g University, though a bit late in its establishment, plays up its technological advantage of the University and emphasizes the improving technology involved in the Radio & TV Broadcasting. Particularly with modern communication technologies such as digitalization and internet, when the traditional reporting and editing are somewhat being replaced by the electronic editing, journalism students from Jiaotong University are sure to find their right positions in the fast developing media industry in China (Chen, 1999). As a result, inter-relationship with other disciplines has become a dominant feature of the journalism education in Shanghai and this second trend is most typically reflected in the designs of the curricula of the five journalism programs in Shanghai, with their respective sequential focuses. The Fudan journalism program, the oldest and also the largest in Shanghai, focuses on almost all the majors such as journalism (print), radio & TV broadcasting and advertising. A survey of its journalism program curriculum in 1998 shows all the students are required to take at least 30% of credit hours not related with journalism and mass communication (Guidebook to SISU,1999). SHEN Yongbao, deputy director of the Dean’s Office of Fudan, said this had helped to expand the range of knowledge for journalism students and would be beneficial to their future careers (Shen,1999). Started as a language school, SISU, played up its linguistic advantage in its journalism program. SISU journalism students are required to take all the basic English courses for English majors, which takes care of the four English skills of reading, listening, speaking and writing. Students are required to write news stories in English. Besides the English courses, about 45% of the journalistic courses are conducted in English (Guidebook to SISU, 1999) either by Chinese instructors or American journalism professors. Meanwhile, Shanghai Sports Institute pays close attention to sports, with about 35 % of all the courses devoted to sports events, according to REN Guangxue, dean of the Journalism Department. Shanghai University and Jiaotong University, on the other hand, makes use of their technological advantages to focus on radio & TV broadcasting. Students are expected to work skillfully in the campus studios before they go to the radio and TV industry (Wang, 1999). At present, although the journalism education in the country is yet to make a substantial impact on journalistic practice in the country and journalism educators in the country are yet to gain the authority to provide theoretical, practical, and training guidance for the media industry (Hao & Xu, 1997, p.35 ), journalism education in Shanghai is certainly to have been closely related to the media via the student’s internship programs in media institutions, regarded as a kind of cooperative education between journalism programs and media in recent years. To some degree, media institutions have become a kind of “natural media labs” for the journalism programs in Shanghai while at the same time, assisting to develop themselves (Zhang, 1998) This can be the third trend in the process of localization since the 1980s: recognition of the importance of journalistic practice for journalism students among all the five journalism programs in Shanghai (It may be true in all the journalism programs in China). In their curricula, all the journalism programs in Shanghai have required their students to complete a four-to-six-month period of organized journalistic internship in various media in their sixth or seventh semester of their undergraduate years. Besides, students are also encouraged to participate, during their vacations, in a relatively short period of internship (two months) at media institutions and participating students are given credits based on the evaluation of their performances. The fact that journalistic practice is so much emphasized among the journalism programs in Shanghai also lies in the Chinese perspective of localization, because the internship practice is beneficial to all the parties of internship programs (Guo, 1998). To students, they have been offered the chance during the internship to apply or enrich what they have learned from classroom into practice, or learn something outside, or even what can not be learned in the classroom, taking the fact that the most Chinese journalism teachers lack practical media experience and most universities lack sufficient funding to create enough media labs for students. What is more, it is also a good opportunity to attain their academic proficiency and even the availability of future professions that may best suit their own professional talents. In a survey done among the former and future student interns at SISU in 1998, 80% of the former and future interns think internship has widened or will widen their scope of knowledge. 80% of the former interns agreed that internship helped them to better prepare for challenges while 76% of the future interns think it will help them to be better prepared. Besides, most students interns (61% for the former interns and 48% for the future interns) have used what they learned in the classroom into the practice and have helped or will help them find a good job (83% for the former interns and 88% of the future interns) (Guo, 1998). In a phone interview, the five directors of the student’s division in charge of the student’s jobs in the five universities confirmed that internship has offered a good chance for students to find their jobs. They also confirmed that, during the past five years, 50% to 65% of the journalism students can directly go to work in the media institutions where they have serviced under the Internship Program, and another 20% of the graduates can find jobs in media-related institutions (such as PR and advertising) companies because of their internship experiences and performances (Wang, 1999). The internship has certainly benefited the media ins 上一页 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] 下一页
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