«Тұрақты даму мақсатындағы халықаралық журналистиканы оқыту модельдері»
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| Toleukhanova A.,
KIMEP, Master student in International Journalism Current journalism education trends, positive and negative experience in Kazakhstan universities Abstract This thesis is designed to answer the question if journalism education affect the condition of journalism in the country and if it is necessary to make changes in journalism education of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan, as a former member of Soviet Union, has inherited most of its traditions even since its collapse in many spheres. After getting independence in 1991, there was a time for some freedom and real freedom of speech, as skilled Kazakhstani journalists would say. Since then many things have changed, new problems appeared - media sphere as well as media laws have been modified and accustomed to a new reality. If laws were tightened for journalists, then media sphere became very dependent on government purchases. But then, there is a problem of journalism quality or level as a whole in the country, which many experts say as not competitive. Most of the problems in journalism of Kazakhstan arise from the lack of proper education and training for journalists, as well as united guidelines and ethics that journalists should follow. Therefore, there is a relative distrust to journalism and journalists in Kazakhstani society. Working as a journalist and being a journalism student both in Kazakhstan and The United States I myself have witnessed the different systems of education, different perception of journalism and different attitude of people to journalists. And Kazakhstan is not in a winning position. In this study I would like to explore the nuances of journalism education in Kazakhstan, how it changed during the last 25 years of independence and if graduates of journalism schools in independent Kazakhstan are making some positive changes in journalism history. During Soviet Union there was only one university that taught journalists in Kazakhstan – Kazakh National University of Al-Farabi. Nowadays, there are 23 higher education places that offer journalism and media programs. The process of slowly changing journalism education is still ongoing. With dominant Soviet style of journalism, some universities now offer western standards of journalism too. As a result, there is unclear concept of how to teach journalism in Kazakhstan. While the new standards and approaches appeared in media market, many educational institutions of independent Kazakhstan did not cope with the challenges of contemporary media market demand. Media practitioners of Kazakhstan and other Central Asian nations frequently mention the quality of journalism education when hiring fresh graduates. Often, many mention lack of grammar literacy, ability to write own piece without plagiarism and lack of critical thinking. The education system in Kazakhstan has experienced many changes and still is on the phase of new experiments. Recent initiative, which was firstly announced by the president Nazarbayev to implement a three-language secondary education (Kazakh, Russian and English), and then picked up by the Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan is going to affect journalism education as well. As of now, if we look at the language differences, Kazakh speaking journalism varies significantly from the Russian one. If we add compulsory education in English in secondary schools, then we will get a new media niche in English media outlets in the future, too. Journalists are shaping informational field of the country, forming public opinions, having impact on political and social agenda. It is powerful and influential profession which needs to be treated seriously in educational institutions. If we go back to journalism education, in practice we see that many professors in higher education institutions still use old (sometimes Soviet) literature to teach young journalists and give knowledge that is not valuable in today’s media market. Moreover, majority of professors who teach journalism students are not even journalists themselves. Some of them dominantly are philology, language and literature professors. Many journalists have switched to public relations and communications sphere for higher salary and less pressure. When saying less pressure, we mean press freedom, censorship and self-censorship. However, they are not the only problems that lead to low-quality journalism in the country. It all starts from the beginning – how journalism taught. In Kazakhstan journalism departments are often one of the less demanding to enter after Unified National Test (UNT) that pupils must pass after graduation from high school in order to study in Kazakhstani universities. Journalism entry exams do not require UNT high scores and many prospective students go there to switch to another major after studying journalism one semester. Thus, some students go to journalism without initial planning to study it. Furthermore, there is no specialization of journalism after graduation. Students graduate with bachelor degree in general journalism without studying deeply what they would be interested in, such as economics, finance, ecology, political science, medicine, sports, investigation and etc. in order to define which area to work in a segmented media market after graduation. Sure enough, students do study all of these classes but more as liberal arts not specific. This leads to non-professionalism in specific media outlets such as business, medical, ecological. Recent graduates learn “as they go” and it reflects to some extent on the quality of certain materials. All of these led me to conclusion that this area needs a research. It also raised certain questions in my mind, such as: Is specialization (business, ecological journalism, investigative, political journalism) in journalism degree necessary to work in Kazakhstani or international market? Is journalism degree necessary to work in journalism market in Kazakhstan? How journalism taught in other countries? What are the differences and similarities? What are the criteria for good journalism education? Journalism education is not a specific problem of Kazakhstan’s education system it is also a problem in other countries. Therefore, I will make comparisons of different journalism education systems in some Post-Soviet universities and the ones in the west, particularly American, British, European and Australian universities to understand what the criteria for good journalism education are and find differences and similarities. This area of research is important because journalism plays a crucial role in developing resilient, educated and civilized society. So, in order to understand what is needed for future Kazakhstani journalists, it is important to conduct such research which can also be given as a form of recommendation or guideline to higher education institutions with Journalism and Media Departments. This research also gives a new perspective on the journalism education because it contains personal interviews from media professionals and experts, which gives unique mixture of empirical knowledge for future journalists and professors from media departments. жүктеу/скачать 4,38 Mb. Достарыңызбен бөлісу:
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