Romanian Student Media as Pedagogical Tools and Sites for Alternative Journalism

Abstract

Although enjoying a history that spans more than 160 years, Romanian student media have not been researched extensively at all. The few existing studies combine a monographic approach to the phenomenon with various oral histories, as one particular way to reconstruct a past that has been frequently neglected. The present paper is an attempt to analyse student media outlets by showcasing its identification either as a pedagogical tool or as a form of alternative press, with a particular emphasis on the current Romanian student media outlets. In order to fulfil our two-folded objective (to extract both quantitative and qualitative data), we used qualitative survey research. The main results reveal that print projects (a total of 15) are still the most numerous among student media outlets, followed by six online journalistic projects, five radio stations and four TV stations. Generally, these serve as pedagogical tools due to the co-optation in the editorial teams of professors who act as supervisors and mentors. In comparison to the student reviews from the communist period or previous, the (self-) identification with alternative media is, with few notable exceptions, rather weak.