar, die spesifieke, kritiese vaardighede wat die joernalis net in 'n nuuskantoor kan opdoen soos hoe om te voldoen aan spertye, hoe om die nuusomgewing te hanteer, spesifieke taal- en stylvereistes, en so meer kan feitlik nooit in 'n klaskamer tot sy volle uiting kom nie. Dit kan dit hoogstens nageboots word, en dan is daar maar ook nog baie veranderlikes wat 'n rol speel: jy kan net soveel tyd met studente deurbring; samewerking van studente is ook nie altyd na wens nie; en, soos die ver-

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slag ook aangedui het onder junior verslaggewers, is baie studente ook nie gretig om aan hul berig te werk totdat dit volledig is nie. Dit is ook darem nie dat universiteite en technikons ‘informed idiots’ die wêreld wil instuur nie. Die basiese joernalistieke vaardighede, soos in die verslag genoem, word steeds gedoseer (by sommige instansies meer indiepte as by ander) tesame met 'n wye spektrum van ander vakke soos politieke wetenskap, mediareg, tale, geografie, en selfs vakke soos sielkunde, sosiologie en ander sosiale wetenskappe. Studente kry dus 'n goeie dosis teoretiese en konsepsuele kennis op verskeie vlakke. Om 'n paar raakvlakke in die verslag aan te spreek wat ook grotendeels 'n probleem in die opleidingsfase van joernaliste is: Algemene en spesifieke nuuskennis Dosente het al oor die jare tot satwordens toe gewonder, geskryf, geswoeg en baie keer geswets oor hierdie probleem. En ongelukkig word dit erger. 'n Mens sou dink dat die gebruik van 'n nuwe medium soos die internet (wat studente deesdae met groot vrug gebruik vir talle opdragte), die studente sal aanspoor om meer te wete te kom van nuusgebeure. Maar helaas. Soos in die verslag tereg genoem word, is daar nie meer 'n lees(en luister-) kultuur onder die jeug te bespeur nie. Die oplossing? Iemand het al voorgestel om 'n interaktiewe rekenaarspeletjie te ontwikkel wat studente kan speel (in klastyd selfs!) en só hulle kennis verbreed. Skryfvaardighede Dit is regtig onverskoonbaar dat 'n verslaggewer wat reeds 2-5 aar in die bedryf is, steeds basiese foute (feitefoute, spel- en tikfoute, verkeerde woordkeuse, sinskonstruksie, inleidingsparagraaf, ens) maak. Maar, dit is die werklikheid en wat kan dosente en redakteurs/nuusredakteurs daaraan doen? Die ou resep was skryf, herskryf en weer skryf. Maar, soos uit die verslag blyk, moet subredakteurs deesdae maar fyn trap om 'n junior verslaggewer te dwing om iets oor te skryf. ‘Practice makes perfect’ is maar myns insiens steeds die enigste resep en hierdie ‘practice’ sluit in gebruik van bronne soos woordeboeke, speltoetser, telefoongids, straatkaarte, ens. Al hierdie bronne is in elk geval net 'n muiskliek ver! Lewensvaardighede Ou, geharde joernaliste sal jou onmiddellik daarop wys dat hierdie vaardighede in die dag tot dag samesyn opgedoen word en dat dit 'n mors van tyd is om daarin opgelei of onderrig te word. Ek moet erken ek het ook so gedink, maar dit is duidelik 'n area wat dringend aangespreek moet word,

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veral in die opleidingsituasie. Tog, behoort dosente darem seker van die veronderstelling uit te gaan dat joernalistiekstudente minstens van die basiese lewensvaardighede behoort te hê. Mediareg en mediasosiologie Joernalistiekstudente is geneig om hierdie tipe vakke as bloot teorie te sien wat min waarde toevoeg tot hul opleiding. Hulle is van mening dat (soos dit ook uit die verslag blyk) regsvraagstukke soos minagting van die hof, sub judice, artikel 205, ens. tog deur die koerant of radiostasie se regsgeleerde hanteer sal word. Vierdejaarstudente aan die Potchefstroomse Universiteit het al dikwels in die verlede gekla oor die baie teorie wat hulle steeds in die vierde jaar moet doen. Maar, dat hierdie aspek van joernalistiek meer deeglik in kurrikula ingeskryf moet word, is baie waar. Sentra van deskundigheid As dosent in joernalistiek aan die Potchefstroomse Universiteit voel ek 'n bietjie gebelg dat daar omtrent geen melding van die joernalistiekopleiding aan die instansie gemaak word nie. Die Skool vir Kommunikasdiestudies aan die Puk (soos dit nou bekend staan) het al in die verlede goeie studente aan die bedryf gelewer, en baie van die top joernaliste in die mediawêreld het 'n draai op Potch gemaak. Dit moet darem ook onthou word dat Potch weliswaar nie, soos die meeste instellings wat in die verslag genoem word, net suiwer joernalistiek aanbied nie. Blootstelling en opleiding van dosente Dit is so dat daar nog 'n gevoel (dalk 'n persepsie) onder redakteurs/nuusredakteurs is dat dosente nog te veel in ivoortorings sit en nie weet wat in die praktyk aangaan nie. Dat tersiêre instellings nog te veel boekekennis in aspirant-joernaliste se koppe inprent. Maar, by baie is hierdie aspek al jare gelede aangespreek deur praktiese opleiding reeds van die eerste jaar af op 'n deurlopende vlak aan te bied. Daar is miskien nog te veel dosente wat nie genoeg blootstelling aan die praktyk kry nie of net nie die nodigheid insien om vir 'n tyd daar te gaan werk nie. Tyd is ook 'n faktor want dosente se doseerladings, navorsing, akademiese administrasie en ander dinge hou hulle baie besig. Dit is egter krities noodsaaklik dat dosente gereeld blootstelling moet kry om ook so meer van die praktyk te leer. Kitsoplossings en antwoorde op die vrae is daar seker nie. Maar, dat die akademici en hul studente, die bedryf en ander rolspelers dringend

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slag ook aangedui het onder junior verslaggewers, is baie studente ook nie gretig om aan hul berig te werk totdat dit volledig is nie. Dit is ook darem nie dat universiteite en technikons ‘informed idiots’ die wêreld wil instuur nie. Die basiese joernalistieke vaardighede, soos in die verslag genoem, word steeds gedoseer (by sommige instansies meer indiepte as by ander) tesame met 'n wye spektrum van ander vakke soos politieke wetenskap, mediareg, tale, geografie, en selfs vakke soos sielkunde, sosiologie en ander sosiale wetenskappe. Studente kry dus 'n goeie dosis teoretiese en konsepsuele kennis op verskeie vlakke. Om 'n paar raakvlakke in die verslag aan te spreek wat ook grotendeels 'n probleem in die opleidingsfase van joernaliste is: Algemene en spesifieke nuuskennis Dosente het al oor die jare tot satwordens toe gewonder, geskryf, geswoeg en baie keer geswets oor hierdie probleem. En ongelukkig word dit erger. 'n Mens sou dink dat die gebruik van 'n nuwe medium soos die internet (wat studente deesdae met groot vrug gebruik vir talle opdragte), die studente sal aanspoor om meer te wete te kom van nuusgebeure. Maar helaas. Soos in die verslag tereg genoem word, is daar nie meer 'n lees(en luister-) kultuur onder die jeug te bespeur nie. Die oplossing? Iemand het al voorgestel om 'n interaktiewe rekenaarspeletjie te ontwikkel wat studente kan speel (in klastyd selfs!) en só hulle kennis verbreed. Skryfvaardighede Dit is regtig onverskoonbaar dat 'n verslaggewer wat reeds 2-5 aar in die bedryf is, steeds basiese foute (feitefoute, spel- en tikfoute, verkeerde woordkeuse, sinskonstruksie, inleidingsparagraaf, ens) maak. Maar, dit is die werklikheid en wat kan dosente en redakteurs/nuusredakteurs daaraan doen? Die ou resep was skryf, herskryf en weer skryf. Maar, soos uit die verslag blyk, moet subredakteurs deesdae maar fyn trap om 'n junior verslaggewer te dwing om iets oor te skryf. ‘Practice makes perfect’ is maar myns insiens steeds die enigste resep en hierdie ‘practice’ sluit in gebruik van bronne soos woordeboeke, speltoetser, telefoongids, straatkaarte, ens. Al hierdie bronne is in elk geval net 'n muiskliek ver! Lewensvaardighede Ou, geharde joernaliste sal jou onmiddellik daarop wys dat hierdie vaardighede in die dag tot dag samesyn opgedoen word en dat dit 'n mors van tyd is om daarin opgelei of onderrig te word. Ek moet erken ek het ook so gedink, maar dit is duidelik 'n area wat dringend aangespreek moet word,

