Abstract:

Today distance learning is more a rule than an exception. Study programmes that educate journalists are highly popular, but one can still not study journalism remotely in Croatia, or South East Europe in general. This work relies on the sustainable journalism education theory and it is an extension of the Croatian corpus of journalism education studies as the first that recently scientifically investigates the interest in studying journalism. It is conducted within the three-year (2021-2023) international scientific institutional project Higher Education of Journalists in a Digital Environment (HEJDE) of the Faculty of Humanities of the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula. In the second project activity it examines, from the academic perspective, the need for developing such a study programme, its feasibility, and the interest of potential students for studying it.

This paper presents the research results on the attitudes of journalists to the prospective online postgraduate specialist study programme in journalism in the Croatian language. There are many people working in the media as journalists who graduated, but do not have a journalistic or related qualification, and could, along with their newsrooms, and the public, profit from such a degree.

Data were collected using the survey method in 2022 and 2023 on a sample of 116 journalists from Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania and Kosovo. The largest number of respondents had from 10 to more than 20 years of experience, were employed in commercial internet media, TV and press of national and regional reach, and have a degree in humanities or social sciences. Even though the majority of respondents did not specify the reasons for not studying journalism yet, the rest stated the lack of interest, distance of the study from their place of residence, lack of finances and time. Further, the majority have already participated in online classes estimating their technical/digital skills from good to excellent. A positive attitude prevails regarding studying online, and the equality of competences gained by studying remotely and in a traditional way is emphasized.

The prime finding of this study is that almost half of the examinees would enroll in such an online postgraduate specialist study of journalism if they could. They are primarily motivated by their own professional development and the idea of gaining a postgraduate/journalistic degree. However, the main reasons for not studying journalism remotely is the lack of time, the fact that a degree will not affect their job advancement, and lack of finances, which turned out to be a complex issue. Namely, only a third of the surveyed journalists predict the employers' full support for such a study, and more than three quarters believe it would not happen in terms of covering study costs, while they themselves are not able to fully pay them, or they could do it just partially.

Most of the respondents could devote up to 10 hours a week to distance learning and they marked lectures throughout the week in the evenings or weekends as the best choice. They suggested that practical subjects, courses on new technologies, journalism on social networks, and investigative journalism should be the core of the study programme curriculum.

In conclusion, from the perspective of the needs and interests of this specific target group, the justification to start such a study programme exists.

Keywords:

Distance learning, interest in studying journalism, online postgraduate specialist study programme, sustainable journalism education, employed journalists.