A teaching philosophy of journalism education in the global South: A South African case study

Introduction

This article sets out a novel framework for journalism and journalism education in South Africa based on four assertions: re-affirmation of the role of journalism in democratic processes, the need for comparative studies and research-led teaching, journalism as active citizenship and journalism as a reflexive practice. These assertions are considered in the context of a young democracy and post-colonial society and form the basis for my own understanding of and teaching philosophy of the journalism curriculum at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) in South Africa. As such, the article sets out a teaching statement on the principles underlying the curricula, rather than a fully developed curriculum or didactic approach.

There is a real imperative to make curricula more reflective of local realities and developments, particularly with a view to common issues facing the news media and journalism in young democracies, transitional and post-colonial countries in the global South (Rodny-Gumede, 2013). This is also made ever more important in the light of calls for the decolonization of the higher education system and in recognizing the experiences and scholarship of the global South as not only equal to the global North (Sreberny, 2000: 114–115) but also necessary for journalism scholarship as a whole, as set out in relation to the broader field of communications by Chasi and Rodny-Gumede (in press), and to advance radical epistemic change ‘to counter the current insularity of communication scholarship steeped in archaic, patriarchal and decidedly racialised ideas of the West and the rest’ (Chasi and Rodny-Gumede, 2016).

The problem faced by journalism educators in the global South is that curricula are often copied from journalism degrees in the global North and transferred to media systems and political frameworks in very different contexts. Accusations have therefore been made that journalism curricula in the global South are grounded in Western normative ideas of the role and function of journalism and, as such, ill suited to, and ignoring, the lived realities and contexts they serve (Freedman and Shafer, 2010: 135–137; Rodny-Gumede, 2013: 129–131). It has also been argued that an African theory of journalism must be developed (Nyamnjoh, 2005) and that journalism training and curricula in Africa need to become more African and Africanized (Motsaathebe, 2011) in such a way that journalism training can reflect theory of journalism based on African values and moral philosophy and African culture (Kasoma, 1994; Sesanti, 2009). In this regard, the concept of ubuntu and communitarianism (Blankenberg, 1999; Christians, 2004; Metz, 2015; Nyamnjoh, 2005; Rodny-Gumede, 2015a; Wasserman and De Beer, 2006) has often been quoted as a philosophy that could underpin journalism theory as well as praxis. The idea that journalism studies should become more African by drawing on African philosophies talks directly to local contexts of how journalism is practiced in South Africa and needs to have its own place in the curricula.

Journalism does not operate in a vacuum; it is shaped by varying moral, ethical and religious values found in different countries around the world, despite the supposedly homogenizing effect of globalization; in a sense, it is the local that shapes the global (Merrill, 2004: 4). Sreberny (2000: 116), however, argues that the global and the local should not be seen as binaries, and while scholarship in the global South, as well as the global North in recent years, have started to pay more attention to the polarization of North and South, less attention has been paid to a ‘Southernization’ (Rodny-Gumede, 2013, 2015b) of the media and communications discipline and a theory from the South that can contribute to both the global South and the global North (Chasi and Rodny-Gumede, in press; Comaroff and Comaroff, 2012; Connell, 2007) and, more importantly, be put at the heart of a truly global research agenda and curriculum.

Rodny-Gumede (2013) sets out the critique against curricula modelled on the global North and argues for a curriculum grounded in local realities. She references the new curriculum model for journalism education in developing countries and emerging democracies of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO, 2007). The problem with attempts such as the UNESCO curricula is the underlying assumption that a generic model for journalism education is universal, in effect disregarding dramatically diverse cultural, social, economic, political, historical and religious conditions (Freedman and Shafer, 2010: 135–137). The later Model Curricula for Journalism Education (UNESCO, 2013) does little to disperse these ideas, and there is still a sense that the global serves as the norm upon which training, curricula and literature are based, ignoring the need for a ‘Southernization’ of media and journalism studies, let alone the need for constructing an entirely new journalism agenda (Couldry, 2007: 249).

The context of teaching journalism at the UJ, South Africa

Journalism around the world has undergone tremendous changes in the last 20 years. Technological developments, new media platforms and audience interaction, industry-wide retrenchments (including low new recruitment figures) and financial bottom lines have affected the industry and changed structures, practices, content and the role that journalism plays in society. In South Africa, these changes are coupled with the social, political, economic and cultural change that the country as a whole has undergone since the first democratic elections in 1994. Few other disciplines (and nations) have undergone such tremendous changes in the last 20 years.