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veral in die opleidingsituasie. Tog, behoort dosente darem seker van die veronderstelling uit te gaan dat joernalistiekstudente minstens van die basiese lewensvaardighede behoort te hê. Mediareg en mediasosiologie Joernalistiekstudente is geneig om hierdie tipe vakke as bloot teorie te sien wat min waarde toevoeg tot hul opleiding. Hulle is van mening dat (soos dit ook uit die verslag blyk) regsvraagstukke soos minagting van die hof, sub judice, artikel 205, ens. tog deur die koerant of radiostasie se regsgeleerde hanteer sal word. Vierdejaarstudente aan die Potchefstroomse Universiteit het al dikwels in die verlede gekla oor die baie teorie wat hulle steeds in die vierde jaar moet doen. Maar, dat hierdie aspek van joernalistiek meer deeglik in kurrikula ingeskryf moet word, is baie waar. Sentra van deskundigheid As dosent in joernalistiek aan die Potchefstroomse Universiteit voel ek 'n bietjie gebelg dat daar omtrent geen melding van die joernalistiekopleiding aan die instansie gemaak word nie. Die Skool vir Kommunikasdiestudies aan die Puk (soos dit nou bekend staan) het al in die verlede goeie studente aan die bedryf gelewer, en baie van die top joernaliste in die mediawêreld het 'n draai op Potch gemaak. Dit moet darem ook onthou word dat Potch weliswaar nie, soos die meeste instellings wat in die verslag genoem word, net suiwer joernalistiek aanbied nie. Blootstelling en opleiding van dosente Dit is so dat daar nog 'n gevoel (dalk 'n persepsie) onder redakteurs/nuusredakteurs is dat dosente nog te veel in ivoortorings sit en nie weet wat in die praktyk aangaan nie. Dat tersiêre instellings nog te veel boekekennis in aspirant-joernaliste se koppe inprent. Maar, by baie is hierdie aspek al jare gelede aangespreek deur praktiese opleiding reeds van die eerste jaar af op 'n deurlopende vlak aan te bied. Daar is miskien nog te veel dosente wat nie genoeg blootstelling aan die praktyk kry nie of net nie die nodigheid insien om vir 'n tyd daar te gaan werk nie. Tyd is ook 'n faktor want dosente se doseerladings, navorsing, akademiese administrasie en ander dinge hou hulle baie besig. Dit is egter krities noodsaaklik dat dosente gereeld blootstelling moet kry om ook so meer van die praktyk te leer. Kitsoplossings en antwoorde op die vrae is daar seker nie. Maar, dat die akademici en hul studente, die bedryf en ander rolspelers dringend

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bymekaar sal moet kom om hierdie probleemareas aan te spreek, staan soos 'n paal bo water.

Herman Wasserman Senior lecturer in the Department of Journalism, University of Stellenbosch [[email protected]]

Free but responsible – ethical decision-making as a basic journalistic skill* On the reputations of journalists ‘If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer, and his hands are too shaky to perform operations, he becomes a journalist.’ This snide comment by American writer Norman Mailer on the rudimentary skills supposedly needed to become a journalist, formed part of a list of quotes recently circulated by the European Press Network (as quoted by Schadewald, 2002). This statement again highlights some of the recurring assumptions and generalizations about journalists. Although making light of these assumptions, the quotation reminds one of the low repute in which journalists - justly or unjustly - are often held. The recent findings of the Sanef audit (Steyn & De Beer, 2002), would probably only serve to confirm this reputation among those who tend to concur with Mailer.

Ethics and crises of credibility One would certainly be able to point out several reasons for the low esteem in which the media are held, but an important cause for the disregard that often characterises popular references to the media is the perceived lack of journalistic ethics. Media ethics, Retief (2002:iix) recalls in an anecdote, is a subject that people consider not possible of discussing for more than five minutes. Retief points out that the popular image of the media is not good. In fact, many people would probably agree with the American comedian Fred Allen, who, again according to the above*

This article is based on a talk given at a seminar for Western Cape community newspapers on May 31st 2002, and appeared in a previous format in Die Burger (2002-06-08:07). Page numbers and figures or graphs cited related to the document as published on www.scribe.co.za.

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mentioned list of quotes, said: ‘To a newspaperman, a human being is an item with skin wrapped around it.’ So much for anecdotal evidence. Recent surveys affirm these suspicions. Richard Keeble (2001:3) refers to surveys done in Britain in which respondents had to judge journalists' credibility. In one of these, public journalistic credibility was compared to other professions. Journalists ranked 15th - even below politicians. In another, the question was asked: Would journalists pursue the truth above and beyond a good story? Only 15% answered yes. And it is not only in Britain, with its infamous tabloid newspapers, that critical questions are asked about journalists’ ethical standards. In a recent article in the Cape Times, Lynne Kloot (2002:9) points out that the South African media often get blamed for everything from racism and women abuse to corruption or the sorry state of South African cricket. Although surveys such as a recent (May 19, 2002) episode on the SABC programme ‘The Big Question’ do not purport to scientific status, and despite the fact that this particular programme focussed on the entertainment rather than the news media, it, nonetheless, gives an indication of public perceptions. In the programme, the viewers at home were asked the following question: is the entertainment media to blame for the moral degeneration of South African society? 84% of the respondents answered yes.

Ethics and the Sanef report The Sanef report will probably provide ammunition for those people who endorse the above-mentioned assumptions. It indicates, amongst other things, that journalists are often inaccurate, show a lack of life skills and insight, are unaware of the inherent bias in their own frame of reference that clouds their judgment and demonstrate a lack of sensitivity for the context in which they work. Information is not verified or attributed properly and news reports are often editorialised (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:40 ff.) All these problems have ethical implications. Not only do they diminish the media's credibility and undermine its function as watchdog and provider of information, but lack of skills such as the above-mentioned can also cause journalists to do great damage. Consequently, the Sanef report states the need for journalists to undergo training with regard to the role the media plays in society (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:51). News editors and editors expressed the need for journalists to acquire skills that will help them to be credible, fair, committed and responsible in their reporting, and show respect for their audience and for people with whom they conduct interviews. This respect for others and a sensitivity for the community in which journalists

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

137

bymekaar sal moet kom om hierdie probleemareas aan te spreek, staan soos 'n paal bo water.

Herman Wasserman Senior lecturer in the Department of Journalism, University of Stellenbosch [[email protected]]

Free but responsible – ethical decision-making as a basic journalistic skill* On the reputations of journalists ‘If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer, and his hands are too shaky to perform operations, he becomes a journalist.’ This snide comment by American writer Norman Mailer on the rudimentary skills supposedly needed to become a journalist, formed part of a list of quotes recently circulated by the European Press Network (as quoted by Schadewald, 2002). This statement again highlights some of the recurring assumptions and generalizations about journalists. Although making light of these assumptions, the quotation reminds one of the low repute in which journalists - justly or unjustly - are often held. The recent findings of the Sanef audit (Steyn & De Beer, 2002), would probably only serve to confirm this reputation among those who tend to concur with Mailer.

Ethics and crises of credibility One would certainly be able to point out several reasons for the low esteem in which the media are held, but an important cause for the disregard that often characterises popular references to the media is the perceived lack of journalistic ethics. Media ethics, Retief (2002:iix) recalls in an anecdote, is a subject that people consider not possible of discussing for more than five minutes. Retief points out that the popular image of the media is not good. In fact, many people would probably agree with the American comedian Fred Allen, who, again according to the above*

This article is based on a talk given at a seminar for Western Cape community newspapers on May 31st 2002, and appeared in a previous format in Die Burger (2002-06-08:07). Page numbers and figures or graphs cited related to the document as published on www.scribe.co.za.

