JTP Director Coauthors UNESCO Journalism Curricula

Magda Abu-Fadil, the director of AUB's Journalism Training Program, coauthored a document with colleagues from Canada, the United States, and Denmark to help educators worldwide set up journalism curricula at the undergraduate and graduate levels, thanks to support from UNESCO.

Model Curricula For Journalism Education For Developing Countries and Emerging Democracies, an 18-month project that was launched in June 2007, had been spawned by requests from UNESCO members to establish programs that can be adapted to their needs.

The curricula targeting developing nations include a two-year post-secondary school diploma, a one-year mid-career diploma, a three- and four-year bachelor's program, and a two-year master's program, complete with course listings, 15 or 30-week syllabi, readings, and grading and assessment protocols.

The proposed curricula consist of a generic model that can be adapted according to each country's specific needs. The authors took into account the different learning systems of the various UNESCO members, the languages of instruction, and the cultural contexts, highlighting the connection between democracy and journalism and arguing for a more cross-disciplinary approach within journalism training centers.

The document, which first appeared in English, will be translated into Arabic, French, Spanish, Russian, and several other languages. It will be published and widely distributed among journalism schools in developing countries and emerging democracies, and will be posted on UNESCO's website. The website will feature links to a database of courses and programs and will provide an interactive forum for journalism educators and others to discuss the curricula and other issues further.

UNESCO is planning to organize a number of regional meetings to discuss how to adapt the curricula to the needs and resources of different countries and how to improve the capacities of teachers/trainers. The other key authors of the document included drafting committee coordinator Professor Michael Cobden of King's College, Halifax, Canada; Professor Stuart Adam, Journalism Scholarship Fellow at the Florida-based Poynter Institute for Media Studies; and Professor Hans-Henrik Holm of the Danish School of Journalism. A larger group of international experts contributed to the document by helping draw up syllabi and reviewing the final draft.