Youth publications, generation Y and hopes for the future of newspapers

If readership projections are correct, newspapers in the United States will become niche players by 2010. That is, in about half a decade fewer than half of American adults will read a daily newspaper. This will produce major problems in attracting advertising, the lifeblood of the newspaper business. The biggest decline in readership has occurred among Generation Y - people born between 1977 and 1995. They do not read newspapers to the extent their parents did. They get their news elsewhere, mainly online. As part of a process to attract readers, many of America's major publishers launched a series of youth-focused newspapers in the 18 months to March 2004. The aim was to try to get the elusive 18-24-year-old demographic into the habit of daily reading, hoping that over time they would migrate to more traditional outlets. This paper explores the background to these youth-focused publications, describes the main players and issues involved, and provides a case study of a youth-focused pioneer, the Tribune Company s Red Eye, which is published in Chicago.

The future of psychoanalytic institutes

The author contends that both conceptual and institutional problems permeate psychoanalytic institutes. Although institutional problems are historically based, they also derive from confusions around ill-defined concepts that lead to arbitrariness, authoritarianism, and the stifling of creativity. Psychoanalysis is a humanistic discipline that is touted as a science but is organized as a religion. Problems surrounding the right to train pervade psychoanalytic schisms, and transmission comes through processes of anointment. Institutional "false expertise" invokes the aura of anointment where training analysts pass down received truth through an esoteric pipeline depending on genealogy instead of function. Quasi-religious thinking and politics rush in to fill the gap between the level of claimed knowledge that affords qualification and the far lower level of real knowledge. Institutes should rely on evidence of candidates' performance and engage in open-ended inquiry

Let's kill the 'C' word: notions of authentic and synthetic in the teaching of journalism

One of the less desirable aftermaths of the so-called "Media Wars" - the intellectual debate over the role of cultural studies in the study of journalism - was reinforcement for some of the notion of fortress journalism: a Windschuttlian purist version of the Empire. This paper uses the alleged confrontation between the forces of that Empire (that is, proponents of pure journalism) and the forces of the Dark (that is, critics from a cultural studies tradition) as a means of examining the teaching of journalism in universities. The paper questions how the discipline of journalism should interface with others within the academy and asks what notion of journalism underpins our pedagogy and our epistemology. It is argued that it is time to discard an outdated craft model with its associations of authenticity and replace it with a model of synthetic professionalism.

On the future of teacher education: challenges, context and content

This article focuses on a discussion paper, which presents an analysis of context under four headings before turning to issues of what kind of teachers, teacher education and education services are required for 2020. There are three issues to be faced in the twenty-first century. The first issue is how to deal with the reconstitution of the natural environment so as to avoid imminent disaster. The second issue is how to overcome the xenophobia, learn to live with difference and construct institutions capable of accommodating difference. The third is how to mitigate gross disadvantages within and between societies.

In our own image? The socialisation of journalism`s new recruits

This paper examines the role of a key group of primary refiners in the socialisation of new entrants to journalism: that is, the trainers, generally called cadet counsellors or editorial training managers. While the paper highlights the historical and structural tensions still current in the training of young journalists in Australia, it identifies the two main determining forces as technology and the increasingly virulent commercial imperative driving modern journalism. This paper also taps into continuing and current debates surrounding accreditation and professionalism. It confirms the fundamental identity crisis for trainers: should they confirm and consolidate current practice or be innovators and catalysts for change within the newsroom?

What can we learn from McLuhan? Electronic communication technologies and the future of schooling

In the 1960's, Marshall McLuhan predicted that schooling, among other things, would be transformed as society embraced electronic communication technologies. McLuhan and other medium theorists provided an evocative but controversial discussion of the effects of technological development on society and its institutions. McLuhan's ideas were widely criticised by his contemporaries, particularly educationalists; however, his ideas are not so radical today and visions similar to those formulated by McLuhan can now be found in mainstream educational literature. Predictions made by medium theorists about the future of schooling are consistent with both the reforms advocated by current-day educationalists and the speculations of technologists.

In this paper, I revisit McLuhan's predictions for the future of education. I then draw parallels between McLuhan's vision and those espoused by contemporary educationalists. I argue that, although McLuhan's predictions have re-emerged, his analysis of the interaction between new technologies and old ways of doing have not re-emerged to the same extent, with many commentators neglecting to take account of the resilience of the institutionalised practices, structures and roles of traditional schooling.

The world-wide spread of journalism convergence

Convergence is a likely destination for news media in many parts of the world, though the duration of the journey will vary from country to country. This paper defines convergence as well as it is possible to do so, traces its spread around the world, and describes some of the most common business models. It looks at the forces driving convergence, and factors common to the most successful converged operations. The paper also describes the uncertain scenario in Australia now the Howard government has announced plans to change media ownership laws. It ends with discussion about changes in curricula at journalism programs in the United States in the light of the spread of convergence.

Comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable: the role of journalism in the academy

The new professional disciplines such as journalism and public relations face unique challenges in entering the academy and as they formulate their own methodologies, pedagogies and theoretical frameworks there arises inevitable tensions between them and the more traditional disciplines.

As recently as January of this year in announcing the establishment of a new institute of journalism at Oxford University backed by £1.75m funding from Reuters, the vice chancellor of Oxford University, Dr John Hood, outlined plans to make this new centre one of the most authoritative sources of reliable analysis of journalism at an international, national and local level.

He went on to say that the aim of the institute would be to "break down the barriers of incomprehension and distrust which have tended to define the relationship between the academy and journalism." It is that ambivalent relationship which provides the focus for this paper.

As late as the mid 90s in the Australian academy focus was on the so called "Media Wars" with proponents of a pure and empirical form of journalism education declaring "No More Theory!" Tensions remain at least in the Australian context between the profession and practitioners and those who have moved to journalism education. Even within the ranks of the educators there are still divisions between those who see themselves only as practitioners with skills to impart, and those who see themselves as also building the disciplinary base.

Interdisciplinarity is often seen as the solution to such tensions but such hybrid mergings bring with them their own problems. This paper looks at the "Media Wars", their aftermath, and provides a case study of a discipline still seeking its own secure methodological and theoretical niche within the academy. It also poses its own solution in suggesting that it is time for a riotous Feyeraband type of play to produce the kind of disciplinary pastiche which will help in securing that niche.

“My universe is here”: implications for the future of academic libraries from the results of a survey of researchers

One of the major challenges of university libraries is to adequately support the information needs of researchers. This paper outlines the results of a survey conducted by Deakin University Library into the information needs of researchers and the library’s perceived role and performance. The survey consisted of twenty-three interviews conducted with researchers, and its results challenged established ideas regarding researchers’ preference for print, age of resources required, and reliance on specialist rather than general or cross-disciplinary databases. Of note were the decreasing physical use of the library, the increasing importance of online resources and the changing need for library support services. The study raises some key questions relating to the future of libraries and the role of librarians.