138

Ecquid Novi

mentioned list of quotes, said: ‘To a newspaperman, a human being is an item with skin wrapped around it.’ So much for anecdotal evidence. Recent surveys affirm these suspicions. Richard Keeble (2001:3) refers to surveys done in Britain in which respondents had to judge journalists' credibility. In one of these, public journalistic credibility was compared to other professions. Journalists ranked 15th - even below politicians. In another, the question was asked: Would journalists pursue the truth above and beyond a good story? Only 15% answered yes. And it is not only in Britain, with its infamous tabloid newspapers, that critical questions are asked about journalists’ ethical standards. In a recent article in the Cape Times, Lynne Kloot (2002:9) points out that the South African media often get blamed for everything from racism and women abuse to corruption or the sorry state of South African cricket. Although surveys such as a recent (May 19, 2002) episode on the SABC programme ‘The Big Question’ do not purport to scientific status, and despite the fact that this particular programme focussed on the entertainment rather than the news media, it, nonetheless, gives an indication of public perceptions. In the programme, the viewers at home were asked the following question: is the entertainment media to blame for the moral degeneration of South African society? 84% of the respondents answered yes.

Ethics and the Sanef report The Sanef report will probably provide ammunition for those people who endorse the above-mentioned assumptions. It indicates, amongst other things, that journalists are often inaccurate, show a lack of life skills and insight, are unaware of the inherent bias in their own frame of reference that clouds their judgment and demonstrate a lack of sensitivity for the context in which they work. Information is not verified or attributed properly and news reports are often editorialised (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:40 ff.) All these problems have ethical implications. Not only do they diminish the media's credibility and undermine its function as watchdog and provider of information, but lack of skills such as the above-mentioned can also cause journalists to do great damage. Consequently, the Sanef report states the need for journalists to undergo training with regard to the role the media plays in society (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:51). News editors and editors expressed the need for journalists to acquire skills that will help them to be credible, fair, committed and responsible in their reporting, and show respect for their audience and for people with whom they conduct interviews. This respect for others and a sensitivity for the community in which journalists

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

139

work, form the foundation of ethical journalism: ‘(P)articipation in the communication process presupposes that both communicators and recipients make provision for each other's interests, which is a core element of ethical awareness or ethical sensitivity’ (Oosthuizen, 2002:5). There are, however, encouraging signs that journalists are increasingly becoming aware of the necessity for sensitivity in reporting on issues such as Aids, rape and race (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:51). This could be the continuation of a tendency that, as Snyman (1994:44) identified, started shortly before democratisation in South Africa, although others (see De Beer & Froneman, 1994; Froneman, 1994) attribute this factor to the general lack of discussion of media ethics in South Africa. These critics contend that the absence of an ethical debate in the South African media is partly the result of the repressive apartheid regime with its draconian laws that restricted the media and made self-regulating and independent ethical discussions redundant (Froneman, 1994).

New books on media ethics However, the report found that journalists in their questionnaires still displayed a lack of sensitivity skills (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:51). To a certain extent, the Sanef-report reiterates some of the concerns and recommendations made by the Human Rights Commission after its controversial investigation into racism in the media. In its final report (2000) the HRC also highlighted the need for an ongoing debate on the role and responsibility of the media in South African society. A positive outcome of the Sanef report would indeed be the initiation of a critical and continuing discussion of media ethics that is sadly lacking at present, as was recently pointed out in two new books dealing with media ethics in South Africa (Oosthuizen, 2002; Retief, 2002). Although the South African media today enjoys much more freedom than under the Apartheid regime, this freedom has only increased the imperative for the development of an ethical consciousness among journalists. As far as media freedom is concerned, the constitutional guarantee of press freedom, increased access to state information, the establishment of a new Film and Publications Board and an important ruling (Bogoshi vs National Media Ltd. and Others 1996 (3) SA 78 (W) ) which gave the media more leeway in libel cases (cf. Retief, 2002:32 ff.), are among the positive developments. These developments have, however, made the introduction of an incisive debate into media ethics in South Africa all the more important as far as media freedom is concerned, because they have brought a larger emphasis on self-regulation by bodies such as the Press Ombudsman and the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of

140

Ecquid Novi

South Africa. The media has gained more freedom, and with freedom comes responsibility. Within the above context, it is disturbing to note that the Sanef report contains indications that South African journalists do not take their social responsibilities seriously enough. One news editor is quoted as follows: ‘Journalism has lost its social cause. It used to be about making a difference, now it is about getting rich’ (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:53). Many journalists will probably smile on hearing this statement, since journalism does not rank among the best paid jobs in the country. The report goes on to mention (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:53) that younger reporters want to be treated differently than generation ago in the sense of being remunerated according to their working hours and working more independently. There is nothing wrong with demands for better remuneration and professional treatment. Part of the problem of low skills levels in newsrooms can be related to the loss of experience when staff complements are continuously juniorised in order to save money, or because journalists leave the profession in droves due to the incentive of better salaries in related professions.

Management issue should receive serious attention The Sanef chairperson, Mathatha Tsedu is quoted at the outset of the report in this regard: ‘One of the biggest problems facing the (media) industry is the juniorisation of the journalistic skills base. This comes at a time when the South African story is becoming more and more complicated. We have to get our house in order in a very quick way in this sense’ (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:2). This is a management issue that should receive serious attention, and should not be seen as a mere attitude problem among journalists. However, the focus on remuneration does become a problem if it translates into the lack of enterprise, commitment and personal accountability towards news content as pointed out in the report (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:52). It would seem that reporters themselves do not consider ethics as a basic skill needed for their job. According to the reporters’ opinions referred to in the report, ethics per se does not rank highly among the three most important steps needed to address reporting skills in South Africa (see Figure 2 in Steyn & De Beer, 2002:12). However, ethical issues are not excluded from those skills ranked by the reporters as the most important: news gathering skills, conceptual skills and practical skills. Sanef's Education and Training Committee (ETC) consequently includes the following as part of the interventions related to the news gathering process: ‘a sensitivity to and an awareness of

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

139

work, form the foundation of ethical journalism: ‘(P)articipation in the communication process presupposes that both communicators and recipients make provision for each other's interests, which is a core element of ethical awareness or ethical sensitivity’ (Oosthuizen, 2002:5). There are, however, encouraging signs that journalists are increasingly becoming aware of the necessity for sensitivity in reporting on issues such as Aids, rape and race (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:51). This could be the continuation of a tendency that, as Snyman (1994:44) identified, started shortly before democratisation in South Africa, although others (see De Beer & Froneman, 1994; Froneman, 1994) attribute this factor to the general lack of discussion of media ethics in South Africa. These critics contend that the absence of an ethical debate in the South African media is partly the result of the repressive apartheid regime with its draconian laws that restricted the media and made self-regulating and independent ethical discussions redundant (Froneman, 1994).

New books on media ethics However, the report found that journalists in their questionnaires still displayed a lack of sensitivity skills (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:51). To a certain extent, the Sanef-report reiterates some of the concerns and recommendations made by the Human Rights Commission after its controversial investigation into racism in the media. In its final report (2000) the HRC also highlighted the need for an ongoing debate on the role and responsibility of the media in South African society. A positive outcome of the Sanef report would indeed be the initiation of a critical and continuing discussion of media ethics that is sadly lacking at present, as was recently pointed out in two new books dealing with media ethics in South Africa (Oosthuizen, 2002; Retief, 2002). Although the South African media today enjoys much more freedom than under the Apartheid regime, this freedom has only increased the imperative for the development of an ethical consciousness among journalists. As far as media freedom is concerned, the constitutional guarantee of press freedom, increased access to state information, the establishment of a new Film and Publications Board and an important ruling (Bogoshi vs National Media Ltd. and Others 1996 (3) SA 78 (W) ) which gave the media more leeway in libel cases (cf. Retief, 2002:32 ff.), are among the positive developments. These developments have, however, made the introduction of an incisive debate into media ethics in South Africa all the more important as far as media freedom is concerned, because they have brought a larger emphasis on self-regulation by bodies such as the Press Ombudsman and the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of

140

Ecquid Novi

South Africa. The media has gained more freedom, and with freedom comes responsibility. Within the above context, it is disturbing to note that the Sanef report contains indications that South African journalists do not take their social responsibilities seriously enough. One news editor is quoted as follows: ‘Journalism has lost its social cause. It used to be about making a difference, now it is about getting rich’ (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:53). Many journalists will probably smile on hearing this statement, since journalism does not rank among the best paid jobs in the country. The report goes on to mention (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:53) that younger reporters want to be treated differently than generation ago in the sense of being remunerated according to their working hours and working more independently. There is nothing wrong with demands for better remuneration and professional treatment. Part of the problem of low skills levels in newsrooms can be related to the loss of experience when staff complements are continuously juniorised in order to save money, or because journalists leave the profession in droves due to the incentive of better salaries in related professions.

