ABSTRACT

Though the founders of journalism education were primarily interested in providing well-trained and well-educated graduates for jobs in the media industries, they and media educators who followed them also have thought of journalism schools not only as professional schools but as academic enterprises producing well-educated graduates. Because of its divided loyalties, Sloan (1990) called journalism education “schizophrenic.” He stated, “It has not known which way to go: Should it become primarily professional, or should it be a traditional academic discipline? Possessing a sense of inferiority to both professional journalism and academia, it has tried to prove itself to both.” And, he added, “Traveling in two directions, it has never decided on, much less obtained, its destination” (p. 4).