At the beginning of the 21st century, having enjoyed two decades of democracy, the media landscape in South Africa has changed dramatically since the years of apartheid. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are now enshrined in the new South African Constitution for all to enjoy. However, while it could be argued that South Africa is in many ways a stable democracy with all vital democratic institutions in place, it is still a country in transition from autocracy to democracy, and the history and legacy of apartheid still permeate all facets of life, including the media. This is reflected in the patterns of media ownership and control (Duncan, 2004: 2001), the shortage of skills and the juniorization of newsrooms (SANEF, 2002), prevailing racist attitudes both in the newsroom and in the contents of the media (De Wet, 2001; Mtwana and Bird, 2006; SAHRC, 2000), the absence of a deeper understanding of non-racialism (Everatt, 2009, 2010), the lack of access to the media for many marginalized communities (Berger, 2001a, 2005; Duncan, 2001, 2004), the lack of space for a diversity of opinions to interrogate governance and reform (Berger, 2001a, 2005) and in the continuing antagonistic relationship between the media and the government (Berger, 2001b; Fourie, 2002; Hadland, 2007; Harber, 2008; Wasserman, 2010; Wasserman and De Beer, 2006; Wigston, 2007). With regard to the latter, Government has critiqued the news media’s seeming unwillingness to transform and meet the demands of the nascent democracy and a changing audience.

The impact of the changing socio-political landscape and rapid shifts in technology development on the production and dissemination of content, as well as the underlying ethos of the news media, has echoed through journalism curricula at learning institutions around the country. The BA Journalism degree and other journalism course offerings at the UJ are no different in this regard. UJ itself has undergone tremendous change – changes that in many ways mirror the changes that the country as a whole has undergone since the end of apartheid. The university has transformed from an exclusive White Afrikaans-speaking university to a multicultural, essentially English-speaking university with a strong focus on serving students from previously disadvantaged backgrounds and the so-called first-generation university students (i.e. students who come from families where no one else holds an academic degree). Today, the typical UJ journalism student is a young Black woman graduating with a 3-year BA degree with anything from politics, sociology, economics or a language as an additional subject.

Most students have English (the main language of instruction) as a second or third language at best. They come to the university from a faltering basic education system, struggling to address the massive inequities created by apartheid. Many come from impoverished communities with little or no access to basic services such as water and electricity. The students also face the daily struggles of having to put food on the table, paying tuition fees and covering the cost of study materials and travel to and from campus. Forming a professional and scholarly identity is therefore premised on and shaped by factors very different from that of their peers in many Western societies.

Given the history of South Africa and the political and social transformation that the country has undergone since the end of formal apartheid in 1994 and the challenges that still exist in overcoming the many legacies of the past, a new ethos of journalism needs to be fostered and with that, a new generation of journalists who can play a constructive role in the new democracy. As such, my first assertion speaks to the need for curricula to re-affirm the role of the news media in the democratic process.

Re-affirming the role of the news media in democratic processes

The role of the media is highly debated and highly contested all over the world, even more so in the context of political transition and in the wake of social and political upheaval. As in many countries that have undergone democratization since the early 1990s, calls have been heard for both a representative and a participatory democracy that can facilitate the effective involvement of every citizen; hence, access to the media and fair and balanced representation is of utmost importance (Duncan and Seleoane, 1998: 3).

In a young democracy, additional demands on the media to fulfil the functions of what McQuail (2005: 97) labels information, correlation, continuity, entertainment and mobilization increase. The need for quality information is even higher in the transition period and during the breakdown of the old political and social order (Voltmer, 2006: 4). The role of the media in defining public understanding and opinion is also becoming more important as people’s opportunities for first-hand experiences decrease as a result of the complexities of modern societal organization (McQuail, 2000: 158). The decline in some older structures of political and social control and sources of guidance for individuals (political parties, churches, family, community) may well be thought to increase the need for effective institutions in the public sphere to compensate for these losses (McQuail, 2000: 34; Voltmer, 2006: 4). Questions have also often been raised about the role of the media, especially the broadcast media, in nation building and in constructing a common identity, especially in societies where political organization and state formation have been premised on racial and ethnic divisions and exclusion.

