Abstract

The journalism being taught at universities in Spain is undergoing intensive changes as a result of the dual pressure exerted by the impact of digitisation in two specific aspects. The first is the journalistic system itself (business models, professional routines, information consumption, etc.). The second aspect involves the teaching guidelines established as a result of the implementation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Focusing on the latter issue, the current debate regarding the orientation of journalistic education is calling for this aspect not to be relegated or limited to training in technical skills, which are constantly being renewed by technological developments of the digital environment. On the contrary, journalism education must also take into account other skills that foster the achievement of critical thinking, which is fundamental for the exercise of the journalistic profession. However, in the face of an increasingly digitised, competitive labour market, journalism studies and their training programmes also have a duty to provide the skills and competencies demanded by this market. In this paper, we have conducted a systematic review of some of the experiences of innovative teaching that have been successfully carried out in Journalism degrees taught in Spain for this purpose (service-learning, project-based learning, content curation, and edublogs, among others). These experiences reflect the involvement of university professors in providing comprehensive education for future journalists, with a strong emphasis on the intensive use of the digital resources currently available. 

Abstract

Fifty years after the introduction of Communication studies into Spanish universities, this article presents the results of a descriptive investigation of on-campus university education in Advertising and Public Relations in Spain, with the dual aim of gaining an understanding of how it is formally, and what and how it is taught. A total of 1,815 teaching guides amounting to 10,224 ECTS credits were compiled for the 41 degree courses taught in 38 training centers. The data collected in coding sheets were statistically analyzed and grouped into 57 variables. The results highlight the majority of private initiatives in university education in this area, and the scarce internationalization with only token use of English in teaching. We observe a significant relative presence of cross-cutting content between Communication and other areas, as well as a clear predominance of Advertising training over Public Relations. The most relevant specialized areas are creativity, and advertising and digital marketing. In teaching, a greater weight of practical activities is observed compared with traditional theoretical or master classes. The evaluation of students is also more based on practical work rather than written tests or examinations on theoretical knowledge. These latter aspects confirm the footprint left by the Bologna Plan and the regulations it drove, although the methodological renovation it advocated has yet to be fully achieved.