Becoming a Journalist

This edited volume addresses journalism education as a central component of journalistic professionalization, making it necessary to understand what is a crucial period in most future journalists’ lives. Nowadays, journalism scholars are realizing the need for more sustained, in-depth and critical studies of why students embark on such degrees, how they develop their professional views and practices at universities, how the educational curricula of journalism programs match the needs of the labor market, and also, what the news industry thinks about journalism courses and their graduates. This volume addresses all of these important questions in-depth, with admirable attention to different elements that may explain all these issues.The comparative perspective of looking at the Nordic countries breaks new ground considering the paucity of comparative studies on journalism education in specific media systems. The authors that take part of this book employ an array of quantitative and qualitative approaches to study the field of journalism education, providing a rich account that, no doubt, will be essential reading for students, researchers, the media industry, policy-makers and all people interested in journalism education and professionalization.Folker Hanusch, University of Vienna, AustriaClaudia Mellado, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaiso, ChilePrincipal investigators, Journalism students across the globe