Transplanting a Western-style Journalism Education to the Central Asian Republics of the Former Soviet Union

Abstract

Western standards of journalism education, as well as western professional journalistic practices, have had difficulty taking root in the five independent countries of formerly Soviet Central Asia. This essay examines the experience of one university’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communication since 1997 and the challenges it faces, including curriculum reform, faculty retention, government regulation, and student career interests in the context of press systems that remain tightly controlled by regimes.