Management issue should receive serious attention The Sanef chairperson, Mathatha Tsedu is quoted at the outset of the report in this regard: ‘One of the biggest problems facing the (media) industry is the juniorisation of the journalistic skills base. This comes at a time when the South African story is becoming more and more complicated. We have to get our house in order in a very quick way in this sense’ (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:2). This is a management issue that should receive serious attention, and should not be seen as a mere attitude problem among journalists. However, the focus on remuneration does become a problem if it translates into the lack of enterprise, commitment and personal accountability towards news content as pointed out in the report (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:52). It would seem that reporters themselves do not consider ethics as a basic skill needed for their job. According to the reporters’ opinions referred to in the report, ethics per se does not rank highly among the three most important steps needed to address reporting skills in South Africa (see Figure 2 in Steyn & De Beer, 2002:12). However, ethical issues are not excluded from those skills ranked by the reporters as the most important: news gathering skills, conceptual skills and practical skills. Sanef's Education and Training Committee (ETC) consequently includes the following as part of the interventions related to the news gathering process: ‘a sensitivity to and an awareness of

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

141

South African news issues, and an understanding of legal and ethical issues, especially as they relate to fairness and gender/race sensitivity’ (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:13). Accuracy, another area of intervention highlighted by the ETC, also has obvious ethical implications - accuracy forms an important tenet of South African ethical codes (cf. Retief, 2002:39). The ethical implications of problems such as a lack of critical abilities and accountability, factual inaccuracy and the correct implementation and acknowledgement of sources (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:48-49) should therefore be stressed in the training and development of journalists. Issues such as balance and fairness should indeed be addressed more definitely, as the report (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:51) indicates.

Ethical considerations and indivudual responsibility However, even a basic skill like factual accuracy - which might be considered somewhat less complex than concepts such as fairness and balance - needs to be seen within its wider societal and ethical context, in order for its importance to be realised. Journalists should be reminded that misspelling, incorrect factual information and the inability to put it into context, not only reflect badly on themselves and their institutions, but in the long run erode the credibility of the media as a whole and prevents it from fulfilling important functions such as informing the public and acting as a watchdog. The low skills levels as far as sensitivity to South African issues is concerned (2002:51), more overtly contravene the basic normative ethical maxims of maximising truth while minimising harm and acting independently (Black et al., 1995:17-18, also quoted in Retief, 2002:22). The latter maxim - epitomising the role of a free press in a free society and recognizing the importance of individual responsibility as well as collaborative efforts to ensure good ethical decisions (Retief, 2002:22) - is especially neglected when reporters' enthusiasm and accountability towards reports are solely dependent on celebrity status or financial reward (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:52).

Ethics in practice Journalists do not readily perceive the discussion of ethics as a priority when faced with the pressure of deadlines, economic realities and huge workloads. They often also have a dislike of anything resembling academic pipe dreams. In their world, practice dictates, the Big Story does not allow itself to become ensnared in moral quandaries and the front page awaits. Such an argument often stems from the perception that media ethics is essentially a sermonising business, far removed from every-

142

Ecquid Novi

day realities. On the contrary - ethics has everything to do with reality. Journalists do not work in a vacuum but in a society in which they can cause great harm but also have a good influence. Journalism-bashing is, as Schadewald (2002) rightly states, not a new phenomenon and is not to the benefit of anyone concerned. What South African journalism needs is not more cynicism about its role in our fledgling democracy, but rather continued and dedicated analyses of its problems and potential in order to better serve the public. This quest is not restricted to journalists alone, but should be undertaken in partnership: tertiary institutions, industry and the public should all engage in sound, systematic and well-founded discussions on the way forward. Ethics should form part of all training programmes for journalists, but the ability to make ethical decisions should also be a criterium used in the evaluation of reporters by their institutions. The public should not eschew their role as partners in the communication process either. They should also voice their concerns in constructive ways that surpass emotive calls of disgust and rejection. In this process, the particularities of the South African context should be borne in mind. Discussions of media ethics should not only take account of work done internationally in this field, but should also be firmly rooted in local circumstances and needs. As Louis Day reminds us: Ethical decisions are always made within a specific context, which includes the political, social and cultural climate (Day, 1991:5, italics in original). This would also mean that journalists should study the social context in which they work and how the media interacts with society. Consequently, in both training and practice, attention should be paid as to how: mass media communication processes work, media affects behaviour, news reports form part of larger discourses which operate to perpetuate or resist certain power relations in society, language and images work in constructing a social reality, etc. These are all issues that should not be confined to academic discussions but are of such importance in a society like South Africa that they dare not be neglected in journalistic practice and public debate. The need for an ongoing debate on media ethics, media's role in society and the changing context in which South African journalists operate, is again highlighted by the Sanef report. If the report can succeed in creating this debate as a visible and permanent feature of the South African media landscape, it would have taken a big step towards ensuring the credibility of the media in the public's eyes.

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

141

South African news issues, and an understanding of legal and ethical issues, especially as they relate to fairness and gender/race sensitivity’ (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:13). Accuracy, another area of intervention highlighted by the ETC, also has obvious ethical implications - accuracy forms an important tenet of South African ethical codes (cf. Retief, 2002:39). The ethical implications of problems such as a lack of critical abilities and accountability, factual inaccuracy and the correct implementation and acknowledgement of sources (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:48-49) should therefore be stressed in the training and development of journalists. Issues such as balance and fairness should indeed be addressed more definitely, as the report (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:51) indicates.

Ethical considerations and indivudual responsibility However, even a basic skill like factual accuracy - which might be considered somewhat less complex than concepts such as fairness and balance - needs to be seen within its wider societal and ethical context, in order for its importance to be realised. Journalists should be reminded that misspelling, incorrect factual information and the inability to put it into context, not only reflect badly on themselves and their institutions, but in the long run erode the credibility of the media as a whole and prevents it from fulfilling important functions such as informing the public and acting as a watchdog. The low skills levels as far as sensitivity to South African issues is concerned (2002:51), more overtly contravene the basic normative ethical maxims of maximising truth while minimising harm and acting independently (Black et al., 1995:17-18, also quoted in Retief, 2002:22). The latter maxim - epitomising the role of a free press in a free society and recognizing the importance of individual responsibility as well as collaborative efforts to ensure good ethical decisions (Retief, 2002:22) - is especially neglected when reporters' enthusiasm and accountability towards reports are solely dependent on celebrity status or financial reward (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:52).

Ethics in practice Journalists do not readily perceive the discussion of ethics as a priority when faced with the pressure of deadlines, economic realities and huge workloads. They often also have a dislike of anything resembling academic pipe dreams. In their world, practice dictates, the Big Story does not allow itself to become ensnared in moral quandaries and the front page awaits. Such an argument often stems from the perception that media ethics is essentially a sermonising business, far removed from every-

142

Ecquid Novi

day realities. On the contrary - ethics has everything to do with reality. Journalists do not work in a vacuum but in a society in which they can cause great harm but also have a good influence. Journalism-bashing is, as Schadewald (2002) rightly states, not a new phenomenon and is not to the benefit of anyone concerned. What South African journalism needs is not more cynicism about its role in our fledgling democracy, but rather continued and dedicated analyses of its problems and potential in order to better serve the public. This quest is not restricted to journalists alone, but should be undertaken in partnership: tertiary institutions, industry and the public should all engage in sound, systematic and well-founded discussions on the way forward. Ethics should form part of all training programmes for journalists, but the ability to make ethical decisions should also be a criterium used in the evaluation of reporters by their institutions. The public should not eschew their role as partners in the communication process either. They should also voice their concerns in constructive ways that surpass emotive calls of disgust and rejection. In this process, the particularities of the South African context should be borne in mind. Discussions of media ethics should not only take account of work done internationally in this field, but should also be firmly rooted in local circumstances and needs. As Louis Day reminds us: Ethical decisions are always made within a specific context, which includes the political, social and cultural climate (Day, 1991:5, italics in original). This would also mean that journalists should study the social context in which they work and how the media interacts with society. Consequently, in both training and practice, attention should be paid as to how: mass media communication processes work, media affects behaviour, news reports form part of larger discourses which operate to perpetuate or resist certain power relations in society, language and images work in constructing a social reality, etc. These are all issues that should not be confined to academic discussions but are of such importance in a society like South Africa that they dare not be neglected in journalistic practice and public debate. The need for an ongoing debate on media ethics, media's role in society and the changing context in which South African journalists operate, is again highlighted by the Sanef report. If the report can succeed in creating this debate as a visible and permanent feature of the South African media landscape, it would have taken a big step towards ensuring the credibility of the media in the public's eyes.

