"Colleagues,

Now that we are four months away from our meeting in Singapore, I wanted to reconnect so that we can make the final plans for WJEC. I will be sending an e-mail message every three weeks from now until the conference with updates on the planning. Here is the latest:

1. Our planning meeting will occur on Monday, June 25, 2007 at the Royal Copthorne Waterfront Hotel in Singapore. Our meeting will begin at approximately 10 am after the opening ceremonies for the AMIC conference. We are scheduled to meet until 5 pm. On Sunday evening, (June 24) you are invited to a dinner for our delegates sponsored by the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation. Ang Peng Hwa is looking for a great location for this opening dinner. The Sunday evening dinner and the Monday session are for official WJEC representatives and the presidents of their organizations. The main agenda items for Monday's meeting will be: (1) ratification of the Declaration of Universal Principles in Journalism Education; (2) endorsement of the Global Census of Journalism being conducted now; (3) endorsement of the State of Journalism Education report (that will be published in book form after the congress); (4) discussion of future meetings, initiatives; (5) discussion of agenda items submitted by member organizations. Please let me know if there are topics you believe we should discuss.

2. Following our one-day meeting, WJEC will begin its three-day public meeting (June 26-28). Two of the days will overlap with the AMIC conference, which meets June 25-27. Below is a tentative schedule Robyn Goodman has prepared that will give you a good idea of the subject matter of the congress. WJEC will begin on Tuesday morning with a plenary highlighting the work we did on the previous day in our associations meeting. The public conference will consist of plenaries and sessions, syndicate meetings, research sessions and workshops. Please read the attached schedule and send your comments to Robyn (

goodmanr@rochester.rr.com). In a later message, I'll have more information about how each of the plenaries will be handled. We will need help finding speakers for some of them.

3. Attached is a draft of the draft Declaration of Universal Principles that we discussed in San Francisco. Dennis Davis has refined it since our last meeting. Please provide feedback to Dennis (dkd3@psu.edu) that he can share with the rest of us. We would like to have this document in nearly final form by late spring.

4. The Knight Foundation has given the University of Oklahoma a grant to support the Global Census of Journalism Education. Charles Self and I are directing the project. As you know, Charles has already sent the questionnaire to you and individual programs throughout the world. Through your help, we can develop a very comprehensive roster of journalism education for the world to share. There will be an interactive web site that anyone can access. We hope that it will be used widely by journalism educators, administrators, journalists and the public. Because the Global Journalism Education Census and the State of Journalism Education report will overlap, we will have to coordinate their development. The census project leaders are more than happy to share any information that will inform the SJE project.

5. In San Francisco, a planning group was formed for the State of Journalism Education report and various areas of the world were assigned. Suellen Tapsall is coordinating this project. Their group has had preliminary discussions with a publisher. I will ask Suellen and her colleagues to report on the status of the project during a
subsequent communication.

6. Our host organization, AMIC, is working hard on both the WJEC and the AMIC conference. Please go to their website for the latest details on the conferences (

http://www.amic-wjec.org/).

7. Jyotika Ramaprasad has been coordinating the research competition and reports that more than 80 papers were received. These papers are now being adjuticated by scholars throughout the world. Their deadline for notifying authors concerning acceptance is in March.

8. One of our innovations from the San Francisco meeting was the addition of small group meetings called syndicates that will allow delegates

9. Within the next few weeks, I hope that you will have a firm idea of who will be attending WJEC from your organization. The success of the meeting will depend on a broad-based representation of all of our member organizations. Since we met in San Francisco, we have added the Japanese Journalism Education Association and the Canadian Council for Education in Journalism, a group of journalism schools in Canada that has banded together as the forerunner of a permanent organization.

Please continue to promote WJEC to your membership. We are hoping for between 400-500 delegates to the WJEC/AMIC conferences.

Principles of Journalism Education (1/07 Draft)
World Journalism Education Congress Singapore, June 2007

We, the undersigned representatives of professional journalism education associations, share a concern and common understanding about the nature, role, importance, and future of journalism education worldwide. We are unanimous in our agreement that journalism education provides the essential training necessary for the effective and responsible practice of journalism. Journalism education is defined in different ways.

At the core is the study of all types of journalism (print, broadcast, online).

Journalism should serve the public in many important ways but it can only do so if its practitioners have mastered an increasingly complex body of knowledge and specialized skills. Above all, to be a responsible journalist in the 21st century must involve an informed ethical commitment to public service. This commitment must include an understanding of and deep appreciation for the role that journalism plays in the formation, enhancement and perpetuation of civil society.

We are pledged to work together to strengthen journalism education and increase its value to students, employers and the public. In doing this we are guided by the following principles:

At the heart of journalism education is a balance of conceptual, philosophical and skills-based content. Journalism education is an academic field in its own right with a distinctive body of knowledge and theory and with its own research journals. It is also interdisciplinary, drawing its ideas and methods from several disciplines in the social sciences and humanities.

Journalism is a field appropriate for university study from undergraduate to postgraduate levels. Journalism programs offer a full range of academic degrees including bachelors, masters and Doctor of Philosophy degrees as well as certificate and specialized practitioner training. Journalism education can play an important role in providing training for mid-career practitioners.

Journalism educators should be a blend of academics and practitioners; it is important that some educators have experience working as journalists.

Journalism curriculum includes the study of journalism ethics, history and law. It includes coursework on the social, political and cultural role of media in society and sometimes includes coursework dealing with media management and economics. In some countries, journalism education includes allied fields like public relations, advertising, and broadcast production.

Journalism educators have an important outreach mission to promote media literacy among the public generally and within their academic institutions specifically.

Journalism program graduates should be prepared to work as highly informed, strongly committed practitioners who have high ethical principles and are able to fulfill the public service obligations that are central to their work.

Most undergraduate and many masters programs in journalism have a strong vocational orientation. In these programs experiential learning, provided by classroom laboratories and on-the-job internships, is a key component.

Journalism educators should maintain strong links to media industries. They should critically reflect on industry practices and offer advice to industry based on this reflection.

Journalism is becoming a technologically intensive field. Practitioners will need to master a variety of computer-based tools. Where practical, journalism education provides an orientation to these tools.

Journalism is a global endeavor; journalism students should learn that despite political and cultural differences, they share important values and professional goals with peers in other nations.

Where practical, journalism education provides students with first-hand experience of the way that journalism is practiced in other nations.

Journalism educators have an obligation to collaborate with colleagues worldwide to provide assistance and support so that journalism education can gain strength as an academic discipline and play a more effective role in helping journalism to reach its potential for public service".

Correspondencia: jfoote@ou.edu