Study Journalism
Journalism Education - Australia
By John
Henningham, Director, Jschool: Journalism Education & Training Journalism is a thriving occupation in Australia,
with major commercial and public media organisations publishing print and
broadcast media throughout the country. Print media include two national
daily newspapers (The Australian and the Australian Financial Review), 10
metropolitan dailies (including the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age, the
Herald Sun, the Daily Telegraph and the Courier-Mail) in the state and
territory capital cities, almost 50 regional dailies and hundreds of
non-daily newspapers in regional areas and in metropolitan suburbs, plus
mass circulation magazines and hundreds of specialist magazines. Three major commercial television networks (Seven,
Nine and Ten) share spectrum space with regional networks and with two
public corporations (the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Special
Broadcasting Service), together with cable and satellite pay-TV (dominated
by Foxtel). Radio stations thrive in metropolitan and regional areas, most
linked to private chains or part of the ABC, which also broadcasts
internationally through Radio Australia and Asia Pacific television. Internet has penetrated widely, with 70 percent of
Australians having internet access: as in other countries the net has become
a medium of news dissemination by existing print and broadcast publishers as
well as thousands of special interest publishers, in addition to bloggers
and other individuals. There is also a thriving market in non-English
language mass communication, with newspapers, radio, TV and internet
publications in dozens of languages spoken by the range of immigrants to
Australia from non-English-speaking backgrounds. There are about 6000 journalists working full-time
for mainstream news publications, with thousands more working for specialist
publications, magazines and the internet as well as in freelance journalism.
Australian journalism has benefited from and
contributed to mass media and journalism internationally. Global media
billionaire Rupert Murdoch is from Australia (and controls two-thirds of
Australia's major newspapers as well as pay-TV), while Australians have been
appointed editors of leading British and U.S. newspapers including The Times
and the New York Post. Until the 1970s most training in journalism was
provided by the industry through on-the-job cadetships, but today most
journalism recruits are graduates of the two dozen public and private
journalism schools operating across the country. Recruits must still
normally complete a one-year cadetship before becoming a graded, or J1,
journalist. Major industry groups have recently reintroduced in-service
training programs and some newspapers are active in recruiting graduates of
other disciplines, such as business, law, economics or health sciences. Each state capital has at least one journalism
course, while some have several. University journalism "schools" are
administratively sub-sets of broader communication or media studies
departments, rather than independent journalism departments as in some
countries. Existing university journalism courses in metropolitan areas are
taught in: Adelaide: University of South Australia Brisbane: Griffith University; Queensland University
of Technology; University of Queensland Canberra: University of Canberra Hobart: University of Tasmania Melbourne: Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Perth: Curtin University; Edith Cowan University;
Murdoch University Sydney: University of Technology Sydney; University
of Western Sydney. Nationally-accredited private journalism colleges in
Australia, offering one-year diplomas, are: Brisbane: Jschool: Journalism Education & Training Sydney: Macleay College. Regional universities which teach journalism are: New South Wales: Charles Sturt University
(Bathurst); Newcastle University; Southern Cross University (Lismore);
University of Wollongong Queensland: Bond University (Gold Coast private
university); James Cook University (Townsville); University of Central
Queensland (Rockhampton); University of Southern Queensland (Toowoomba);
University of the Sunshine Coast (Sippy Downs). Victoria: Deakin University (Geelong -- also has a
Melbourne campus); Monash University (Gippsland campus) The universities offer three-year degree courses in
journalism either as Bachelor of Journalism or Bachelor of Arts degrees.
Some offer fourth-year honours coures and most also offer
postgraduate diplomas, masters degrees and research-based PhDs. Courses
are a mixture of theory and practice and generally include studies of
print, broadcast and online journalism at introductory to advanced
levels, together with studies of law, ethics, media history and media
theory. Several courses include newspapers, radio or online news services,
giving students valuable practical experience. Students in
undergraduate degrees also choose subjects from a range of other disciplines in
the humanities and social sciences, or other teaching areas offered as
electives. Graduate satisfaction with courses varies: colleges
in both metropolitan and regional areas have been successful in winning
top ratings from journalism students, based on annual surveys of
graduates. (See: Sally Jackson, "What makes a good school of journalism",
The Australian newspaper, 21 September 2006:
http: //www.jschool.com.au/topschools.php). The courses between them enrol many thousands of
students, including a growing number of students from dozens of countries
around the world. A well-above average ability at spoken and written
English is necessary in addition to academic prerequisites. Graduates of
Australian courses have been highly successful in gaining employment,
although the large enrolments in this field result in the majority not
gaining full-time journalism work in Australia. Indeed, there are many
more journalism students than full-time journalists in Australia.
However the courses prepare students for a range of careers for which
good communication and research skills are useful. Two private institutions
set up by former university journalism teachers, Macleay College in
Sydney and Jschool in Brisbane, offer one-year diploma of journalism
courses aimed at vocational outcomes. These courses attract
undergraduate and postgraduate students and have proven highly
successful in placing graduates in journalism jobs. Most journalism educators are members of the
Journalism Education Association (http: //www.jea.org.au),
which organises an annual conference as well as publishing journals to promote
teaching and research in journalism, including "Australian
Journalism Review", "Australian Studies in Journalism" and "Australian
Journalism Monographs". Journalism teachers from New Zealand,
East Asia and Pacific islands also belong to JEA.
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