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References Black, J., Steele, B. & Barney, R. 1995. Doing ethics in Journalism – A handbook with case studies. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Day, L. A. 1991. Ethics in media communications: Cases and controversies. Belmont: Wadsworth. Steyn, E. & De Beer, A.S. 2002. South African National Journalism Skills Audit: Final Report: www.scribe.co.za De Beer, A. S. & Froneman, J. D. 1994. The quest for media ethics: an introduction. Ecquid Novi 15(1):3-25. Froneman, J.D. 1994. Redes vir die gebrek aan 'n ingeligte, lewendige debat oor media-etiek. Ecquid Novi 15(1):123-128. Keeble, R. 2001. Ethics for journalists. London: Routledge. Kloot, L. 2002. Media has a lot of cleaning up to do if it is to avoid taking the blame for society's problems. Cape Times, 2002-05-29:9. Oosthuizen , L. M. 2002. Media ethics in the South African context. Lansdowne: Juta. Retief, J. 2002. Media ethics - An introduction to responsible journalism. Cape Town: Oxford University Press. Schadewald, B. 2002. 'We have met the enemy, and he is us'. Houston Business Journal. 2002-04-26. http://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2002/04/29/editorial1.html Snyman, P.G. 1994. Media ethics: a deontological approach. Ecquid Novi, 15(1):4370.

John Williams Principal planning professional in the policy and research division of the City of Cape Town, and teaches in the School of Government, University of Western Cape [[email protected]]

News reporting skills: some pertinent pedagogical implications Importance of a historical context This article briefly reviews some of the most salient findings of the Sanef audit and considers succinctly their implications for tertiary institutions responsible for the education and training of journalists. It specifically argues that the historical context influences the overall forms, dimensions and substance of social change within and across all institutions including

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the media.* Based on the Sanef Report, it concludes with some pedeagogical suggestions for tertiary institutions.

The complexity of social change: a veritable challenge for journalism The democratization of any society is usually a continuous and multifaceted process especially in countries emerging from centuries of authoritarian rule, such as South Africa. Indeed, since the birth of postapartheid South Africa in 1994, the dynamic nature of social change within and across multiple institutional sectors has often been assumed but seldom monitored on a systematic basis. And yet, it is precisely the accurate documentation and monitoring of change, both procedurally and substantively, that would contribute towards effective, enduring and meaningful participatory democratic practices in society at large. It is in this regard that the Sanef audit acquires its significance, as it graphically illustrates the host of challenges facing institutional transformation vis-avis the media sector as it seeks to become demographically more representative, structurally more inclusionary and paradigmatically more visionary. Most importantly, perhaps, the Sanef Report cogently illustrates the defining nature and overall import of the context within which social change occurs and the concomitant problems of capturing and representing such multi-dimensional changes within the media at large. Accordingly, this article briefly highlights some of the key findings of the Sanef audit with specific reference to their pedagogical implications for tertiary institutions [responsible for the education and training of journalists]. The raison d’etre of this article is thus predicated upon the recognition that the context of social change itself, is shot through with a myriad of ten*

Some observers would suggest, as they so readily do, that, in the South African context, poor academic performance is directly related to a weak educational foundation - a legacy of the Apartheid dispensation. Whilst former structural practices might indeed impact on a person’s current academic performance, such a direct linear linkage between the past dispensation and present academic performance is perhaps too reductionistic and simplistic as the configuration of socio-economic and cultural circumstances mediates in very complex ways the overall cognitive/intellectual capacity of humans (cf eg. Bergen, L Peter & Thomas Luckmann (1987). The Social Construction of Reality: A treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Penguin Books Resnick, Stephen A & Richard D Wolff (1987). Knowledge and Class: A Marxian critique of political economy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; Frederique, ApffelMarglin & Stephen Marglin (eds) (1996); Decolonizing Knowledge: From Development to Dialogue. Oxford: Clarendon Press; Giddens, Anthony & Jonathan Turner (eds) (1987). Social Theory Today. Oxford: Polity Press.

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References Black, J., Steele, B. & Barney, R. 1995. Doing ethics in Journalism – A handbook with case studies. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Day, L. A. 1991. Ethics in media communications: Cases and controversies. Belmont: Wadsworth. Steyn, E. & De Beer, A.S. 2002. South African National Journalism Skills Audit: Final Report: www.scribe.co.za De Beer, A. S. & Froneman, J. D. 1994. The quest for media ethics: an introduction. Ecquid Novi 15(1):3-25. Froneman, J.D. 1994. Redes vir die gebrek aan 'n ingeligte, lewendige debat oor media-etiek. Ecquid Novi 15(1):123-128. Keeble, R. 2001. Ethics for journalists. London: Routledge. Kloot, L. 2002. Media has a lot of cleaning up to do if it is to avoid taking the blame for society's problems. Cape Times, 2002-05-29:9. Oosthuizen , L. M. 2002. Media ethics in the South African context. Lansdowne: Juta. Retief, J. 2002. Media ethics - An introduction to responsible journalism. Cape Town: Oxford University Press. Schadewald, B. 2002. 'We have met the enemy, and he is us'. Houston Business Journal. 2002-04-26. http://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2002/04/29/editorial1.html Snyman, P.G. 1994. Media ethics: a deontological approach. Ecquid Novi, 15(1):4370.

John Williams Principal planning professional in the policy and research division of the City of Cape Town, and teaches in the School of Government, University of Western Cape [[email protected]]

News reporting skills: some pertinent pedagogical implications Importance of a historical context This article briefly reviews some of the most salient findings of the Sanef audit and considers succinctly their implications for tertiary institutions responsible for the education and training of journalists. It specifically argues that the historical context influences the overall forms, dimensions and substance of social change within and across all institutions including

144

Ecquid Novi

the media.* Based on the Sanef Report, it concludes with some pedeagogical suggestions for tertiary institutions.

The complexity of social change: a veritable challenge for journalism The democratization of any society is usually a continuous and multifaceted process especially in countries emerging from centuries of authoritarian rule, such as South Africa. Indeed, since the birth of postapartheid South Africa in 1994, the dynamic nature of social change within and across multiple institutional sectors has often been assumed but seldom monitored on a systematic basis. And yet, it is precisely the accurate documentation and monitoring of change, both procedurally and substantively, that would contribute towards effective, enduring and meaningful participatory democratic practices in society at large. It is in this regard that the Sanef audit acquires its significance, as it graphically illustrates the host of challenges facing institutional transformation vis-avis the media sector as it seeks to become demographically more representative, structurally more inclusionary and paradigmatically more visionary. Most importantly, perhaps, the Sanef Report cogently illustrates the defining nature and overall import of the context within which social change occurs and the concomitant problems of capturing and representing such multi-dimensional changes within the media at large. Accordingly, this article briefly highlights some of the key findings of the Sanef audit with specific reference to their pedagogical implications for tertiary institutions [responsible for the education and training of journalists]. The raison d’etre of this article is thus predicated upon the recognition that the context of social change itself, is shot through with a myriad of ten*

Some observers would suggest, as they so readily do, that, in the South African context, poor academic performance is directly related to a weak educational foundation - a legacy of the Apartheid dispensation. Whilst former structural practices might indeed impact on a person’s current academic performance, such a direct linear linkage between the past dispensation and present academic performance is perhaps too reductionistic and simplistic as the configuration of socio-economic and cultural circumstances mediates in very complex ways the overall cognitive/intellectual capacity of humans (cf eg. Bergen, L Peter & Thomas Luckmann (1987). The Social Construction of Reality: A treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Penguin Books Resnick, Stephen A & Richard D Wolff (1987). Knowledge and Class: A Marxian critique of political economy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; Frederique, ApffelMarglin & Stephen Marglin (eds) (1996); Decolonizing Knowledge: From Development to Dialogue. Oxford: Clarendon Press; Giddens, Anthony & Jonathan Turner (eds) (1987). Social Theory Today. Oxford: Polity Press.

