Model curricula for journalism education

Abstract

Over the last few years, the number of news media outlets in developing countriesand emerging democracies has grown rapidly. There has been an increasedrecognition of the crucial role of journalism in promoting democracy, and this hascreated an urgent demand for well-trained journalists. As the lead UN agencyin promoting freedom of expression and access to information and knowledge,UNESCO has taken various initiatives to improve the quality of journalism educationworldwide. In December 2005, in response to numerous requests from MemberStates for help in the design of journalism education curricula, UNESCO convenedan experts’ consultative meeting in Paris. Major outputs of the consultation were theidentification of courses, which should be included in a journalism curriculum.A team of four UNESCO experts, commissioned for the initial development of thejournalism education curricula initiative, solicited a response to their first draftfrom twenty senior journalism educators who were deemed to have considerableexperience working in developing countries and emerging democracies. Theirresponses proved to be essential for the establishment of appropriate andapplicable curricula. The revised draft design thus featured a list of courses forboth undergraduate and post-graduate levels, a brief description of each course andan outline of fundamental journalism competencies. Journalism instructors withexperience working in developing countries or emerging democracies were thencarefully selected from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North and SouthAmerica to write the syllabuses for seventeen core courses. The draft curricula wasreviewed at a second experts’ consultative meeting at UNESCO in Paris, selecting anumber of model syllabuses to qualify the document for formal presentation to theWorld Journalism Education Congress in June 2007 in Singapore.

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