This study is a first of its kind for New Zealand journalism education, following 20 students at two different schools throughout a year-long training programme. It used two methods to gain a deeper understanding: a discourse analysis of their news stories written at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the year, and retrospective protocol analysis, to provide insight into their thinking processes, through their taped reflections. The research found that journalism education controlled by the New Zealand Journalists Training Organisation still resembles that of 20 years ago, despite increasing numbers of students learning journalism as part of degree programmes. Students are trained for the media industry through learning by doing. They receive basic instruction and then are expected to perfect their skills by practising their writing and to learn the conventions and routines of the media industry through socialisation and work experience. In the first half of the year, the students developed some skills in writing the traditional inverted-pyramid news stories. However, by the end of the year, their news writing showed technical signs of regression. Firstly, they were not writing in a succinct, clear fashion, emphasising news values. Secondly, they had been inadequately trained to write outside of the inverted-pyramid news story or to use popular “soft” lead sentences, so that their writing tended towards being promotional. Thirdly, journalism institutions strongly favour subediting by tutors and this detracted from the students gaining understanding of their own writing and being able to self-monitor and evaluate it. Lastly, they failed to show the critical thinking skills and independence necessary for a professional journalist so that they could research thoroughly, reflect deeply and write entertaining, informative and important news stories with flair. Their reflections confirmed these findings, suggesting some stress and disillusionment. The students could “declare” what they knew about writing a news story but could not put it into practice. They blamed their failure to write high quality news stories on the pressures of the course, the deadlines and high volumes of stories. The gaps in their journalism education were also revealed through what was not mentioned in their taped reflections: in particular, they failed to mention the importance of news values in making their stories more appealing. The major influence at first was the students’ tutors, followed by work experience and the “real world” of the media industry. The concentration on job skills and gaining a job coupled with a lack of knowledge and discussion provided the students with an incomplete understanding of the pressures of the media industry they were entering. The study recommends more debate about journalism education and more research, as well as a change away from “learning by doing” to a more critical, reflective approach.

This study is a first of its kind for New Zealand journalism education, following 20 students at two different schools throughout a year-long training programme. It used two methods to gain a deeper understanding: a discourse analysis of their news stories written at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the year, and retrospective protocol analysis, to provide insight into their thinking processes, through their taped reflections. The research found that journalism education controlled by the New Zealand Journalists Training Organisation still resembles that of 20 years ago, despite increasing numbers of students learning journalism as part of degree programmes. Students are trained for the media industry through learning by doing. They receive basic instruction and then are expected to perfect their skills by practising their writing and to learn the conventions and routines of the media industry through socialisation and work experience. In the first half of the year, the students developed some skills in writing the traditional inverted-pyramid news stories. However, by the end of the year, their news writing showed technical signs of regression. Firstly, they were not writing in a succinct, clear fashion, emphasising news values. Secondly, they had been inadequately trained to write outside of the inverted-pyramid news story or to use popular “soft” lead sentences, so that their writing tended towards being promotional. Thirdly, journalism institutions strongly favour subediting by tutors and this detracted from the students gaining understanding of their own writing and being able to self-monitor and evaluate it. Lastly, they failed to show the critical thinking skills and independence necessary for a professional journalist so that they could research thoroughly, reflect deeply and write entertaining, informative and important news stories with flair. Their reflections confirmed these findings, suggesting some stress and disillusionment. The students could “declare” what they knew about writing a news story but could not put it into practice. They blamed their failure to write high quality news stories on the pressures of the course, the deadlines and high volumes of stories. The gaps in their journalism education were also revealed through what was not mentioned in their taped reflections: in particular, they failed to mention the importance of news values in making their stories more appealing. The major influence at first was the students’ tutors, followed by work experience and the “real world” of the media industry. The concentration on job skills and gaining a job coupled with a lack of knowledge and discussion provided the students with an incomplete understanding of the pressures of the media industry they were entering. The study recommends more debate about journalism education and more research, as well as a change away from “learning by doing” to a more critical, reflective approach.

Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-04T12:36:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009 / O presente estudo analisa em que medida a matriz curricular do Curso de Técnico em Enfermagem da ESPMT, no ano de 2004, contribuiu para a introdução de novas práticas no processo de trabalho das equipes da Saúde da Família do município de Sapezal. Parte-se da premissa de que a Estratégia da Saúde da Família (ESF) é considerada por alguns autores como uma das principais estratégias de (re)organização dos serviços e de (re)orientação das práticas profissionais do SUS, tendo como base a promoção da saúde a integralidade, a intersetorialidade e o trabalho em equipe. O processo de formação educacional nas Escolas Técnicas do SUS merece discussão sob dois aspectos: 1) A necessidade de adequação da matriz curricular às mudanças sociais, aos novos perfis epidemiológicos principalmente na adequação dos currículos e às demandas dos serviços; 2) O descompasso entre os serviços e a disponibilidade de pessoal preparado para atender às necessidades da população. Foi realizado estudo qualitativo com os egressos do curso de técnico em enfermagem que atuam nas Unidades da Saúde da Família (USF) do município de Sapezal. A pesquisa revelou que a matriz curricular elaborada pela ESPMT no ano de 2004 para o curso de Técnico em Enfermagem de Sapezal, embora tenha sido elaborado com o objetivo de preparar pessoal para trabalhar na Estratégia de Saúde da Família, não incorporou, do ponto de vista teórico e da prática pedagógica, os conteúdos específicos para o ESF. A pesquisa de campo mostra uma realidade de trabalho destes profissionais centrada na prática da assistência técnica de enfermagem. O processo de trabalho nas Unidades da Saúde da Família de Sapezal está voltado para o posto de trabalho, com atividades especializadas. Embora a ESPMT venha operando desde 2004 no modelo de competência, os conteúdos ministrados no curso está mais voltado para o posto de trabalho, baseado em normas e procedimentos e não por competências. A ênfase está na formação específica do técnico em enfermagem sendo que os poucos conteúdos relativos à saúde coletiva são ministrados no último módulo, quando a etapa de formação dos auxiliares já foi concluída no Módulo III. / The current study analyzes the extent to which the 2004 course curriculum at the Mato Grosso School of Public Health (ESPMT) contributed to the introduction of new practices in the work performed by Family Health teams in the municipality (county) of Sapezal, Mato Grosso State, Brazil. The initial premise is that some authors consider the Family Health Strategy one of the main strategies for reorganization of services and reorientation of professional practices under the Unified National Health System (SUS), with the following as the basis for health promotion; comprehensiveness, intersectorality, and teamwork. The educational training process in the Technical Schools under the National Health System deserves discussion from two perspectives: 1) the need to adjust the course curriculum to social changes and new epidemiological profiles, principally in relation to curricula and the health services’ demands and 2) the mismatch between health services and the availability of personnel prepared to deal with the population’s needs. A qualitative study was performed with nurse technician course alumni working in the Family Health Units in Sapezal. According to the study, although the curriculum elaborated by the Mato Grosso School of Public Health in 2004 for the nurse technician course in Sapezal was prepared to train people to work under the Family Health Strategy, from the theoretical and pedagogical point of view, it failed to incorporate specific contents pertaining to the strategy. The field research showed that nurse technicians’ work reality was centered on technical nursing care. The work process in the Family Health Units in Sapezal is focused on individualized, hierarchically framed, and rigidly specialized work, without considering teamwork, singularity, subjectivity, and inter-subjectivity. As for the course content, although the School of Public Health has been working since 2004 with a skills-based model, the conclusion is that the course curriculum for nurse technicians in Sapezal is focused on the workplace based on norms and procedures rather than skills. The emphasis is on specific training for nurse technicians, and the limited content related to collective health is given in the final module, while the training stage of nurse technicians is already concluded in Module III.