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sions, contradictions and conflicts; hence its problematic nature. Paradoxically, it is precisely within the dialectical interstices of institutional change that there are located the structural spaces and opportunities for pedagogical intervention and transformative action as the prevailing context of journalism is fluid, open-ended and subject to constant change, even though the direction and rate of such change are not always constant, let alone predictable. Apart from these introductory comments on social change, the remainder of this article, sequentially, focuses on journalists’ reporting skills and suggests a number of pedagogical steps to address the observed lacunae highlighted in the Sanef Report. Here it is important to indicate that limited space and time preclude a detailed consideration of all the structural elements undergirding the problematic of acquiring, demonstrating, refining and assessing news reporting skills. Some salient findings of the Sanef Report The underlying and structuring premise of the Sanef Report [henceforth Report] is that in order to [re]present a particular reality as authentically as possible, the reporter has to display a basic knowledge of a specific context as well as be sensitive towards the complexity of a larger social reality to which a particular news story is inextricably linked. This presupposition of knowledge acquisition and possession, on the part of the news reporter, is furthermore predicated upon a whole range of interpretative and syntactical/semantic skills as illustrated in the Report. Based on ‘a situational analysis of journalism reporting, writing and accuracy skills among reporters with between 2 and 5 years experience’, the Report implies that the lack of appropriate skills contributes to the inability of reporters to ‘properly perform the task at hand’ (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:1, original emphasis). Pertinent issues impacting on the procedural and substantive nature of reporting the South African story in news media include: perceived mistrust between government and the media; challenges of transformation in the media industry; news coverage and comment on major socio-economic challenges; news, staff and infrastructural management; apparent lack of training; continuous juniorization of newsrooms and the need to obtain a clear profile of reporters and skills they might lack (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:2-3). According to the Report the problematic nature of the aforementioned structural elements informing journalism are confounded by the apparent lack of ‘practical knowledge and skills experience amongst journalism teachers’ (Steyn & De Beer, 2002, footnote 1). For example, according to the Report, between 60 and 94% of the reporters in the Metropolitan areas of Durban, Johannesburg,

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Port Elizabeth and Cape Town would fail a typical interview test scenario as they scored less than 50% in such an exercise. The average failure rate for South Africa as a whole would be as high as 82% (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:12).

Parochialism a recurring problem Reporters appear to have a very limited awareness and knowledge of local political issues, local and international sport, local and international culture, entertainment and media groups; local and international geography, international issues and science [Steyn & De Beer, 2002, footnotes 10-12). Equally important, reporters do not seem to reflect a nuanced understanding of societal issues such as racism, HIV/Aids. For example, ‘more than 26% did not know what was troubling element about the statement ‘The rape victim described the alleged rapist as a young black man’’. Similarly, 89% could not indicate the troubling element of the statement ‘Three million are thought to have died of Aids’’ instead of ‘Three million are thought to have died of Aids-related illnesses’ (Steyn & De Beer, 2002, footnote 13). Accordingly, it can be suggested that parochialism is a recurring problem as ‘a lack of resource (sic) (both human and financial) leads to a situation where junior reporters cannot find their feet in specific beats quickly enough. (Thus) they submit stories without taking into account all the relevant issues’ (Steyn & De Beer, 2002, footnote 34). This also means that ‘increasingly news is not thoroughly researched in view of tight deadlines to produce stories (Steyn & De Beer, 2002, footnote 35). Consequently, uni-dimensional, and often simplistic perspectives on news events abound since there is a lack of crossfertilization and associated intergenerational perspectives due to a lack of appropriate socializing amongst journalists that could be conducive to teaching/learning and mentoring (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:46-47, footnote 47). This means, amongst other weaknesses, reporters do not take into account the multiple nuances and contingent conditions associated with specific news events. Often critical feedback appears to be lacking thus undermining the operational and ethical considerations of fairness, responsibility and a semblance of truthfulness of specific news stories. These specific lacunae apparently arise from the fact that journalist students are not necessarily taught ‘the role of media in society (and that) objective truth does not exist, but that all media to a lesser or greater extent adhere to certain policies and align themselves with other societal forces’ (Steyn & De Beer, 2002, footnote 49). Hence the lack of accurate reporting even though accurate reporting does not necessarily mean ‘un-

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sions, contradictions and conflicts; hence its problematic nature. Paradoxically, it is precisely within the dialectical interstices of institutional change that there are located the structural spaces and opportunities for pedagogical intervention and transformative action as the prevailing context of journalism is fluid, open-ended and subject to constant change, even though the direction and rate of such change are not always constant, let alone predictable. Apart from these introductory comments on social change, the remainder of this article, sequentially, focuses on journalists’ reporting skills and suggests a number of pedagogical steps to address the observed lacunae highlighted in the Sanef Report. Here it is important to indicate that limited space and time preclude a detailed consideration of all the structural elements undergirding the problematic of acquiring, demonstrating, refining and assessing news reporting skills. Some salient findings of the Sanef Report The underlying and structuring premise of the Sanef Report [henceforth Report] is that in order to [re]present a particular reality as authentically as possible, the reporter has to display a basic knowledge of a specific context as well as be sensitive towards the complexity of a larger social reality to which a particular news story is inextricably linked. This presupposition of knowledge acquisition and possession, on the part of the news reporter, is furthermore predicated upon a whole range of interpretative and syntactical/semantic skills as illustrated in the Report. Based on ‘a situational analysis of journalism reporting, writing and accuracy skills among reporters with between 2 and 5 years experience’, the Report implies that the lack of appropriate skills contributes to the inability of reporters to ‘properly perform the task at hand’ (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:1, original emphasis). Pertinent issues impacting on the procedural and substantive nature of reporting the South African story in news media include: perceived mistrust between government and the media; challenges of transformation in the media industry; news coverage and comment on major socio-economic challenges; news, staff and infrastructural management; apparent lack of training; continuous juniorization of newsrooms and the need to obtain a clear profile of reporters and skills they might lack (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:2-3). According to the Report the problematic nature of the aforementioned structural elements informing journalism are confounded by the apparent lack of ‘practical knowledge and skills experience amongst journalism teachers’ (Steyn & De Beer, 2002, footnote 1). For example, according to the Report, between 60 and 94% of the reporters in the Metropolitan areas of Durban, Johannesburg,

146

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Port Elizabeth and Cape Town would fail a typical interview test scenario as they scored less than 50% in such an exercise. The average failure rate for South Africa as a whole would be as high as 82% (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:12).

Parochialism a recurring problem Reporters appear to have a very limited awareness and knowledge of local political issues, local and international sport, local and international culture, entertainment and media groups; local and international geography, international issues and science [Steyn & De Beer, 2002, footnotes 10-12). Equally important, reporters do not seem to reflect a nuanced understanding of societal issues such as racism, HIV/Aids. For example, ‘more than 26% did not know what was troubling element about the statement ‘The rape victim described the alleged rapist as a young black man’’. Similarly, 89% could not indicate the troubling element of the statement ‘Three million are thought to have died of Aids’’ instead of ‘Three million are thought to have died of Aids-related illnesses’ (Steyn & De Beer, 2002, footnote 13). Accordingly, it can be suggested that parochialism is a recurring problem as ‘a lack of resource (sic) (both human and financial) leads to a situation where junior reporters cannot find their feet in specific beats quickly enough. (Thus) they submit stories without taking into account all the relevant issues’ (Steyn & De Beer, 2002, footnote 34). This also means that ‘increasingly news is not thoroughly researched in view of tight deadlines to produce stories (Steyn & De Beer, 2002, footnote 35). Consequently, uni-dimensional, and often simplistic perspectives on news events abound since there is a lack of crossfertilization and associated intergenerational perspectives due to a lack of appropriate socializing amongst journalists that could be conducive to teaching/learning and mentoring (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:46-47, footnote 47). This means, amongst other weaknesses, reporters do not take into account the multiple nuances and contingent conditions associated with specific news events. Often critical feedback appears to be lacking thus undermining the operational and ethical considerations of fairness, responsibility and a semblance of truthfulness of specific news stories. These specific lacunae apparently arise from the fact that journalist students are not necessarily taught ‘the role of media in society (and that) objective truth does not exist, but that all media to a lesser or greater extent adhere to certain policies and align themselves with other societal forces’ (Steyn & De Beer, 2002, footnote 49). Hence the lack of accurate reporting even though accurate reporting does not necessarily mean ‘un-

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

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critically singing the praises of those in authority’. According to the Report, exposure of wrongful deeds should be viewed in its positive light as it, ideally, would contribute to a greater sense of accountability to the citizenry, thereby reinforcing the principles and efforts that promote ‘nation-building’ (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:46). In this regard, consider, for example, the palpable institutional hostility in the wake of the recent, graphic exposure of the alleged corruption of the Correctional Services in the City of Bloemfontein on SABC 3, Special Assignment, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 at 21:30 (Cape Times, 19 June 2002; 20 June 2002).

