GAP

BETWEEN

ONLINE

JOURNALISM

EDUCATIONAND

PRACTICE

: T

TWIN

SURVEYS

By Ying Roselyn Du, Ph.D.Assistant Professor School of CommunicationHong Kong Baptist UniversityandRyan ThornburgAssistant Professor School of Journalism and Mass CommunicationUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel HillCB# 3365Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3365919-962-4080ryan.thornburg@unc.eduPresented to the Newspaper DivisionAssociation for Education in Journalism and Mass CommunicationAnnual Convention, Denver, ColoradoAugust 4, 20101

Abstract

The gap between journalism education and journalism practice has long been thefocus of debates in the field. Amid the emergence of online journalism in the 1990s, the profession's criticism of journalism education has continued unabated. It is ever important to revisit the old “gap” issue in this new context. This study attempts toexamine the discordance between education and practice by comparing online journalism professionals and educators’ perceptions of key skills, concepts, and duties for online journalism. Findings of the twin surveys suggest that differences do exist in the onlinecontext.

IntroductionThe gap between journalism education and journalism practice has long been thefocus of debates in the field. Professional journalists chide journalism professors for talking to students about what they see as a trade best learned in its practice. As early as1967, Highton lamented that newspapering was becoming a sidelight, if not anafterthought, of many journalism schools (Highton, 1967, p. 10). In the past decades, both the academia and the media industry have paid much attention to the gap betweenthe newsroom and the classroom. Scholars as well as professional journalismorganizations have conducted research concerning the topic. The one thing on which theyagree is that something must be done to narrow the divide.Overall, previous research suggests that a gap does exist between journalismeducation and practice, one way or another. For example, research on journalism facultyfound that many educators felt there was antipathy or estrangement between themselvesand the working press. Other research has observed that journalists do not like what istaught in journalism schools, and they do not trust those who teach it.

Amid the emergence of online journalism in the 1990s, the profession'scriticism of journalism education has continued unabated. The skills that mediaprofessionals need to survive and succeed have shifted with the evolution of technologies. Today’s journalism graduates are walking into a field that isconstantly changing because of technology and convergence. It is ever importantto revisit the old “gap” issue in this new context. This study attempts toreexamine the discordance, if there still exists, between the education andpractice by comparing online journalism professionals and educators’ perceptions3