However, in later years, the centrality of the news media to democratic processes and in facilitating access to public discourse and civic engagement has been questioned (Couldry, 2009; Dahlgren and Sparks, 1991; Wasserman and Garman, 2013). Research points to an increased fragmentation of the public sphere (Dahlgren, 2005), as well as an increased audience disengagement within the traditional news media (World Association of Newspapers and News publishers (WAN), 2013), in particular with regard to younger audiences (Wasserman and Garman, 2013). This said, the news media is only one institution in the process of building a democratic society, albeit an important one, insofar as it can facilitate a continuous debate around the type of society that is desirable and act as a mediator between different views and stakeholders. Whereas some scholars and journalists might proclaim ‘the end of journalism’ (Bromley, 1997; Deuze, 2007), others argue that maybe it is not so much the end as a fragmentation and transformation of journalistic practice and institutions that question the notion of journalism as we know it (Waisbord, 2006: 78).

Journalism degrees at universities world-wide, like many news media outlets, have to adapt to constant change and flux. Media outlets and platforms that journalists work for are changing rapidly, the way in which journalism is produced no less so and the way in which audiences consume news is definitely changing in leaps and bounds. However, the fundamentals of journalism in terms of providing, contextualizing and interpreting information (particularly information that someone wants to keep out of the public realm) has not changed and is needed more than ever, given the complexity of modern society, social organization and new forms and platforms for information dissemination. Nordenstreng (2009: 516) talks about a new age of realism where people’s need for reliable information and quality journalism on issues of society, economy and the environment is increasing rather than decreasing. In young democracies, transitional and post-colonial societies, these changes are set against the history of institutionalized social exclusion based on political and ideological beliefs, ethnicity and race that continue to shape societal organization.

Much of the debate in the global North has focused on ideas around the changing media landscape and new challenges to journalism presented by new developments in technology, new forms of audience interaction and participation and loss of editorial control. While these issues are pertinent to any media system, there are other issues that underline the development and fundamental ethos of the news media and journalism in young democracies, in particular post-colonial societies in the global South, that talk to overcoming the many legacies of the past. In this context, the need for a re-affirmation of the political functions of the news media is crucial and encompasses the manner in which the news media has catered for, as well as excluded certain segments of the audience.

Ideas around transformation have penetrated much of the debate about the South African news media in the last 20 years, and issues have ranged from how to make the journalistic corps and news producers in general more equitable in terms of race, to the transformation of news content itself amid criticism of racism and too narrow a focus on issues concerning only a small wealthy urban elite (Rodny-Gumede, 2012). Transformation has undisputedly come a long way since the days of apartheid; however, it is still true that the news media in South Africa is fragmented and audiences are divided by language and socio-economic factors that dictate access and ideas around what is considered news (Gassner, 2007; Wasserman and De Beer, 2005). This is particularly pertinent with regard to the public interest and how conceptualizations thereof need to be broadened in order to open up to a wider audience and set of interests (Rodny-Gumede, 2015a).

By studying the media in other young democracies and post-colonial societies, a curriculum can be developed that, rather than re-inventing a new role for journalism along developments in the global North, re-affirms the need for an independent news media, as well as a news media sensitive to the society and realities it forms part of instead. This leads us to the second assertion, namely, the need for comparative studies and research-led teaching.

The need for comparative studies and research-led teaching

Several prominent media scholars affirm the importance of comparative studies and the necessity for communication theory to develop itself comparatively in order to conquer parochialism and narrowness both in theory and in practice (Curran and Park, 2000; Downing, 1996; Hanitzsch, 2008; Livingstone, 2003; Mwesige, 2004; Schudson, 2000; Sreberny, 2004; Voltmer, 2006; Weaver and Löffelholz, 2008).

