Journalism Education in New Zealand: Its History, Current Challenges and Possible Futures

Vocational journalism education in New Zealand is facing the twin challenges of declining student numbers and increasing industry expectations that graduates should have strong multimedia skills. The main reason for both is the digital revolution, which has created a public perception that there are no longer jobs for new journalists and increased demand from industry for recruits proficient in convergent journalism. Some journalism schools, unable to meet these challenges, have closed. This article considers what the remaining schools are doing to meet the challenges. The article also reports the results of a survey of graduates of the oldest continuously operating journalism school in the country. The results reveal how the nature of journalism education in New Zealand has changed over the past 50 years, the experience of the graduates since leaving the school and the advice they offer today’s aspiring journalists.