Issue 8 (2000)

In this issue

When practitioners and journalism educators gather for a talkfest, we hear the usual complaints that journalism graduates “... they can’t write, can’t spell” and “... they don’t have a grasp of basic grammar”. Journalism education and critical media studies are questioned for its inadequacies in meeting the needs of the ‘information society’. Haven’t we heard it all before?

Are journalism educators becoming increasingly irrelevant to the changing times? Have we failed in our job as journalism educators? Or is it a case of the industry continually peddling its blinkered views on university journalism programs? Regardless, the journalism academy continues to battle on with their mission of churning out entry-level skilled graduates for the industry, and that, with ambivalent intellectual and resource support from the industry towards enhancing the contents and context of tertiary journalism education.

-Eric Loo & Tuen-Yu Lau, Editors