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Journalism Students Across the Globe – USC
Conference presentation

Journalism Students Across the Globe – USC

Peter A English
USC Research Conference, 2014 (Sunshine Coast, Australia, 14-Jul-2014–18-Jul-2014)
University of the Sunshine Coast
2014
url
https://www.usc.edu.au/View
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Abstract

Journalism and Professional Writing
Research of USC students matters because it reveals vital information about their motivations and attitudes that can be used to benefit teaching. USC is one of 10 universities involved in the Australian segment of the Journalism Students Across the Globe project. The study is expected to include 40 countries, providing a global view of journalism students. While the final picture is far from complete, interesting aspects have emerged from an initial analysis of the project's USC component. The aims of the first phase of the study are to examine how Australian university journalism education influences students in relation to four areas: motivations for studying journalism; role perceptions; views on the quality of journalism and potential threats; and ethics. Understanding how USC's journalism students think about these aspects provides valuable data that can influence course design, attract students, and prepare them for life in the newsroom. To discover the students' views, surveys were administered in tutorials of three journalism subjects. Each survey contained 33 questions, relating to motivations, role perceptions, views, issues facing journalism, job prospects, media consumption, and demographic details. There were 98 respondents, representing 69 per cent of students undertaking the Bachelor of Journalism, or majoring in journalism. In the preliminary analysis, one key area is student motivations for studying journalism. The main reasons for selecting this course centred on the varied and lively work, the opportunity to travel, working for freedom and democracy, and the chance to help people. While securing a job was also considered important, the amount of money they could earn was not a major motivation. The completed results from this project will provide opportunities to develop courses to satisfy the needs of USC students. They will also allow comparisons with the motivations of students at other Australian and international institutions. That is why this research matters.

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