In any society, the analysis of the news media provides a means of investigating the politics, economy, culture, social relations and imaginative life of society (Curran, 2013). Media studies are, as Schudson (2000: 194) affirms, genuinely linked to national political issues and constitute ‘an academic meta-discourse on the daily defining of political reality’. As such, the motive of the study of the news media is normally conceived in isolation from comparative concerns. If this strengthens the immediate political relevance of media studies, it weakens the longer term value of media studies as a social science (Schudson, 2000: 194). Through comparative analysis, social relations can, in the words of Sreberny (2004: 83), be isolated and ‘denaturalized’ to show how they are ‘historically constructed, culturally inflected, and mutable’. Furthermore, comparative studies can establish the possibilities of generalizing theories and validating interpretations derived from single case studies (Hanitzsch, 2008: 95). In relation to journalism and the news media specifically, Wahl-Jorgensen (2004: 350) argues that critical studies in this area need to be international, comparative, empirical and even normative. The opposite also applies. South Africa makes a great case study from which inferences can be drawn, relevant to many other societies that, like South Africa, have undergone significant political change in the latter part of the 20th century, post-colonial societies in particular. In this regard, it is also important to develop a research agenda that recognizes ‘the historical involvement of “the West” in the imposition of political systems on the “non-West” through processes of colonization’ (Willems, 2014: 416), largely left beyond consideration up to now.

Countries that have undergone political transitions face dilemmas similar to those of post-apartheid South Africa, this independently of being post-Communist states in Eastern Europe and Asia or post-authoritarian states in Africa and, to a certain extent, Latin America (Rodny-Gumede, 2015b). While there are huge differences, there are also many similarities and lessons to be learnt from how the news media has developed in these societies that could point the way towards a better understanding of the development of the news media post-apartheid and future trajectories thereof (Rodny-Gumede, 2013: 133, 2015b: 6; Sparks, 2011: 6).

These societies share the way in which issues of power, the state, endemic conflicts, societal change, the economy, institutionalized racism and ethnic insurgency, secrecy and surveillance have been marginalized (Downing, 1996: xi). These are issues that have implications for the development and transformation of the news media in post-apartheid South Africa, issues that are not necessarily relevant to realities in the global North. These are all factors that need to be recognized when developing the curricula for journalism courses in South Africa, as well as many other transitional and post-colonial societies.

If the premises upon which we teach journalism hold up norms that do not talk to lived realities and local experiences, we need to provide a platform that does. Thus, journalism curricula at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels need to have a strong research-led element. Journalism is also a ‘topic much debated, less researched’ (Deuze, 2008: 267), particularly with regard to the news media in societies outside of the global North. Research and teaching are not polar opposites – instead, they share the same goal of ‘… advancement of learning and knowledge’ (Light et al., 2009: 35) and form a ‘virtuous circle’ (Harcup, 2012: 161).

If we are to be able to move away from a copy-and-paste approach to curricula development, and ground teaching in local realities rather than checklists for what should be included in curricula copied from the global North, African traditions of critical scholarship (Appiah, 2010; Mbembe, 2015; Mudimbe, 1988; Wa Thiong’o, 1993) that have not yet found favour in communication studies in the global North need to be considered (Chasi and Rodny-Gumede, 2016). In short, we need to develop course material and scholarly arguments grounded in local realities and experiences emanating from the context of the societies in which journalism is practiced and content produced. This is also dependent on establishing peer-review mechanisms for research and curricula within the global South, as well as a peer-review process that recognizes the global South as equal and establishes a dialogue between different contexts rather than setting yardsticks for normative transfers of models and practices.

References need to be made to other countries than South Africa, particularly in Africa and the global South, to facilitate and inspire comparisons between different countries, cultural contexts and political/ideological viewpoints relevant in contexts other than liberal democracies in the global North. For South African students and educators, this entails recognizing variables often not included in discourses around the media in the global North, particularly with regard to race, ethnicity and nation building (Rodny-Gumede, 2015b, 2013). In this regard, students also need an understanding of themselves, not only as journalists but also as citizens in a society that bears very little resemblance to societies and media systems in the global North that is often held up as the norm. This leads us to the third assertion of journalism as active citizenship.

Journalism as active citizenship

While concerns in the global North might focus more on how to re-invent journalism as a profession and finding new ways for journalism to engage and retain audiences, the pressing issues in the global South relate more to the role of journalism in the changing socio-political landscape than a media-centric view of technological challenges and new ways of engaging the audience. The discipline of journalism cuts to the heart of democratic values and the realization of a qualitative, deliberative and participatory democracy yet to be shaped, let alone negotiated. As such, a professional journalistic identity needs to be formed around an understanding of journalism as active citizenship and the ways in which the news media can support a broader transformation of society.

