Defining 'professionalism' within tertiary journalism studies

This paper discusses debates about journalistic professionalism and how these might intersect with the frameworks and assumptions—both theoretical and practical—that underpin tertiary journalism study. Debates around professionalism have impacted on tertiary journalism education, which has in turn impacted on the industry and brought about its own set of debates and issues. Journalism education will thus be analysed as a domain that is subject to multiple forms of influence and debate, as well as being a key stakeholder in differing formations of journalistic professionalism (Anderson, 2008). This, I will argue, has particular ramifications for understanding some of the influences on journalistic self-definition, especially in a contemporary era of contestation of journalism culture and authority.