The old wisdom says that journalism is learned in the newsroom, not on faculty. It is true that there are many useful things at that faculty. Then again, no one has ever asked me about my degree in almost two decades in the business. I know extraordinary journalists who did not study anything, let alone journalism.
During my entire studies at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, I would say that in total I wrote as many news and articles as the average newsroom can write in a week.
When, as a second-year student, I came to an unpaid internship at Radio Studio B, at the top of Beograđanka, a senior colleague there thought that I should start from editing news to dry. I didn't know what "editing" meant.
What has changed since then, Bologneseization has progressed, but especially journalism in Belgrade has remained far from practice. Even in Novi Sad and Niš, it doesn't really look like how journalism could and should be studied - like studying acting, in small groups, intensively, practically, with theory around.
Serbia does not need this many media or journalists. Faculties, professors in bars admit, need so many students because they pay tuition fees and receive money from the state budget. So nothing from small groups.
On the one hand, our faculties are too far from practice. It could be that faculties prepare journalists for a media world that does not exist - houses made of chocolate, windows made of marmalade. On the other hand, our horrible journalistic practice is so far from theory and better customs that the question is whether any faculty helps.
With the third, young journalists will be faced with an audience that has little appreciation for thorough journalistic work, and is even less willing to pay for it. Which, after all, has less and less time, will and concentration to follow anything longer than a tweet or a work on TikTok.
TIME, TIME
I spoke with four colleagues. Three are students, "Vremena" scholarship holders, who have only been in our editorial office for a few months. The fourth teaches at the university.
Anja says that she enrolled in FPN in Belgrade, aware that there are more political science subjects than journalism subjects, and that's what she wanted. He believes that it provides the foundation.
When it comes to practical work, he says that it is difficult for those who have not previously gone to practice in a medium on their own. It's quite rigid because at first he sticks to the rules like a drunkard, but Anja thinks it's necessary. You have to know the rules to break them.
"In daily journalism, the biggest shock to me was the pace," she says. "At the university, you have an easy seven days to write a news story, in a real newsroom you have maybe half an hour. That is something that the university cannot prepare you for."
Pace! Some football experts say that the difference between a world-class player and a third-tier player is in pace. Both of them know how to pass the ball on the lash and will not make a mistake with the first, second or third pass from ten meters. But only one of them can do it fast, hard and constantly and again, again and again, under pressure.
Rajna, another young colleague, also talks about the pace as a shock. He says that the theory and ethics of journalism are worth their weight in gold, but journalism courses are few, only one per semester. Routine doesn't develop like that. And then you come to the newsroom.
"It's not unexpected that you work quickly, but I didn't prepare for it at the university. Writing student papers takes two weeks, sometimes even longer, which leaves room to go through the text a million times and bring it to perfection. The university should prepare students for the labor market, to develop practical skills in addition to theory," says Rajna, also a student of Belgrade's FPN.
So that it's not just the faculties that are screeching - the newsrooms themselves are separating themselves from what should be done. "The speed of work in newsrooms often does not leave room for golden journalistic rules such as checking with three sources, a balanced selection of interlocutors. Most often, we get those interlocutors who are most available, and not those who are most invited to speak on the topic."
And more: "The question is how much do journalists sleep in the time crunch to remain objective, to look at the situation from all angles, separating themselves from personal views".
By the way, if young female colleagues are surprised by the pace of work on the "Vremena" portal - and we are very careful not to stamp news and publish everything we can get our hands on - how would they spend time in one of the hundred portals that serve to copy and paste news?
EXCESS OF THEORY?
Aleksa, also at the same faculty, says that the curriculum and literature are outdated. For example, journalism in print, which hardly exists, is still a compulsory subject, and online journalism is optional.
"Social networks are almost not addressed. The faculty adheres to the formal legal framework according to which they are not media, but in practice they are because a large number of citizens are informed through them. There is an obvious gap between theory and reality."
Aleksa says that he did not make a mistake with his choice of university. "The reason is not the journalism program, but the breadth of knowledge that students acquire. A journalist, by the nature of his job, must be erudite, to understand the political, economic, social and cultural processes in the country and the world."
That's where I had to call Sanja Kljajić, who never stopped working as a journalist even though she decided to follow an academic path while still a student. She is an assistant at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad and active in journalistic associations.
"Yes, I think we coddle the students a bit," she says with a laugh. "As a woman from practice, I know that the time we give them to write is too long. But from the perspective of a student who has a mountain of term papers and colloquiums, it is already a strong pace. But of course they don't have that much time in the editorial office."
Sanja says that the faculties are quite different - the Belgrade Faculty of Political Sciences is all about theory. In Novi Sad, the theoretical subjects are there to support those of journalism, and Niš is somewhere in between. Both have advantages and disadvantages.
"I'm a geek and I think that theoretical subjects are necessary. In conversations with colleagues and in the newsrooms, I notice that students from Novi Sad come much more prepared for the trade, and that they come from Belgrade much better equipped to cover topics, say, from daily politics."
DISNEYLAND OR KEEPING THE STANDARDS
Sanja also says that the faculties try to keep up with modern journalism, although they cannot change the curriculum every hour. Today, you often need a smartphone for that, so short contributions to social networks are created.
"Today's students have grown up with technology, the closest thing to them is audiovisual language, not boring writing. But we see beginners' mistakes - they lack a little of the basics of audiovisual language to fit in," she says.
But there is no way he will give up on one - he will not, he says, prepare students for the "labor market" as it is in Serbia, with all its dislocations. "We have to teach them how it must and should be done. The second is a pair of shoes, which is the practice in which they actually work."
"We have to teach them more broadly, that they should be educated, that they know every story from five angles and choose one, that they have at least three independent sources, that they have checked the facts, that we teach them ethics. So, as if tomorrow they will be doing the most responsible work in the most responsible world media, if there is such a thing anymore. And what the practice will make of them is the responsibility of the entire society and the media community, not just the faculty."
Her hope is the survival of the profession by being protected by those who come, so for some better times, instead of rising to the present state. "Because here's where it's going - when I was still studying, one of my colleagues did an internship at a semi-tabloid. After a month, she told us that she made up a statement. I was in shock - we didn't learn that way, nor does it have to be done as much as practice demands. It's not Disneyland, it's maintaining standards."
Only in August: Save three thousand dinars on the annual subscription to the digital edition of "Vremena"! Take advantage of the discount here and support independent journalism.
