Turning the inverted pyramid inside-out: Professional ideology, professionalization, and education of journalists reconsidered

Since the rise of citizen reporters, blogging, wikis, and pro-am newsroom collaborations, both the professional and academic spheres have come to contest the very definition of a journalist. These analyses, however, often fail to consider the historical complexity of the processes of professionalization in journalism, its systematic institutionalization as an intellectual endeavor, and the fact that there is not – and never has been – a single unifying activity defined as journalism. The lack of a consensual body of knowledge within journalism studies as a field of inquiry, and journalism's problematic status as a discipline within the critical humanities and the social sciences in general, only exacerbate this state of affairs. This thesis proposes to address these issues by reconsidering the historical narratives which shape them, in order to offer a critical review of the social advancement of the 'profession' and the institutionalization of journalism.The first chapter of this dissertation consists of an attempt to problematize the nature of journalism by providing a brief history of the haphazard, unplanned, and largely accidental way that journalism came into being by describing how journalism is the articulation of many genres and traditions of writing and communication. This provides a historical background for the second chapter, which explores the materialization of the values and ideologies that structure Anglo-American journalism as a profession in the nineteenth century, and which still form the basis of its occupational norms today. Following a discussion of the emergence of the reporter, both the modern ideal of objectivity in Anglo-American journalism and the rise of professionalism are situated within the broader context of modernism. The third chapter offers a review of the literature on the professionalization of journalism by considering the journalistic occupation within the system of professions, drawing on approaches from sociology, political economy, communications, and journalism studies. These chapters provide the foundation for an analysis of the emergence of journalism education, which has been historically linked to the notion of journalism as a profession. Considering journalism education as an agent of professional legitimization, the fourth chapter aims to historicize the establishment of journalism departments in a university setting in the United States and Canada by tracing the origins of models of journalism schools in order to provide a context for the study of journalism education and training. The fifth and final chapter of this thesis builds on the preceding chapters to demonstrate how all of these complex tensions contribute to the uncomfortable position that journalistic training occupies within the university. Academically, journalism draws on the humanities and the social sciences, while remaining outside of both. Pedagogically, journalism educators are asked to offer a 'critical' approach to phenomena while also teaching students practical skills of use to those seeking professional careers. This chapter also explores the troubled marriage between communication studies and journalism, culminating in the recent call for the reorganization of the various subjects of journalism (i.e. law, ethics, communication theory, political economy of journalism, media history, etc.) into a single field of Journalism Studies. The dissertation concludes by looking at the continuing impact of these unresolved difficulties on journalism education today.

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