TRANSATLANTIC VIEWS ON JOURNALISM EDUCATION BEFORE AND AFTER WORLD WAR II

Abstract

This article provides a transnational perspective on the development of journalism education in the United States and Europe. It embraces the founding of the first journalism schools in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century to the establishment of new university-based programs in significant Western European countries during the late 1960s and 1970s. Both before and after World War II, academic training for the profession of journalism versus on-the-job apprenticeship system of “learning by doing” became a frequent dilemma and controversial topic. Beyond a comparative study of the state of the art in different countries, we attempt to show how the so-called “American model” in journalism education was viewed from Europe and vice versa. As a result, some conclusions about the accuracy or distortion of those views are reached. Special emphasis is placed on the origins of some misconceptions resulting from certain oversimplifications rooted on both sides of the Atlantic.

Keywords:

• Europe
• journalism education
• journalism history
• profession of journalism
• United States

Notes

1. Letter from Carl A. Sauer, Assistant Chief, Division of Libraries and Institutes, Department of State, to Norval Neil Luxon, Secretary of AASDJ (21 January 1947), AEJMC-Archives, Box 44, Folder 10.