Journalism Education and Training in Croatia

The wider objective of the project is to raise professional standards of journalistic reporting in Croatia. By achieving this objective, media can accelerate and emphasize more firmly its role of a democracy stimulus in Croatia. This wider objective can be reached by better acquaintance with journalistic knowledge and practices and high quality standard awareness among Croatian journalists. However, as pointed out in the project background, the Croatian education system at its present state eliminates quite a number of future and already working journalists from getting in touch with up-to-date journalistic knowledge and practices. Furthermore, Croatian media and overall environment are not in favour of high quality standards in journalism, so they need to be persuaded in merits of these values to »lay the way« for new reporting methods in Croatian journalism (Specific Objective 2). That is why we believe that first the conditions in terms of more appropriate training circumstances and methods should be introduced into the existing system (Specific Objective 1). As the system appears to be over-self-sufficient (Croatian journalists educated in Croatia train Croatian journalists), we believe that by involvement of foreign knowledge and education methods the Croatian education system can be pushed to a new level of journalist training.

We see this project as a model of a »learning organisation«, as we built into it a profitable motivation system for management and monitoring instruments for target groups. The project is also considering cultural differences between Partner Countries and Member States, as it cannot be ignored e.g. that motivation values in Croatia are different from those in most of the EU. The project tries to use synergy effects of all its activities, that is why we used a slightly different structure from the one anticipated in this form.

To fulfill specific objectives stated above, we believe that three fully measurable results should be achieved:

1. »JETiC Seminars« (building the brand): To guarantee an »alternative« sustainable system of highest quality training in journalism as an addition to existing public and private education possibilities in Croatia, the position of ICEJ, as a promoter of quality in journalism and media dialogue, should be strengthened. As ICEJ does not have regular training staff, this project aims to train most appropriate individuals from media fields into future trainers and offer them best possible infrastructure conditions at ICEJ headquarters in Opatija to carry out training in the future (beyond the end of the project). Future trainers (carrying the »JETiC Trainers« Certificate) should be individual entrepreneurs in offering training in journalism excellence (»JETiC Seminars«). They will be able to take advantage of appropriate infrastructure to carry out the seminars at ICEJ. Furthermore, ICEJ will control these trainers by putting them under obligatory contracts of minimum training provided. In the course of the project, the management will take care, by marketing and PR activities, that giving training in »JETiC Seminars« becomes a profitable business as the brand »JETiC Seminar« should become a profitable value (we believe that . if a trainer’s motivation depends on the dissemination of his/hers knowledge – more training, more income- the knowledge won during the Trainee Course will be better disseminated after project’s completion). To control the quality of JETiC Seminars, ICEJ will provide monitoring of activities beyond the end of this project (and optionally apply for new EU funding to do so).

2. Raising Public Awareness Towards Quality in Journalism: In the present state of Croatian media system (here especially focusing on sender-recipient relations), the new methods trained in »JETiC Seminars« would have difficulties being accepted by general public (recipients) as new methods based on balanced, fair and accurate reporting because the public is used to partial and exaggerating reporting from media at present. That is why we believe that the general public needs to be acquainted with new journalistic methods too, so new methods will be able to replace the old ones and be accepted. For this reason we will initiate a monthly JETiC Jour-Fixe at the headquarters of the Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA) in Zagreb that will be freely accessible to general public. The management will make special efforts to attract listeners from organisations that are directly involved in the journalistic reporting process (politicians and other publicly exposed persons, opinion leaders, decision makers at public authorities and in media). The topics of Jour-Fixe should be interesting, not summing up a whole (systematic) view of media but transmitting easy understandable information that enlightens media understanding. Case studies should deliver a genuine view of theory behind them. Specific topics will be determined at coordination meetings in the 1st and 2nd years. Here is just a preview of possible Jour-Fixe titles (and the topics they refer to): What is wrong with our media? (Differences in Croatian and Austrian/French/Slovenian Media Landscapes), Who is and who can be a Journalist? (History of Journalism, Position of a Journalist within Society and Media System), How News get into Media? (Relationship Between Journalism, Press Agencies and PR), Who Decides What we Read, Hear and See? (Internal News Management in Media)

