Journalism educators need to rethink their role
Many award-winning journalists never studied journalism in university, raising the question whether people who don’t study journalism make better journalists. In an attempt to explore that idea, Betty Medsger, a leading U.S. journalism educator and former Washington Post reporter, argues that journalism educators would be more effective in improving journalism and journalism education if they became gate openers to all that universities offer rather than guardians of journalism as a separate discipline.
Many award-winning journalists never studied journalism in university, raising the question whether people who don’t study journalism make better journalists. In an attempt to explore that idea, Betty Medsger, a leading U.S. journalism educator and former Washington Post reporter, argues that journalism educators would be more effective in improving journalism and journalism education if they became gate openers to all that universities offer rather than guardians of journalism as a separate discipline.
