JOURNALISM EDUCATION IN SLOVENIA

Abstract

This article presents the findings of the first research into editors’ views of journalism education in Slovenia. The results of a mail survey and in-depth interviews reveal that although the vast majority of editors are not particularly familiar with the curriculum of current journalism studies, they identified a broad general knowledge and practical journalistic knowledge as the curriculum's advantages, with—inconsistently—the latter also being described as the curriculum's main deficiency, together with the lack of any knowledge of special fields such as law and economics. The editors’ negative attitudes to journalism education are grounded less in actual knowledge of what the Journalism Faculty offers its students than a priori convictions and stereotypes about journalism graduates being incompetent theorists. Factors in the media and in society that might be hindering journalists’ professionalism are overlooked, while the blame for editors’ negative experiences with journalism graduates is almost exclusively ascribed to the Faculty. Although the Slovenian university journalism curriculum has been reformed several times in the past few decades, the old image of the Faculty of Social Sciences as a remnant of the old communist political school is still firmly grounded in the mentality of Slovenians, yet rejected by the editors.

Keywords:

• editors
• journalism education
• Journalism Faculty
• professional competence
• Slovenia
• stereotypes

Notes

1. In 2005, the new Law on Public Radio and Television was adopted, which sets up a system of subjecting editorial policies to a parliamentary majority. In 2006, a new Mass Media Law was adopted, which introduced a more detailed right to correction, transforming it into a right to exclusive access to editorial content.

2. For example, http://crnkovic.blog.siol.net/2007/07/04/plagiat/#comments, accessed 5 July 2007.

3. See http://24ur.com/bin/article.php?article_id=3101304&show_media=60031076, accessed 6 July 2007. A journalist from the public radio broadcaster informed listeners that the first hit on YouTube for Janša (=the surname of the Slovenian Prime Minister) is “from the dog world”, since a dog with this name can be seen. The next morning the public radio station's director sacked the journalist and a public radio news programme editor offered a protest resignation. Due to strong public pressure, the director's decision was retracted.

4. The mail survey forms part of a wider research into Slovenian editors’ views on journalism identity, professional competence, and ethics. The results referring to these topics were presented by the authors at the IAMCR 2007 Paris Conference (see Laban and Poler Kovačič, 2007).

5. The questionnaire was divided into five sections, one of them addressing questions about the editors’ knowledge of the journalism studies curriculum and their attitudes to university education for journalists. The other sections dealt with the editors’ views on professional journalistic competence, ethics, and the understanding of journalism.

6. When planning the survey, the researchers were aware of the fact that the biggest problem with mail questionnaires is a low response rate (see Neuman, 2006, p. 299); nonetheless, this methodology was selected due to resource constraints. However, an effort was made to increase the response by following most of the recommendations suggested by Neuman (2006, p. 298) and De Vaus (2002, pp. 134–7). A high non-response might be partly expected, considering the experience of the Journalism Chair at the Faculty of Social Sciences mentioned in the conclusion of this article. On the other hand, it was partially surprising because getting a good response is usually easier if the sample is composed of motivated, well-educated individuals (see Fowler, 2002, p. 49). The assumption was that mass media editors meet these criteria: it was assumed that they are highly motivated to make their opinions heard and considered by the Faculty, as the lack of such co-operation has been a reproach frequently made by media professionals in Slovenia in the last few decades.

7. The in-depth interviews were carried out by Igor Vobič, a journalism graduate with journalistic experience, a doctoral student in communication science, a researcher at the Social Communication Research Centre and a teaching assistant in journalism courses at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana. These references enabled the interviewer to become an active participant; as usual in the case of field interviews, “a mutual sharing of experiences” (Neuman, 2006, p. 406) was involved as the interviewer had been instructed by the researchers to not only ask (open-ended) questions but also to listen, express an interest in the responses, and to encourage elaboration.

8. The Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ljubljana has been actively involved in co-operating with foreign universities in student and faculty exchange programmes. The Faculty also formally participates in the European Socrates and Erasmus programmes, while foreign experts regularly lecture in various programmes as a result of individual initiatives and informal arrangements (see http://old.fdv.uni-lj.si/anglescina/default.htm, accessed 13 July 2007).

9. For example, www.finance.si/forumi, www.24ur.com, http://medijski.blog.siol.net, http://pavel.blog.iskreni.net, www.dnevnik.si.

10. The information comes from the first-hand experience of one of the authors, Melita Poler Kovačič, who was the Head of Journalism Chair at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana from 2002 to 2007, and was in charge of co-ordinating the reform of graduate and postgraduate journalism studies in 2004–5.