Following the last Jour-Fixe in the 2nd year will be a JETiC Conference that is to become an annual event on quality in media reporting. This conference is supposed to attract more specific target groups (decision makers in media and policy) but will also be freely accessible to general public. As scientists and practitioners will be able to report, the conference will each year refer to a specific topic, mostly closely related with actual media and journalism quality problems in Croatia and transition countries (e.g. for 2006: (When and How) Can Croatian Media Enter the EU Media Landscape?)

Both of the activities will be supported by PR activities to assure publicity.

3. Trained Media Staff (carrying out »JETiC Seminars«): »JETiC Seminars« are the form of training for editors, journalists and media managers through which there should be transferred knowledge necessary to raise the level of media and journalist reporting. »JETiC Seminars« are the institution that is being build-up through this project. To show the future trainers how to carry out »JETiC Seminars« (and what the quality requirements for their future business are), three of such one-week seminars for media staff will be carried out already in the course of the project. Future trainers will be able to actively participate in these seminars, which will be obligatory for them as a part of their training. Furthermore, they will be trained in handling new equipment that the ICEJ headquarters will be presented with the grant of this project. By carrying out these courses, the EU trainers will also be able to adopt their training in the 3rd year to experience won in the JETiC Seminar they have carried out in the 2nd year and by that adopt JETiC Seminars for sustainable future existence. The specific contents of individual seminars will be determined on co-ordination meetings in the 2nd and 3rd year. After the end of the project, JETiC Trainers will consult ICEJ about the training they are planning to give, so ICEJ will be able to guarantee a variety in seminar contents and by that a life-long learning concept (and quality) of journalistic training in Croatia. The seminars carried out in the course of the project will, in general, refer to the theory, praxeology and practice of media reporting to provide the complex view of media system, on one hand, and to transmit concrete new practices of journalistic reporting, on the other. Actual topics will be determined with trainers carrying out seminars, but in general they will refer to a) the position of journalism within media system and according to national cultures, b) reliable databases, information sources and internet research, c) journalistic formats (news, picture, reportage, investigation…) and their quality standards, d) reporting on politics/ economics/ culture/ environment/ health/ sports etc….

The core of the project is the trainee course (endowed with most training hours, travel & stay, equipment and publishing costs). Training future JETiC trainers is the integral part of building up the brand »JETiC Seminars« (Outcome 1). Next to this course (consisting of 12 two day trainings and one week multi-media course), 20 participants of the trainee course (trainees) will also take part at JETiC seminars (at first one only as recipients, but afterwards also as assistants and as lecturers to enable them to learn on-the-job) and giving lectures at JETiC Jour-Fixe. The topics of this course will reach from theoretical basis of media understanding through phraseology of media work to practical training such as investigative reporting, news selection, importance of images in reportage… Furthermore, teaching methods will be implemented into this course, with special stress on using multi-media infrastructure to reach highest dissemination and better quality of knowledge transfer.

To enable training at its highest level, the training facilities in Zagreb and Opatija will be equipped with devices necessary to carry out the courses. In the 1st and 2nd years, the equipment will be located at CJA headquarters in Zagreb and then transported to ICEJ headquarters in Opatija to carry out the first JETiC Seminar at the end of 2nd year (September 2006) and to be on disposal for the last week of trainee seminar (March 2007) and the 3rd year JETiC seminars (May and September 2007). Most of the Equipment Costs concern equipping a multi-media classroom at ICEJ headquarters in Opatija. With such a room, ICEJ would join the institutions that already use such facilities for knowledge transfer in distant learning and would be able to contribute to such a development in Croatia and to journalist training internationally.