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Neojournalists are Human Beings - Definition of the Journalism Education

Fundamental Concepts in the Holistic Education Context

Conference Paper · March 2019

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Tijana Vukić
Juraj Dobrila University of Pula
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 NEOJOURNALISTS ARE HUMAN BEINGS - DEFINITION OF THE JOURNALISM EDUCATION
FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS IN THE HOLISTIC EDUCATION CONTEXT

Androids are the news presenters; types of journalism and their specialities are strongly
multidisciplinary underlined and more numerous than ever; media production is fully computer-
assisted; accelerated technological innovations direct and dictate the emergence of the novel
journalistic genres hyper-production and convergence of the old ones; the multiplicity of the global
media industry's roles are opposed to the individual roles of media usage; social needs of and for the
media are changing; media presented public opinion is no longer just an attitude, but rather an
increasing social engagement. Those are just a few clips from the movie we are living in. The fact is
that the media content is the currency of the modern era. While either a big media corporation or a
person can publish or find anything about anyone, anywhere and anytime with the help of numerous
applications, becoming media literate is, although complex, notably more challenging than before.

What kind of an education for journalists do we need then in such a Neo's Matrix screen or the neo-
McLuhan's scene? One of the possible solutions of that question could be reached by an inquiry into
the kind of a journalist, which a democratic society requires. Humanistic, first of all, I argue. This is,
therefore, the right time to re-examine the fundamental concepts of journalistic education starting
with investigating the features and elements of journalistic personality. The study, however, does not
follow the traditional functionalistic paradigm asking what a journalist has to know, do or how to
behave to be able to work in journalism, but it rather presents a new one defining what kind of a
human being it should be.

The main problems challenging this work are, repeatedly scientifically stipulated, the multiplicity and
ambiguity of definitions connected to journalism in general, while, at the same time, the journalism
education field misses the precise determination of its fundamental terms. Hence, this interdisciplinary
theoretical work substantially stands on the foundation of the communication science, mostly leaning
on the background of the so far conducted journalism education research, then using all available
findings of journalism studies, particularly in connection with society in general as well as democratic
and holistic journalism. It also effectively applies the rich heritage of educational sciences with an
accent on holistic education combined with the psychology and sociology of personality body of
knowledge.

The comprehensive review of the mentioned heterogeneous literature resulted in the first
unambiguous and general definitions of the basic concepts from the field of journalistic education -
journalistic personality, journalistic identity and journalistic nature. As the overall behaviour of the one
who works as a journalist is manifested through a cluster of journalistic identity, journalistic nature
and other features unrelated to journalistic activities, it peculiarly includes elements that are acquired
solely in academic institutions. It is in fact the journalistic qualification consisting of journalistic abilities
(journalistic intelligence, talent, creativity) and journalistic competences (journalistic knowledge, skills,
autonomy, and responsibility). The formerly described findings were the author's inception for setting
the Journalistic Personality Model, so far the first proposal of the holistic journalism education, the
main feature of which is sustainability.

Key words: holistic journalism education, journalistic personality, journalistic qualification, journalistic
personality model, human(istic), sustainability.

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