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Congress Adopts
Declaration of Principles of Journalism Education
Over 400 journalism teachers and trainers
from more than 50 countries spread across the continents met in
Singapore from June 25 to 28, 2007 at the first-ever World Journalism
Education Congress (WJEC). The conference was
hosted by the Asian Media Information and
Communication Centre (AMIC) and the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication
and Information, Nanyang Technological University. The general
theme of the four-day meeting was “Media, Education, and Development.”
The Congress had four primary goals, namely:
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Issue a State of
Journalism Education Report that provides an overview of the field
globally and a census of journalism education programmes;
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Issue a Declaration of
Universal Principles for Journalism Education to raise the stature
of the field in the eyes of external audiences and to state the
principles that practitioners hold dear;
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Release a Report on Key
Competencies and Learning Outcomes for Journalism Education to
promote a dialogue among journalism educators; and
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Develop a system for
networking journalism education associations and for promoting an
ongoing dialogue among them.
At the end of the three-day event, the
conference adopted a
Declaration of Principles of Journalism Education.
The declaration declared, among other things that: journalism education
is an academic field in its own right, with a distinctive body of
knowledge and theory; journalism educators should be a blend of
academics and practitioners; and journalism educators should maintain
strong links to media industries, and critically reflect on industry
practices and offer advice to industry based on this reflection.
It also recognised global issues, and noted
that: journalism students should learn that despite political and
cultural differences, they share important values and professional goals
with peers in other nations; and there should be global collaboration to
boost journalism education as an academic discipline and ensure that it
plays a more effective role in strengthening journalism.
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