The academia, the media, and the ideal professional: a generalist-multimedia journalist

Abstract

The journalistic ecosystem in the twenty-first century presents major challenges to journalistic practice as well as the process of training future professionals. In a constantly changing environment, what kind of education should the future journalist receive? What kinds of skills should a journalist in this ecosystem master? Through a survey, for the first time in Puerto Rico this research compares how academia and the media perceive the kind of education that a journalism student should receive. In particular, this study compares the perceptions of directors of academic programs and journalism professors with the directors and supervisors of the mass media on the island. This study found that academics’ and professionals’ views are very similar, contrary to the general perception; however, their perspectives are consistent with research findings in other countries. Academics and professionals believe that the university should train students to become generalists who can competently work with multimedia platforms for alternative and commercial media. Traditional skills ⎯writing, critical thinking, and general culture⎯ remain very important in the formation and recruitment of a new journalist, and academia is perceived as a space in which to train media professionals. Although leaders in the industry give weight to journalism education when recruiting new journalists, academic training is perceived to be distant from what the media require.