The news media’s role in South Africa is, as Wasserman (2013: 70) says, ‘complicated by the fact that the country is a new democracy, where the journalistic paradigm is still being negotiated alongside parallel debates about identity, citizenship and social justice’. As in many other post-colonial societies, journalists have to confront their own identities, especially with regard to narratives of history and race. While the role of the news media, including that of journalists themselves, in nation building has often been highlighted in the post-apartheid era under the banner of creating a ‘rainbow nation’, ¹ these ideas have also been criticized for propagating a false sense of unity based on a superficial understanding of the diversity of the South African nation (February and Jacobs, 2010).

Instead, curricula, as well as pedagogies, need to facilitate an understanding among students that identities overlap in ways that transcend the occasional shared belief, value or world – that identities are multilayered, plural and inclusive and should be based on our interconnected differences rather than forced similarities. As such, curricula and pedagogy should pave the way for the students to develop a better understanding of themselves and their role as journalists in the ever-changing social environment. Such an understanding would also counter the parochialism that have persisted since the days of apartheid, where a broad majority of the audience was cut off from the mainstream media and the public interest very narrowly defined (Rodny-Gumede, 2015a).

In recognition of the country’s recent history, the South African Press Code (2016) not only articulates the rights and responsibilities of the news media but also contains an explicit articulation that the news media strives to hold the Constitutional values of the freedom of the press and freedom of expression ‘in trust for the country’s citizens; and it is subject to the same rights and duties as the individual’ and that, importantly, ‘Everyone has the duty to defend and further these rights, in recognition of the struggles that created them: the media, the public and government, who all make up the democratic state’ (South African Press Code, 2016).

Furthermore, the South African Press Code emphasizes that not only is the press subject to the same rights and duties as any individual, but that every citizen has a duty to defend and, importantly, further these rights in recognition of, and against the backdrop of, the history of South Africa. The South African Press Code also makes an explicit statement that if citizens are to enjoy their basic rights, a range of societal institutions, including Government and the news media, are needed to monitor and uphold these rights and make sure that these become part of the broader fabric of society, informing the way in which citizens interact with each other. In order to do so, the news media needs to be free to debate various ideologies, policy options and viewpoints, and hold elected leaders accountable, but also, more importantly, fulfil a didactic role in educating the public and government alike on their duties to defend and further the rights set out in the Constitution.

Such a role will have to be premised on active citizenship and needs to be taught and explored through encouraging journalism students in all courses and at all year levels to actively participate in debates around media policy, legislation and access to the news media, including citizen participation through alternative forms of journalism. Particular attention needs to be paid to journalists’ understanding of themselves and the role they play in the wider societal transformation process, as well as journalistic practices, output and the ways in which these can support and encourage active citizenship.

This links to the fourth and final assertion of journalism as a reflexive practice.

Journalism as a reflexive practice

Journalism courses around the world have increasingly been incorporated into the formal structures of university degrees. That being the case, journalism degrees and educators are often caught between industry’s demand for ready-to-go reporters vis-à-vis the academy’s emphasis on theory and research skills. Zelizer (2007: 112) and Deuze (2006: 22) both highlight the struggles faced by journalism educators all over the world in terms of having to defend their curricula, methods and theories against the media industry’s notion that the academy is ill suited to equip young journalists with the skills needed in the day-to-day work of journalism. There is a binary divide between theory and practice, and between lecturers perceived as ‘proper’ academic researchers and those who come from the professions, business or industry (Bills, 2004: 92). The gap between theory and praxis is also felt by journalists entering the academy, as set out by Zelizer (2004: 2–3).

Bills (2004: 92) argues that university lecturers and researchers need to become aware of any simplifying binary constructs they may hold by becoming more reflective. This also links to the bridging of theory and practice and the need for a research-led curriculum that reflects on practice grounded in theory and the education of scholars who can ‘contribute to the science of journalism by conceptualizing and confronting communication challenges and problems on theoretical and critical levels’ (De Beer and Merrill, 2009: 168). The present near-Cartesian dualism in the juxtaposition of theory and practice hampers critical reflection, and there is a real need for bridging the gap between the two and to recognize that, as with research and teaching, the one informs the other. More than anything, it is the ability of journalists to critically reflect upon practices and their own role that can inform a new ethos for the news media and ultimately reinforce the role that journalism can play in a nascent democracy.

