Media criticisms of US journalism education: Unwarranted, contradictory

The authors surveyed members of the Newspaper Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and a random sample of daily newspaper editors to determine whether they agreed about the competencies emphasized in U.S. college journalism programs and the types of knowledge and skills that were important for beginning journalists at the end of the 20th century. The authors found the two groups differed significantly about the emphases of college journalism programs but were in considerable agreement about the skills and abilities needed by journalism graduates and the types of knowledge that new journalists need. They also found significant differences among opinions held by both groups for some topics.