ABSTRACT
The current upheaval in the journalism industry presents an opportune time to rethink the confi guration of journalism education. For historical and institutional reasons, most university journalism programs retain the structure, some more than others, of education based on an industrial model of journalism. The mass production of journalism fashioned the practices taught today and embodies an understanding of communication as a process of transmission from producer to receiver. Journalism education came to life in the “age of the reporter” (Carey, 2000), when the role of a journalist was to fi nd information, shape it into a story, edit, and then transmit it as accurately and quickly as possible to a mass audience via a mass medium. While journalism schools have diversifi ed and now graduate a large percentage of students who never pursue reporting, the idealized perception of journalism education still centers on the reporter and the basic functions of information gathering, evaluation, production, and distribution.
