In an era where the credibility of journalism is under siege and newsrooms are rapidly evolving under the weight of artificial intelligence, misinformation and the collapse of traditional business models, one pressing question lingers in academic circles: Who is best placed to train the next generation of journalists?
Professor Joseph Kwasi Agyemang, Professor of Accounting Sciences at the University of South Africa (UNISA) and the University of Eswatini, recently added his voice to this ongoing debate. In a frank but nuanced commentary, he acknowledged both the opportunities and dangers that come with allowing non-journalism professionals to teach in journalism faculties. His argument has reopened an old wound in journalism education, especially in Africa, where many journalism programmes, understaffed and under-resourced, rely heavily on lecturers from non-journalistic backgrounds.
His point deserves attention. Journalism schools around the world and especially in the Global South, are grappling with a dilemma: whether to preserve the traditional boundaries of journalism education or to expand them by integrating expertise from other fields. But while interdisciplinary education can be enriching, it should not come at the cost of diluting core journalistic principles.
The Case for Inclusion
Let’s begin with the positives. There is no denying that journalism today must be informed by economics, science, politics, business, law and technology. We live in a hyper-connected, interdisciplinary world, and journalism that fails to understand the context it reports on risks being shallow or misleading.
Professionals with deep knowledge in non-journalistic fields bring immense value to journalism education. A lawyer can teach the legal foundations of press freedom, libel and the rights of journalists. An economist can help students understand complex financial systems, GDP reports and budget statements, making it easier for journalists to ask tough questions during post-budget press conferences. A political scientist can help unpack power dynamics, electoral systems or the intricacies of governance. An agricultural expert can help rural or development reporters make sense of crop yields, food security or biotechnology.
This interdisciplinary exposure can make student journalists better prepared to understand, interpret and report on the increasingly complex issues shaping our world. The old journalist who simply knew how to write is no longer enough. Today’s journalist must also be a competent interpreter of the systems they report on.
The Pitfall
But there’s a major caveat, one that Professor Agyemang articulates clearly. Non-journalists, however knowledgeable in their fields, may not always possess the specific teaching skills or professional training required to cultivate competent reporters. Reporting, interviewing, editorial judgment, newsworthiness, verification, media law, ethics, writing style, headline crafting; these are not skills one can intuitively grasp just because they have academic experience in another field.
Teaching journalism is not the same as talking about issues in the media. It involves shaping minds to question, dig deeper, tell human stories with empathy and protect truth in a post-truth world. It requires a sensitivity to press ethics, news literacy and democratic values; skills that are only developed through sustained journalistic training or newsroom experience.
A professor of law, for instance, may be able to teach defamation law perfectly well. But when asked to guide students through a live interview simulation, or how to cover breaking news ethically, or how to write a compelling lede under a tight deadline, they may fall short.
The classroom needs educators who have been in the trenches; former reporters, editors, producers, who can model real-life judgment, resilience under pressure and a feel for what audiences need. These are not theoretical lessons. They are learnt in the field. And if students never experience them in the classroom, they walk out with degrees but no professional compass.
Striking the Right Balance
What is needed, then, is not a blanket exclusion of non-journalism professionals, but a thoughtful, strategic integration. Universities should not be choosing between journalists and non-journalists. They should be building curricula that benefit from both.
Non-journalism experts should be welcomed as guest lecturers, co-instructors or facilitators of modules that align with their areas of strength, data journalism, financial reporting, climate communication, media law, science journalism and so on. But they must work hand-in-hand with experienced journalists who can contextualize this knowledge within the discipline’s standards and ethos.
Take, for example, a module on investigative financial journalism. A finance professor can break down company statements, audit trails or taxation structures. But a journalist must teach how to investigate hidden accounts, approach whistleblowers, handle ethical dilemmas and write exposés that are accurate, fair and impactful.
Where both parties collaborate, students benefit. Where one tries to replace the other, the quality of training suffers.
The African Reality
The concern becomes more pressing when we consider the state of journalism education in parts of Africa. Many journalism departments in Ghana, Nigeria and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa are staffed by professionals from English, sociology, political science or mass communication backgrounds, some of whom have never practiced journalism themselves. Often, this is due to resource constraints or a shortage of qualified journalism educators.
In some cases, university politics or academic snobbery may even discourage practicing journalists from joining the academy unless they hold doctoral degrees, thus sidelining decades of newsroom experience in favour of theoretical posturing.
This has created a troubling disconnect between what is taught in classrooms and what is needed in newsrooms. Students graduate with impressive transcripts but little practical exposure. They struggle to pitch stories, conduct interviews or produce publishable work.
This is why the integration of real journalists, seasoned editors, reporters and producers, into academia is critical. If academia shuts its doors to the field, it risks becoming irrelevant.
Journalism Needs Practitioners to Teach
There’s a bigger philosophical issue at play here: Journalism is not just a subject to be studied; it is a craft to be practiced. It is not enough to simply understand the media; one must be able to do the work of a journalist, ask questions, verify facts, tell stories.
Unlike many other academic disciplines, journalism is inherently practice-based. It thrives on mentorship, on newsroom simulations, on deadlines, on feedback loops. Students learn best when they are taught by those who have lived the realities of the profession. This doesn’t mean non-journalists have no place. It simply means they cannot lead the training on core journalistic skills.
Rethinking Journalism Curricula
The time has come for journalism schools to rethink not only who teaches journalism, but how journalism is taught. The age of AI, big data, social media manipulation, and synthetic content demands a new kind of journalist, one who is ethically grounded, digitally fluent and critically aware.
To train such journalists, schools must offer more interdisciplinary content, yes, but they must also remain anchored in the core values and methods of journalism. Storytelling, ethics, verification, sourcing, human interest, media law, news judgment, these must remain central.
Curricula should be modular and layered. Journalism skills must form the base. On top of that, students can choose electives in specialized areas, economics, climate, tech, politics, conflict reporting, etc. with input from external experts.
This approach keeps the heart of journalism intact while embracing the richness of other fields.
Conclusion
Professor Agyemang’s caution is timely and warranted. In the push for interdisciplinary enrichment, journalism faculties must not lose sight of their core mission: to train truth-seekers, storytellers, watchdogs, and defenders of democracy.
Allowing non-journalism professionals to contribute to journalism education can be a win, if done carefully, strategically and with safeguards. But when these professionals take over the teaching of fundamental journalism courses without newsroom experience or journalistic training, the risk is too great.
The future of journalism depends not only on what is taught, but on who is teaching it. And in this age of disinformation and digital disruption, we cannot afford to get that wrong.
The writer is a journalist, international affairs columnist and journalism educator with a PhD in Journalism. He is a member of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), the Centre for Collaborative Investigative Journalism (CCIJ) and the African Journalism Education Network (AJEN). Contact: [email protected]