Self-reflection has always been a feature of the work of a professional journalist, and journalists continuously blend practical skills with the ‘ability to critically reflect on what they do and why’ (Sheridan Burns, 2013: 14). Reflective practices as set out by Schön (1983) refer to the process of people considering their life experiences in ways that contribute to a deeper understanding of their own role in shaping practices and the outcomes of the same, as well as an ability to respond and adjust to the social environment around them as part of an on-going process of creating and recreating their identities (Giddens, 1991). As pedagogy, reflexivity is also linked to transformative learning processes and a critical awareness of a person’s own assumptions and pre-conceived ideas, as well as those of others (Mezirow, 2000). Such abilities have sorely been missing in the news media and socio-political landscape in South Africa throughout its history of colonialism and apartheid and will have to form the basis of a new journalistic role orientation.

The transition from authoritarian rule to democracy requires radical new role orientations and rules of interaction between the media and those in power (Voltmer, 2006: 7), especially in relation to strengthening ethics and codes of conduct to counter partisanship and bias in the news media. Voltmer (2006) argues that while the watchdog function of the media is very important in societies that have come out of authoritarian rule where political elites were not held accountable, the new democratic society is faced with the dilemma of keeping new political elites accountable, as well as not destabilizing the often fragile legitimacy of the new regime. How this is to be achieved is, however, a source of contention, and South Africa has seen clear clashes between the Government’s policy agenda of transformation and the news media’s idea of evaluation and criticism of the policies of government (Rodny-Gumede, 2015a). There is a real need for intellectual editors, journalists, writers and commentators who can chart a new way for the news media in the ever-changing socio-political landscape to counter political bias and attempts at co-option of the news media, mapping out new ways for broadening the audience and engaging them in issues of public concern (Rodny-Gumede, 2015a).

As much as journalists need technical skills linked to specific media platforms as well as sound language, writing and editing skills, there is an equal need for journalists with solid analytical abilities and research skills, knowledge of ethics and an understanding of the world that goes beyond the mere reporting of events. Journalists should be able to continuously reflect upon their own role and the role that the news media has played in the creating, upholding and dismantling the former political dispensation, as well as the role that journalism can play as an instrument of, and platform for, societal change and transformation. Therefore, media scholars and journalism educators in the post-colonial context would do better to centre debates around preserving an intellectual core of journalism, provided that this does not become an elitist project.

Concluding remarks

This article has set out a framework for teaching journalism and developing journalism curricula in South Africa based on four assertions: re-affirmation of the role of journalism in democratic processes, the need for comparative studies and research-led teaching, journalism as active citizenship and journalism as a reflexive practice. These assertions are not mutually exclusive and should rather be seen as overlapping and interlinked, building blocks that can form the basis for a journalism curriculum and pedagogy that takes local realities as lived and experienced in the global South as its departure point, rather than imported Western normative conceptualizations of the role and function of the news media in society. And most importantly, a curriculum that centres on, and recognizes, the global South as not only equal to the global North, but one that articulates what the study of the news media in this particular context can offer − not only the context within which it functions but also the discipline itself, and ultimately a truly global journalism curriculum.

I have argued that in order to re-affirm the role of journalism in democracy and democratic processes, a real understanding of the complexities of the contemporary socio-economic, cultural and political landscape must be central to how we teach journalism to young aspiring journalists. Rather than imported curricula grounded in the global North, an understanding of the own should be furnished from comparative studies of the news media in other young democracies and post-colonial societies. Such comparisons will inevitably highlight many factors that need to be considered in relation to trajectories of media development, politico-legal frameworks, professionalism and ethics not considered in current normative conceptualizations of the role of the media in democracy. Comparative studies also validate the global South experience as equal, by showing the relevance of local realities and examples to the development of new theory, and a new research agenda for the global South, as well as the global North, that moves away from the narrow binaries of North and South, global and local.

Further to this, the proposed curriculum is premised on an understanding of journalism as active citizenship to encourage journalists’ engagement with the role of journalism and the news media in the context of the socio-economic and political landscape that it serves. In doing so, a new generation of journalists can be fostered – journalists with an understanding of their own role and professional identity premised on the society they form part of, journalists who realize that their role and understanding of professionalism and professional identity go beyond mere reporting and neutral observation. Most importantly, journalists who continuously evaluate, assess and reflect upon their own role as well as the transformative, political, socio-economic role of journalism in society with regard to the past, present and future.