Girls, girls, girls: A study of the popularity of journalism as a career among female teenagers and its corresponding lack of appeal to young males
Australian journalism programs have long reported a disproportionate number of female students and the industry is becoming increasingly feminised. The latest (2006) Census figures showed that, for the first time in Australian history, women outnumbered men in journalism and related occupations. While many researchers have commented upon the increased popularity of journalism as a career choice among young women and its decline in popularity among young men, none have undertaken a comprehensive project researching the reasons for this phenomenon. This study has addressed this gap in the research. The research team conducted an extensive literature review, surveyed 444 senior secondary school students and 32 high school careers advisers, and conducted in-depth interviews with 15 'elite' journalism industry personnel to explore the reasons for this trend. This monograph reviews the literature of the field, highlights the findings of the study, and discusses the implications for Australian journalism of the increasingly feminised newsroom. It identifies several gaps between the perceptions of teenagers about journalism and the realities of the career and questions the motivations and knowledge base of many students when deciding to pursue or reject the career choice. It suggests some careers advice they receive might be misguided, particularly when the advice is based upon performance in senior school English studies. The monograph concludes with a call for journalism programs and the industry generally to improve their communication with high school students, teachers and careers advisers to enhance their knowledge of the range of journalism careers and the mission of journalism in a democratic society. The authors also suggest further research be conducted into the compatibility of the senior secondary English curriculum with the workplace requirements of the entry level journalist.
Lost expectations? Women journalists and the fall-out from the `Toronto newspaper war'
Newspapers, like all forms of communication, play an unusually important rôle in Canadian society. Correspondingly, newspaper journalism is a respected occupation. This, taken together with the commitment to equal opportunities embodied in the country's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, might suggest that women face fewer barriers to advancement in Canadian newspapers than elsewhere. Drawing on interviews with women working for newspapers in Greater Toronto and in Montréal, and discussions with academic observers, the article suggests that, until the early 1990s, this optimism about an evolutionary movement into positions of real organizational power was reasonably well-founded. It goes on to argue, however, that the rapid change in the commercial environment brought about by the launch of the National Post in 1998 illustrates how quickly attitudinal and cultural change can be stalled, or even reversed, by changes in management priorities triggered by a threat to profits.
The Technological Challenge for Curriculum and Instruction
Technology should not be an end in itself for journalists, but merely a means to the goal of freedom of expression. Nonetheless, technology is hurtling media and the rest of society into an uncertain future. The distinction between newsprint and broadcast is dissolving, cable channels are proliferating, and interactivity is burgeoning. In this increasingly computerized, digitized, pixelated world, journalism schools attempt to prepare their students to brave a new world few individuals--if any--can fully comprehend. From satellites beaming messages from above the stratosphere to thin cables carrying thousands of messages across the ocean floor, technology ensures that no portions of the planet are beyond reach. Just as legislators who passed the federal Freedom of Information Act in 1966 could not have been expected to predict that in fewer than 30 years electronic records would be supplanting paper records, journalism educators today cannot be expected to predict the state of media technology 30 years from now. Yet the challenge, indeed the obligation, remains to educate journalism students now for what will be. Of course, while technology is changing, the fundamental tool of journalism remains largely unchanged--the human mind. How well are journalism schools meeting the educational needs of students in the midst of this flux?(1) That question was the focus of a survey conducted in June of 1994 by the University of Missouri School of Journalism's Center for Advanced Social Research (CASR). This article explores some of the results of that survey and discusses its implications for journalism education. While this survey did not spring from any one prior survey or article, it built on a fairly extensive body of preexisting literature on the effectiveness or deficiencies of various facets of journalism education.(2) Method Respondents for this focused key-informant(3) telephone survey(4) were 250 journalism and mass communication educators from the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. They were selected from the 1993-94 membership of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.(5) To qualify, respondents had to teach either skills or methods classes or substantive areas including communications law, history, or ethics.(6) Those exclusively teaching advertising or public relations courses were excluded.(7) The goal of the selection process was to identify persons likely to have experience and expertise in the target areas of freedom of expression, freedom of information, and technology. From this pool, 250 respondents were selected at random. When asked to indicate their professional responsibilities in their own words, 84 percent included teaching.(8) More than half (56%) said they had held their positions for one to 10 years.(9) CASR interviewers asked all respondents to answer semi-structured questions(10) concerning what journalism schools in general, and undergraduate and graduate schools specifically, were doing well or poorly. In addition, respondents were asked how often they dealt with, and how well they thought journalism schools were training journalists in issues involving freedom of expression, freedom of information, and technology. If not satisfied with the training in a particular area, respondents were asked to make a single suggestion for improvement. Response rates varied from 122 on freedom of expression issues to 155 on technology issues. Results Strengths and weaknesses. Interviewers asked respondents to answer two questions: "Generally, what things are schools of journalism and mass communication doing well?" and "Generally, what things are schools of journalism or mass communication doing poorly?" As shown in Tables 1 and 2, when asked these questions, 42 percent of respondents said schools are balancing their curricula well between journalism and liberal arts education. But 14 percent said schools are balancing their curricula poorly and wanted a greater emphasis placed or studies outside journalism. …