Issue No.1, September 1996
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The Graduate School of Journalism, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Myles Breen
Journalism and constructive learning: trusting the good sense of students
Constructive learning is described by some scholars as active, cumulative, goal-directed, diagnostic and reflective behaviour. This article claims that all of these behaviours are present in current journalistic education. Because there is little place in journalism practice for the learner who indulges in surface (rote) strategies, which are chosen to pass a test in many different disciplines, the journalism curriculum is unique in a sense that it rests on best pedagogical practice. These ideas are put in a philosophical context of teaching journalism as a liberal art. The introduction of the internet and online investigations are discussed as significant enhancements for the profession of journalism education.
Joseph Man Chan
Whither mass communication education in Asia?
Tensions of communication education are inherent in its pedagogical goals, professional objectives, contexts of operation and availability of resources. The tensions are exacerbated by the advent of new media, globalisation and imperatives of organisational integration. How will communication education in Asia continue to develop amid these tensions? This article examines several critical approaches to "reinvent" communication education to better fit the changing needs of rapidly developing Asian communities.
Yeap Soon Beng
The age of Asian-centered media perspective and dawn of the vocal village
The Asian-centered media perspective is a discourse of empowerment that reaffirms the necessity for Asians to talk to other Asians, regardless of the designs of the Western dominant media. Within the dynamics of empowerment, Asias media environment will transform, and in time, move beyond Marshall McLuhans notion of a global to a vocal village. The vocal village, asserts this paper, embodies Asias brand and blend of political, social, economic and cultural concerns, free from the intimidations and bias of the West.
Ahmad Murad Merican
Relevance of philosophy in the wisdom of journalism schools
The journalistic fraternity is gradually becoming unenlightened technicians and scribblers of words rather than transmitters of thoughts. This article argues for a thorough philosophical grounding in students of journalism both through epistemological orientation and professional practice as fundamental prerequisites in understanding ideas, determining events and processes, developing intellectual perspectives and departing from the finite realms of the immediate.
John Herbert
Cascade learning approach to broadcast journalism education
This article advocates a "cascade learning approach" built on combined theory and skills, in the training of broadcast journalists. It attempts to show that the contemporary broadcast journalism curriculum for the Asia-Pacific region can develop its own core curriculum, not based on any educational imperialism or indeed on a traditional mass communication or communication studies approach. It also highlights the inadequacy of the "media/communications" approach to university education for journalists; and gives details of an experimental alternative approach to integrated learning in broadcast journalism.
Shelton Gunaratne
Old wine in new bottle: public versus development journalism
This paper argues that the emerging concept of public journalism in the United States is very similar to the concept of developmental journalism that the West denounced during the debate on the New World Information and Communication Order. Many of the ideas of the MacBride Commission (1980) have sneaked into the writings of those who advocate public journalism to rejuvenate American journalism that has failed to excite the readers. Scholars are now questioning the validity of the conventional news values and their relevance to changing consumer needs.
COMMENTARY
Barry Lowe
Language and context: some problems of teaching journalism in second language
Despite an international perception that Hong Kong is a bilingual society, the use of English - and English speaking fluency - is confined to a few elite realms of economic, political and cultural activity. Students rarely use English outside the classroom. In learning journalism in English students are greatly disadvantaged by their lack of familiarity with different English-language genres. Difficulties in comprehending spoken English in a context other than the classroom tend to hamper the students' acquisition of effective reporting and interviewing skills. The author attempted to overcome these problems with two different strategies: by utilising video technology and by taking his classes out of the classroom.
Peter Eng
Indochinese journalists learn how to report on the market economy
The legacy of journalists who died covering the Vietnam War lives on in the work of the Indochina Media Memorial Foundation (IMMF), which trains a new generation of journalists now covering the complex issues of national reconstruction. In May, the IMMF conducted an intensive three-week course on business and economic reporting for 15 print, radio and television journalists from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Its next course, in October, will center on another rising concern of governments, citizens and the news media throughout Asia -- the environment and its degradation.
David Smollar
The dilemma of change in Vietnamese journalism
Two steps forward, one step back? Or one step forward, two steps back? That's the dilemma in trying to judge changes in Vietnamese journalism today. The nation's media, even though still government-owned, are in a state of flux under doi moi (market renovation policy). Take a few examples of the parry-and-thrust between reporters, editors and Party overseers.
A glossy, full-colour monthly called Thoi Trang Tre (New Fashion) proves wildly popular among Vietnamese youth with fashion and make-up tips, and bikini-clad photos of shapely Western and Vietnamese models. Yet its staff frets over each Cindy Crawford or Elle MacPherson photo lest a cultural official decry the corruption of a Western lifestyle.
SURVEY RESEARCH
Charles Elliot
Email usage in academe: a profile of Hong Kong universities
Given the increased use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and the varied channels it offers for the transfer of meaning, it is important to understand how CMC is being used and how it is affecting the use of other forms of communication. This article examines the usage of electronic-mail, as a form of CMC, among Hong Kong academics and whether it has changed their teaching and research profile.; and interaction with their students.
Rodney Jones
Talking AIDS in Hong Kong: cultural models in public health discourse
This paper explores issues of cultural models in the discourse of public health in a multicultural, multilingual context through a 'frame analysis' of 20 AIDS awareness campaigns aired in both English and Cantonese in Hong Kong from 1987 to 1994. Using a methodology derived from the work of Goffman (1974), and Gee (1990), it examines how the authors of AIDS awareness messages in Hong Kong project cultural models on several different levels of "framing" and how these models both reflect and validate dominant ideologies within the society.
Paul S. N. Lee
Images of Asia-Pacific nations among Hong Kong students
This article examines the images of five Asia-Pacific nations and their people among Hong Kong university students. It was found that Australia has the "best image" followed by Singapore and Malaysia. The results from the Bogardus Social Distance Scale indicated that Hong Kong university students felt closer to Australians and Singaporeans, while less close to Malaysians, Indonesians and Filipinos. The respondents advise Australians to learn Cantonese, watch Hong Kong movies and television and visit non-tourist areas in order to understand Hong Kong better.
RESEARCH NOTES
John Henningham
Australian journalists' views on professional associations
Since the amalgamation of the Australian Journalists Association (AJA) with the actors', entertainers' and artists' unions to form the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) in 1992, the professional concerns of journalists have arguably lost their focus to some extent. To date, there have been no indications of the views of journalists in general on the professional association concept. This article presents preliminary findings on a survey of Australian journalists' opinions on selected professional issues.
Roger Patching
Developments of journalism courses in Australia: some preliminary findings
Where is journalism taught in Australia, who teaches it, how many students do they teach; and what form do their courses take? What do the journalism course coordinators around the country think about some of the contentious issues in journalism education, like accreditation, union involvement, equipment needs and shorthand? This article provides soem answers based on a preliminary comparative survey of vocation-based journalism courses in Australia.
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