Journalism Education and Fake News

Abstract

This article offers a scholarly review of the literature and research on journalism education and fake news from an international and a local (Croatian) perspective. The purpose of this paper is to examine the connection between the education for journalists as a scholarly and academic discipline (as well as a teaching practice) and the issues caused by fake news in the digital age of mass media. Based on a comprehensive critical conceptual analysis of the body of knowledge available on the subject, it was determined that there is a diverse discussion about the status of journalism education regarding fake news. In that context, fake news has so far been internationally researched from several angles – curriculum content, journalism students, journalism and media studies, journalism practice, media audience, etc. When addressing the issue of education of journalists and fake news, three streams can be singled out. The first and most voluminous one refers to the systematic formal or additional education regarding media and information literacy. The next one refers to various changes related to the higher education system for the education of journalists, but without any concrete propositions for system reconstruction or upgrading. The last one advocates providing additional professional education to employed journalists. From the local perspective, even though only two articles suggest journalism education as a solution for the problems caused by fake news, based on thorough research it can be concluded that fake news and journalism education are not yet topics of interest among communication scholars in Croatia.

Implementation of the of Lifelong Learning Principles as a Background for Quality Specialized Education of Journalists

“…It is also important to find mechanisms to maintain a balance between academic knowledge and technological skills in journalism education programmes, which primarily requires the study of positive experiences of modernization of journalism education (Sytnyk, 2020). The fact of correlation between professional independence of journalists and their level of education is empirically confirmed (Alonso, Moreira, S.V., & Amado, 2016), intentions are expressed on studying the correlation of journalists' level of education and their ability to fact-check (Vukić, 2020). According to our survey, professional independence and fact-checking are of great importance in the implementation of the lifelong learning principles.…”

“…At the same time, empirical studies provide grounds to question the role of formal and informal professional socialization in the training of professional journalists (Vergeer 2018). This deepens the need to reconstruct or modernize journalism education, regularly stimulate and provide opportunities for journalists to learn throughout life (Vukić, 2020).…”

Pretpostavke za razumijevanje uloge medijskog sustava za deliberativnu demokraciju

“…Nakon 2017. godine pažnju hrvatske znanstvene zajednice počele su privlačiti i teme dezinformacija i lažnih vijesti, što je uvelike bilo potaknuto pobjedom Donalda Trumpa na predsjedničkim izborima u SAD-u (Klauški, 2017;Nenadić, 2017;Vozab, 2017). Prvi smjer istraživanja povezivao je te teme s konceptom i stupnjem medijske pismenosti (Vukić, 2020;Sivrić, 2020), a 2019. godine objavljen je i poseban broj časopisa Medijske studije na temu obrazovanja i obrane od takvih pojava. Drugi smjer istraživanja bavio se analizom utjecaja novih (digitalnih) medija i tehnologija na pojavu i širenje lažnih vijesti (Peran i Raguž, 2019a), odnosno borbu protiv njih (Grmuša i Prelog, 2020), a zahvaćena je i perspektiva publika -koliko i kako publike prepoznaju lažne vijesti i u kakvom je to odnosu s njihovim povjerenjem u medije (Biloš, 2020;Krelja Kurelović, Tomac i Polić, 2021).…”