Absencse of an elan vita and esprit de corps Compounding the aforegoing structural problems is the apparent absence of elan vital and an appropriate esprit de corps. Thus self becomes more important than the responsibility to the broader collectivity of news reporters. Reporters appear to compete for celebrity status and apparently display a lack of professionalism, pride and overall commitment to journalism as a profession (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:52-54). Specifically, commitment to news and quality of news appears to be less important than the image of the reporter. Thus passion for one’s work seems to have been replaced by the material gains associated with the job. Indeed, observes the Report ‘(T)he majority of younger reporters are of the opinion that their skills and expertise can/should be ‘bought’ for a specific price, and that they will render a specific level of performance for the company/organisation in return’ (Steyn & De Beer, 2002, footnote 56). This means that for some reporters news no longer has an inherent value but that its value in terms of accuracy, objectivity, veracity, and overall reliability is a function of finance, monetary payment and material gain. In terms of this scenario its overall quality and import being subject to the cash nexus, it can be argued that news has become a commodity for which one pays, and thus has itself become commodified. Hence one’s awareness of the complexity of one’s circumstances is increasingly contingent on one’s ability to pay for quality information that informs and structures one’s understanding of one’s specific existential reality. The Sanef audit thus has major pedagogical implications for tertiary institutions as illustrated in the ensuing and concluding section.

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Some pedagogical implications of the Sanef audit for tertiary institutions Against the backdrop of the preceding index of lacunae in newsrooms, especially amongst junior reporters, it is suggested that tertiary institutions carefully consider the pedagogical implications of the Sanef Report. Hence it is is proposed that there be five (5) integrated phases, viz: instruction phase, guidance phase, mentoring phase, self-reliance phase and evaluation phase. These phases are described here to elucidate their intrinsic pedagogical substance and merit. Though described separately, these phases should be considered as constituting interrelated components of the research 'skilling' exercise and, as such, operate, in practice, as constituent elements of any particular course / module, session or exercise (cf eg. Myrdal, 1969; Rabinow & Sullivan, 1987; Fay, 1987; Rosen, 1985 Webster, 1991). Instruction Phase comprises the teaching/lecturing/discussion of core and elective courses. Students are equipped with solid theoretical and conceptual base and are encouraged and expected to think about and identify particular research topics for investigation during their education and training as journalists (cf eg. Reason & Rowan, 1981; Rabinow & Sullivan, 1987). Guidance/Pedagogical Phase constitutes a key epistemological component as students are encouraged to develop certain concepts, ideas, theories in relation to a particular research topics (cf eg. Wilson, 1988). Mentoring/Receptive Phase presents an opportunity for students’ research areas to be scrutinized by adequately qualified and competent supervisors. During this phase suggestions are proffered with the view to enhance conceptual clarity and theoretical rigour. Furthermore, modes of inquiry are discussed, assessed and recommended (cf eg. Katzer et al, 1982; Oyen, 1990; Tambiah, 1990). Self-reliance/self-critique/reflective Phase is a quality-determining period during which students develop their respective research proposals based on acquired knowledge, the accurate and clear delineation of a specific research problem and the mastery of the requiiste research methodology. Research proposals are subjected to intense scrutiny by means of cross-referencing during class discussions, written and / oral assignments. In the light of continuous refinement, clarification and overall elucidation acquired through debating and testing of central ideas and key proposi-

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critically singing the praises of those in authority’. According to the Report, exposure of wrongful deeds should be viewed in its positive light as it, ideally, would contribute to a greater sense of accountability to the citizenry, thereby reinforcing the principles and efforts that promote ‘nation-building’ (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:46). In this regard, consider, for example, the palpable institutional hostility in the wake of the recent, graphic exposure of the alleged corruption of the Correctional Services in the City of Bloemfontein on SABC 3, Special Assignment, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 at 21:30 (Cape Times, 19 June 2002; 20 June 2002).

Absencse of an elan vita and esprit de corps Compounding the aforegoing structural problems is the apparent absence of elan vital and an appropriate esprit de corps. Thus self becomes more important than the responsibility to the broader collectivity of news reporters. Reporters appear to compete for celebrity status and apparently display a lack of professionalism, pride and overall commitment to journalism as a profession (Steyn & De Beer, 2002:52-54). Specifically, commitment to news and quality of news appears to be less important than the image of the reporter. Thus passion for one’s work seems to have been replaced by the material gains associated with the job. Indeed, observes the Report ‘(T)he majority of younger reporters are of the opinion that their skills and expertise can/should be ‘bought’ for a specific price, and that they will render a specific level of performance for the company/organisation in return’ (Steyn & De Beer, 2002, footnote 56). This means that for some reporters news no longer has an inherent value but that its value in terms of accuracy, objectivity, veracity, and overall reliability is a function of finance, monetary payment and material gain. In terms of this scenario its overall quality and import being subject to the cash nexus, it can be argued that news has become a commodity for which one pays, and thus has itself become commodified. Hence one’s awareness of the complexity of one’s circumstances is increasingly contingent on one’s ability to pay for quality information that informs and structures one’s understanding of one’s specific existential reality. The Sanef audit thus has major pedagogical implications for tertiary institutions as illustrated in the ensuing and concluding section.

148

Ecquid Novi

Some pedagogical implications of the Sanef audit for tertiary institutions Against the backdrop of the preceding index of lacunae in newsrooms, especially amongst junior reporters, it is suggested that tertiary institutions carefully consider the pedagogical implications of the Sanef Report. Hence it is is proposed that there be five (5) integrated phases, viz: instruction phase, guidance phase, mentoring phase, self-reliance phase and evaluation phase. These phases are described here to elucidate their intrinsic pedagogical substance and merit. Though described separately, these phases should be considered as constituting interrelated components of the research 'skilling' exercise and, as such, operate, in practice, as constituent elements of any particular course / module, session or exercise (cf eg. Myrdal, 1969; Rabinow & Sullivan, 1987; Fay, 1987; Rosen, 1985 Webster, 1991). Instruction Phase comprises the teaching/lecturing/discussion of core and elective courses. Students are equipped with solid theoretical and conceptual base and are encouraged and expected to think about and identify particular research topics for investigation during their education and training as journalists (cf eg. Reason & Rowan, 1981; Rabinow & Sullivan, 1987). Guidance/Pedagogical Phase constitutes a key epistemological component as students are encouraged to develop certain concepts, ideas, theories in relation to a particular research topics (cf eg. Wilson, 1988). Mentoring/Receptive Phase presents an opportunity for students’ research areas to be scrutinized by adequately qualified and competent supervisors. During this phase suggestions are proffered with the view to enhance conceptual clarity and theoretical rigour. Furthermore, modes of inquiry are discussed, assessed and recommended (cf eg. Katzer et al, 1982; Oyen, 1990; Tambiah, 1990). Self-reliance/self-critique/reflective Phase is a quality-determining period during which students develop their respective research proposals based on acquired knowledge, the accurate and clear delineation of a specific research problem and the mastery of the requiiste research methodology. Research proposals are subjected to intense scrutiny by means of cross-referencing during class discussions, written and / oral assignments. In the light of continuous refinement, clarification and overall elucidation acquired through debating and testing of central ideas and key proposi-

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tions, a specific proposal is written up as a research prospectus in terms of the requirements of the particular Graduate School (cf eg. Frederique & Marglin, 1996; Fay, 1987). Evaluation Phase presents the student with the challenge and opportunity to execute the proposed research and submit a duly completed Research Report for final examination to the particular Graduate School. Whilst the preceding outline of the different phases is highly simplified, it captures, nonetheless, the key components of rigorous scholarship. Sound scholarship, though often a time-consuming, energy-demanding and thus tedious process, can, nonetheless, be assisted by teachers, lecturers and supervisors by inculcating the following skills in the preparation and presentation of their lectures, discussions and examinations and would greatly contribute to resourceful and skilled journalists (cf eg. Midgley, 1989). Teaching/inculcating research skills With the view to enhance, amongst others, the preceding research and analytical skills, it is suggested that, throughout a Journalism Programme, the following pedagogical goals should be embraced and promoted: Structural coherence - integrate courses across disciplines, i.e. break down artificial boundaries, as problems in the real world do not emerge within specific disciplinary boundaries, without unduly compromising the principle of rigour, depth, and breadth within a specific discipline (Douglas, 1976; Sayer, 1984).

