Journalism education in the post-truth era: an exploration of the voices of journalism students in Greece and Cyprus

ABSTRACT

Journalism is in a state of flux and so is journalism education. The present study engages in a comparative qualitative analysis focusing on the viewpoints of journalism students in Greece and in Cyprus regarding journalism education in the post–truth era, media literacy, and journalism quality. Drawing upon evidence from four focus groups conducted in the journalism/communication departments of two public universities in Greece and Cyprus, the findings show highly similar attitudes between the two departments. In particular, it was found that journalism students acknowledge the need for journalists’ increased responsibility towards their publics and emphasize the necessity of (normative) skills and practices as important means in the direction of quality journalism; ICT-related journalistic skills, in-depth research, specialization, impartiality and verification, topic plurality and avoidance of agenda-setting stereotypes.

KEYWORDS:

• Journalism education
• media literacy
• quality journalism
• fake news
• Greece
• Cyprus

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Because one of the two departments has a relatively low number of fourth-year students in specialized areas (i.e. journalism) in order to safeguard the anonymity of interviewees, the departments/universities are not identified by name.

2 Please see Appendix (p.1) for the full interview guide.

3 Amir was the first Afghan student in Greece that he was drawn to hold the Greek flag in the parade of the 28th October 2017 but he didn’t finally hold it but he only carried the sign with the name of the school. Due to this fact there was heavy news coverage with opposing opinions and comments on the topic by the majority of the Greek media.

4 ‘Greek Hoaxes’ is an independent fact-checking organization that debunks fake news in the Greek-speaking internet (see https://www.ellinikahoaxes.gr/ (in Greek), 25.6.2020).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sofia Theodosiadou

Dr. Sofia Theodosiadou is Assistant Professor (Adjunct) at the School of Early Childhood Education, Faculty of Education at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece). She has been an Assistant Professor (Adjunct) of Communication and Media studies at the School of Journalism and Media Studies of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and at several other departments in Greece. Her research interests lie in the field of media literacy, radio studies, music radio and children and media. She has also been working as a radio and magazine journalist in Athens and Thessaloniki. She has been a full trainee at the BBC World Service, London, UK as an EU scholar.

Paschalia (Lia) Spyridou

Paschalia (Lia) Spyridou  is Assistant Professor at the Department of Public Communication at Cyprus University of Technology. Her research interests lie in the field of digital journalism studies. She has published on topics related to participatory journalism, media convergence, news personalization and political communication. She has been the scientific coordinator of two Erasmus+ projects (ΜΑΤΕ and MediaLab) and worked as a researcher in H2020 RePAST project. She is currently coordinating the H2020 DEMOTEC project, which focuses on participatory budgeting, including the role of journalism in mediating democratic innovations.

Panagiotou Nikos

Panagiotou Nikos is Associate Professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Media Communication, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and since 2019 he is the Director of the “Peace Journalism Laboratory”. He is DAAD Scholar to Deutsche Welle. He has been a Google Research Scholar, Chevening Scholar of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Scholar at Sabanci University, Scholar of the State of Luxembourg, RCAP Scholar, APU University, Japan, and Scholar to Beijing Foreign Studies University. He is the initiator and organizer of “Thessaloniki International Media Summer Academy”. He is a member of the advisory board for Networking Knowledge, War and Media Network, Member of the board of Municipal Company of Information, and Communication of Thessaloniki, member of Radicalization Awareness Network of European Union and member of International Relations Committee of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He is also the Director of the “Digital Communication Network Southeast Europe Hub”, which is a consortium of Aristotle University, Digital Communication Network, non-profits, public and private organizations and companies, working in the field of digital communication, social impact campaigns, technology and innovation.

Dimitra L. Milioni

Dimitra L. Milioni is an Associate Professor in Media Studies at the Cyprus University of Technology. She holds a BSc in Journalism and Media Studies and a PhD in New Media and Communication from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Her research focuses on critical approaches to the study of media and communication technologies and their impact on the democratic public sphere. She has published on topics relating to media, media audiences, journalism, communication technologies, and social and political conflict. She is currently coordinating the H2020 RePAST project, which focuses on the analysis of conflict discourses about troubled pasts, including the journalistic and citizen-led media. She has directed or co-directed five more research projects, most of them with multiple partners, and she has participated as a researcher and national coordinator in four more international projects (e.g. Worlds of Journalism Study, World Internet Project). Her research interests include alternative and participatory media, protest and social movements, political communication, audience participation, and critical data/algorithm studies.

Papa Venetia

Papa Venetia is a lecturer in Journalism and Media Studies at the Department of Social & Political Sciences, University of Cyprus. She has received her PhD in Communication and Internet Studies from the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) and her MA and BA from the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, in France. Her current research interests lie in the fields of new and alternative media, internet politics, media literacy, online communities, and social movements. She is currently the coordinator of the research lab DAT-ACT at the University of Cyprus working on the emerging big data ecology through innovative and advanced methodological tools. She has published several scientific articles in well-known, referred journals in the field of Media and Communication studies such as the European Journal of Communication, the Information, Communication and Society and Javnost - The Public. She is the co-author of the book Mobilisations Numeriques: Politiques du conflit et technologies médiatiques (Les Presses des Mines, 2017).