Challenges Faced by Journalism Education in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Mass Media technologies are developing rapidly and media has become an integral part of our day to day life. In this context, the development of media and journalism education in schools, universities and other institutions has been confronted with many challenges. Although there are training courses and educators covering a range of skills for print journalism, broadcast, telecast and online media, there are still many issues pertaining to the quality control, practical relevance and affordability of media and journalism education. Human resource management policies of media companies do not recognize priority on continuation of education of journalists (Gunawardene, 2015).

This study focuses on challenges confronted by media education in Sri Lanka. The intensive interviews and focus group discussions have been applied to collect data and information. It has transpired during the research that media and journalism syllabi should be revised with more theoretical, conceptual and practical inputs based on media education and media literacy. It is necessary to make the public in general aware of media texts. The ever fluctuating dynamics of the media industry and media education has detrimentally affected the general perception on media.