Mismatch between Theory and Practice? Perceptions of Ethiopian Journalists towards Applying Journalism Education in Professional News Production

ABSTRACT

This study scrutinizes perceptions of Ethiopian journalists towards the application of journalism knowledge and skills into practice. Through individual interviews and focus group discussions with journalists who work in both the private and state broadcast media, the study discloses the mismatch between the essence of journalism education and media practice in Ethiopia. Although journalism education plays a role in terms of the advancement of journalists’ theoretical knowledge, the respondents hardly believe that their practices live up to the principles of the profession. Accordingly, two views stand out. One is a tendency to believe that journalism education is unable to supply the input needed to support the local practices owing to the disposition of the curriculum to “Western” journalism values. The other is the attribution of the assumed disconnection between academic knowledge and journalism practice in Ethiopia to structural factors, such as unfavourable political conditions and excessive organizational interests.

KEYWORDS:

• Application
• Ethiopia
• journalism education
• perception of journalists
• theory and practice
• mismatch

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 He came to power in April 2018.

2 It was epitomized by the Press Proclamation (No. 34/1992), which was later repealed and replaced by the Freedom of Mass Media and Access to Information Proclamation (No. 590/2008).

3 Federal Negarit Gazeta, Proclamation No. 652/2009. Despite the prime minister’s promise to rectify it, this law is still functional.

4 In 2006, EMMTI—as an undergraduate division—merged with the School of Journalism and Communication at Addis Ababa University (Birhanu 2006; Skjerdal 2011).

5 Accreditation is in process for MA in journalism and communication, but journalism is given as a minor in the departments of Oromo language teaching and English language teaching.

6 Curriculum modularization is a process of organizing parts of a curriculum based on their themes.

7 AAU, mainly due to its undergraduate programme structure where print and broadcast journalism operates in different departments, may not have such similarities with the other universities.

8 Original document in Amharic.