Curricular implications of the influences of the Internet on journalism.

Mark Pearson, Bond University

Article comments

Pearson, Mark. (1999). Curricular implications of the influences of the Internet on journalism. Australian Journalism Review, v.21, no.2, pp.27-55.

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Abstract

This paper presents and discusses the results of a grounded theory study of the implications for the journalism education curriculum of the influences of the Internet upon journalism practice. Based upon analysis of three months of dialogue across four electronic discussion lists used by journalists and educators in early 1997, the paper identifies more than 160 new tasks and practices required of journalists in the new media environment and discusses the implications of this finding for the resourcing, teaching, curriculum and outcomes of journalism education. It concludes that the Internet, in influencing journalism's context and practice, has forced a fundamental re-evaluation of the mission and enterprise of journalism education and the content of its curriculum. Influences of the Internet upon both the context of journalism and its practice render current approaches anachronistic and demand a re-evaluation of the aim, role and function of journalism education.