The formation of the journalistic profession by the Media Industry

Flemming Svith

Professions are defined by the fact that they consist of more or less exclusive groups of individuals acting in situations characterized by uncertainty, thus requiring professional judgment based on the professional’s theoretical knowledge as well as experience (Abbott, 1988).

Professions are reproduced through recruitment mechanisms (Harrits & Olesen, 2012) and through specialized training and internships with experienced professional practitioners as teachers. This also applies to the journalistic profession in Denmark, which in large part is reproduced through the four-year bachelor program at the Danish Media and Journalism School with 2.5 years of schooling and 1.5 years of internship in news and entertainment media and communications organizations.

The journalistic profession is formed in two very different paths. The school curriculum is primarily oriented towards providing the skills set out in the Act of the Bachelor in Journalism, while the internship is also characterized by the terms and conditions which apply specifically to the media and communications industry as a commercial, political or publicist organizations or companies. The formation of the journalistic profession takes place in other words, in two very different contexts, and there is no reason to assume identical content or outcome of the two processes of formation, which is in harmony with the distinctions in literature between media and journalism (Svith, 2011).

This paper examines how the industry forms the profession. What happens to the students' professional standards (how the professional practice should be) and their perception of professional practice (how to practice) during the year and a half internship? It is examined by a panel survey before and after the three internship semesters (4th-6th semester).

The study of students' attitudes and perceptions at 3th semester will be characterized by recruitment patterns and journalist training in the first year and a half. The study on the 7th semester will show the attitudes and perceptions of the students after the internship period, where they participated in the production processes of the industry. The comparison of the student survey response at both 3rd semester and 7th semester will show how the attitude levels and perceptions of journalistic practices vary due to the a half-year internship.