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Practical engagement - encourage students to choose core and elective courses with a view to enhance their personal development and advance specific goals in society, ie without being reductionistic or falling into the trap of a narrowly-conceived pragmatism (cf eg. Hofmeyr & Muller, 1988; Midgley, 1989). In their interaction with students - formal lecturing sessions, class discussions, one-to-one consultations, assessments of assignments, oral and written examinations - teachers /lecturers and supervisors must establish (evaluation phase, above) whether or not a particular student has acquired/and refined his/her research skills.

Determining the requisite journalistic skills of students Pedagogically, it is suggested, that the news reporting/research skills should at least include : Epistemological skills – i.e. the ability to probe the origin, nature and development of specific sets of knowledge in relation to a specific subject matter (cf eg. Sartre, 1972; Kafka, 1979; Lyotard, 1987). Hermeneutic skills – i.e. the ability to interpret, in a rigorous manner, the empirical veracity and conceptual dimensions of certain assumptions and truth claims (cf eg. Hekman, 1986; Ecco, 1976; Shukmann, 1988). Ontological skills – i.e. the ability to demonstrate the empirical existence of particular phenomena as historically driven entities within an ensemble of ever-changing relations of power (cf eg. Horgan, 1996).

Analytical rigour - expose students to different methodologies/philosophies of approaching a specific research problem, topical issue, academic question, life-oriented challenge, yet realizing that undue analysis of specific problems could easily lead to paralysis at the level of praxis, of practical engagement in the real world (cf eg. Rosen, 1985; Bourdieu, 1991).

Heuristic skills – i.e. the ability to interrogate the existing evidence rigorously as to its empirical, theoretical and conceptual basis with the view to establish/assess assumed, inferred, imputed relationships and perspectives in an open-ended and flexible manner (cf eg. Wilson, 1988; Giddens & Turner, 1987).

Non-reductionistic discourse - demonstrate, through conscious practice, the limitations of certain conceptual, empirical approaches by offering alternative viewpoints, frameworks of reference, without losing sight of historically-driven trends and patterns in human development (cf eg. Kuhn, 1962; Lyotard, 1987).

A systematic approach is a sine qua non for the effective teaching and inculcation of the foregoing pedagogical skills that would ensure the education and training of competent and responsible journalists. Hence, the need for careful planning of research exercises, the setting of timeframes, the identification of aspects and sections of field work that should be completed within a stipulated period in relation to specific courses and

Deuze et al.,: Comments on the Sanef National Skills Audit

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tions, a specific proposal is written up as a research prospectus in terms of the requirements of the particular Graduate School (cf eg. Frederique & Marglin, 1996; Fay, 1987). Evaluation Phase presents the student with the challenge and opportunity to execute the proposed research and submit a duly completed Research Report for final examination to the particular Graduate School. Whilst the preceding outline of the different phases is highly simplified, it captures, nonetheless, the key components of rigorous scholarship. Sound scholarship, though often a time-consuming, energy-demanding and thus tedious process, can, nonetheless, be assisted by teachers, lecturers and supervisors by inculcating the following skills in the preparation and presentation of their lectures, discussions and examinations and would greatly contribute to resourceful and skilled journalists (cf eg. Midgley, 1989). Teaching/inculcating research skills With the view to enhance, amongst others, the preceding research and analytical skills, it is suggested that, throughout a Journalism Programme, the following pedagogical goals should be embraced and promoted: Structural coherence - integrate courses across disciplines, i.e. break down artificial boundaries, as problems in the real world do not emerge within specific disciplinary boundaries, without unduly compromising the principle of rigour, depth, and breadth within a specific discipline (Douglas, 1976; Sayer, 1984).

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Practical engagement - encourage students to choose core and elective courses with a view to enhance their personal development and advance specific goals in society, ie without being reductionistic or falling into the trap of a narrowly-conceived pragmatism (cf eg. Hofmeyr & Muller, 1988; Midgley, 1989). In their interaction with students - formal lecturing sessions, class discussions, one-to-one consultations, assessments of assignments, oral and written examinations - teachers /lecturers and supervisors must establish (evaluation phase, above) whether or not a particular student has acquired/and refined his/her research skills.

Determining the requisite journalistic skills of students Pedagogically, it is suggested, that the news reporting/research skills should at least include : Epistemological skills – i.e. the ability to probe the origin, nature and development of specific sets of knowledge in relation to a specific subject matter (cf eg. Sartre, 1972; Kafka, 1979; Lyotard, 1987). Hermeneutic skills – i.e. the ability to interpret, in a rigorous manner, the empirical veracity and conceptual dimensions of certain assumptions and truth claims (cf eg. Hekman, 1986; Ecco, 1976; Shukmann, 1988). Ontological skills – i.e. the ability to demonstrate the empirical existence of particular phenomena as historically driven entities within an ensemble of ever-changing relations of power (cf eg. Horgan, 1996).

Analytical rigour - expose students to different methodologies/philosophies of approaching a specific research problem, topical issue, academic question, life-oriented challenge, yet realizing that undue analysis of specific problems could easily lead to paralysis at the level of praxis, of practical engagement in the real world (cf eg. Rosen, 1985; Bourdieu, 1991).

Heuristic skills – i.e. the ability to interrogate the existing evidence rigorously as to its empirical, theoretical and conceptual basis with the view to establish/assess assumed, inferred, imputed relationships and perspectives in an open-ended and flexible manner (cf eg. Wilson, 1988; Giddens & Turner, 1987).

Non-reductionistic discourse - demonstrate, through conscious practice, the limitations of certain conceptual, empirical approaches by offering alternative viewpoints, frameworks of reference, without losing sight of historically-driven trends and patterns in human development (cf eg. Kuhn, 1962; Lyotard, 1987).

A systematic approach is a sine qua non for the effective teaching and inculcation of the foregoing pedagogical skills that would ensure the education and training of competent and responsible journalists. Hence, the need for careful planning of research exercises, the setting of timeframes, the identification of aspects and sections of field work that should be completed within a stipulated period in relation to specific courses and

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lectures, the regular assessment of work and the need for requisite and regular feedback to students.

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Conclusion

Lizette Rabe

This article argued that the Sanef audit illustrates that the context of institutional change is shot through with a myriad of tensions, contradictions and conflicts; hence its problematic nature. Even so, it recognizes that it is within the dialectical interstices of institutional change that there are located the structural spaces and opportunities for pedagogical intervention and transformative action. Hence the pivotal role played by tertiary institutions of education and training to ensure that students of journalism acquire and demonstrate the requisite professional competencies prior to their debut as researchers, interpreters and reporters of specific news stories within the media sector. Indeed, journalists do not operate on the basis of a tabula rasa, nor are they merely the producers of specific news stories. On the contrary, they are often the architects of our specific understanding of society, its problems, anxieties, hopes and dreams. Thus, as so copiously illustrated by the Sanef Report, they should take their tasks, if not vocation, seriously – they dare not fail generations, yet to be!

Eve-olution: the status of female v o i c e i n S o u th A f ri ca n m ed i a Abstract What is the status of women in South African media, both as providers of and subjects in media? The stereotypical representation of women in news is questioned against an historical overview of women as news providers. Not only is there a need to focus on gender in media, but also the position of black women in media. A new mindset in media offices must be reached before women can make significant progress as news providers and news subjects. A new definition of news is also necessary, and the need for a gender/diversity approach in the media classroom is suggested. Only once all these issues are addressed the female voice can respond equally to ‘ecquid novi?’ – ‘what is new(s)’? Wat is die status van vroue in die media, as verskaffers van en onderwerpe in die media? Die stereotipe uitbeelding van vroue in die nuus word bevraagteken teen ’n historiese oorsig van vroue as nuusverskaffers. Nie alleen is daar ’n behoefte om op gender in media te fokus nie, maar ook die posisie van die swart vrou in media. ’n Nuwe denkraamwerk in die mediakantoor moet posvat voordat vroue beduidende vooruitgang as nuusverskaffers en as nuusonderwerpe kan maak. ’n Nuwe definisie van nuus is nodig. Voorts word die nodigheid van ’n gender/diversiteits aanslag in die mediaklaskamer voorgestel. Slegs dan kan die vroulike stem met gelyke status antwoord op ‘equid novi’? Keywords: Gender, media providers, media representation, media subjects, media training, news definitions, South Africa, stereotypes *

Dr Lizette Rabe [[email protected]]), since January 2001 professor and head of the department of Journalism at the University of Stellenbosch, was an honours student of the first class of 1978 when the department was established. This article is an edited version of Rabe’s lecture on accepting the chair of journalism professor at Stellenbosch University. Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa. Tel/fax + 27 (0) 21 808 3488.