Research Of Senior Journalists Transform To Lecturers Teaching General Education In University

Journalistic education nurtures students who aspired to reveal social inequality and raise social accountability and awareness, to enter the media industry every year. Meanwhile, having spent decades working on news reporting and editing, senior journalists not only acquired a special set of techniques to analyze social issues, but also the tactics to solve problems and present materials in a systematical way. It would be with great regret if these senior journalists simply leave the industry, without having a chance to pass on their invaluable experience to the next generation after retirement.The number of students graduating with the Journalism degree every year far outweighs the vacancies available in the industry both in Mainland China and Hong Kong. The social and political apathy of the new generation and the tough operation of news agency are for sure making Hong Kong's situation even worse.There are 10% of journalists leaving the industry per year before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, compared to not even 1% in recent years. The figures have not only clearly demonstrated that the years of economic downturn had made journalists a lower chance to switch to other industries, but also reflected the trend that journalists tend to stay in their current posing as long as they could, perhaps hoping for a promotion in future, yet with no second thought to step out the industry.The number of senior journalists in the industry has been doubling since a decade ago. Still, should they simply end their career by remaining in their current position till their retirement? 43% of the interviewed senior journalists stated that, they would like to teach General Education or Media Studies in university if they are given a chance; an equivalent number of senior journalists even stated that, they would take up the challenge even if they were just appointed as student advisors or tutors.Journalists spend days and nights on revealing social reality, and presenting their sound arguments and analyses via words and photographs. Their job nature is actually highly relevant to the main objective of General Education and Media Studies, which is, encouraging students'independent thinking. Those interviewed senior journalists who are interested to dedicate themselves in education after retirement, believe that their journalistic background would be very relevant and beneficial to students'learning. Nonetheless, universities do not really have that much of vacancies for these senior journalists to fill in.The education reform carried out by the Education Bureau in 2009, which has made General Education becomes one of the compulsory subjects, has marked the turning point for those senior journalists who wish to try something new. As General Education indeed requires someone who is highly socially experienced to guide the students, it therefore opens up new opportunity for those senior journalists as they can now fully utilize their advantages, either to teach, or to edit teaching materials of General Education.Though the Education Bureau has been spending years to advocate the new curriculum, the aids offered to support the teaching of General Education is regretfully inadequate. General Education is the first subject in Hong Kong's education system in which consists of no curriculum, teaching materials, syllabus, textbooks and past teaching practices. Having no prior experience in teaching this subject, most of the interviewed teachers admitted that, they are still having no idea what is the best approach to teach General Education. Meanwhile, they are just trying out different approaches, and have kept amending them based on the students'continuous feedbacks, for half year.Based on the postulate that senior journalists have the advantages over traditional day school teachers in teaching General Education, this research project aims at studying the feasibility of senior journalists to teach General Education in universities, with reference to the Law of Demand. This research is divided into five parts:PrefaceChapter 1:The status and problems of general education in Hong KongChapter 2:The strengthens of journalists teach general education in universityChapter 3:The weaknesses and shortages of journalists teach general education in universityChapter 4:Suggestion of implementation and strategy in journalists become general education lecturer in universityAs General Education is closely related to the social world, basically all incidents happened in the society could become a subject of debate in class. Compared to the incompatibility of current secondary school teachers, senior journalists surpassed them by their rich social experiences and analytical skills. By giving these senior journalists a chance to utilize their advantages, perhaps it could help the market retrieving a new equilibrium again.Hong Kong students'social and political apathy can be traced back to the century of colonization of Hong Kong. By altering the Education policy in different stages, the British colonial government neither promoted basic civic education, nor let their people to get to know their own civic rights.The characteristics of Hong Kong's education system during the colonial era are perhaps most easily understood by looking at its elitism. The British colonial government on one hand aims at breeding elites who would be loyal to the government; on the other hand educating the general public to fulfill their roles, earn a living and never question their governance. Hong Kong's light industry blossomed during 1960s to 1980s, as the citizens at that time could sustain themselves, they thus did not really care how the British government ruled their territory.Being restrained by the ordinance, teachers at that time were not allowed to discuss anything political with students in schools, hence students had nowhere to gain additional societal knowledge. Meanwhile, people at that time weighed stability over everything, so they simply taught their kids to fight for a job and live a steady life, but not fight for anything from the government, which eventually further dragged the new generation away from the society.The handover of Hong Kong in 1997 was supposed to be a golden opportunity for the government to start off its national education, yet its fundamental defects and the frequent changes in subsequent policies proved obstacles to its development. Those 'leftover'elites continuously altered the SAR government's policies and hindered the development of national education in the name of'democracy', which had resulted in the identity crisis of Hong Kong citizens up till now. Even worse, as elitism is still the prevailing belief of the society, people in Hong Kong tend to regard education as the only way to climb up the social ladder and get rid of poverty. Parents thus force their children to strive for academic performance only, without giving a second glance at anything that is out of exam syllabus. This, with no doubts, paved the road for the lack of social knowledge and awareness of the high school and even university graduates nowadays.Growing up under such circumstances, this new generation has almost lost contact to the society. They spent all their time either focusing on the major in university or indulging in the internet, but sadly, seldom read news. Those who grown up as teachers do fulfill their basic role well to teach according to the curriculum and syllabus. However, as the workload of administration and teaching are getting heavier, they would rather spend time to grasp some sleep than to explore any social issues. This would explain why one third of the interviewed teacher stated that they doubt what they should teach in General Education, and even half of them admitted that they do not have a thorough understanding of this subject. The only thing they are sure about is that this subject has a close relationship with daily news and social issues. Without a rich foundation of social knowledge, how would you expect the current teachers teaching this subject well?General Education is a subject which aims at provoking students'independent thinking. Teachers'role, in this case, is therefore to guide students how to think and how to draw conclusion and organize their analysis into sound argument. One cannot deny that all these are indeed very similar to what journalists are doing. Senior journalists believed that their work is very closely related to the nature of General Education, and thus it is crystal clear why they are more confident than the current teachers in handling this brand new subject.Not only senior journalists believed that their working experiences are very relevant to the teaching of General Education, education concern groups, principal of secondary school, Faculty Dean and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of university also admitted that they shared the same thoughts in the interviews. It is believed that if senior journalists could share their experiences with the current teachers, it would certainly facilitate their teaching in General Education, especially among those who are lacking confidence. General Education has long been a side dish among other subjects until 2009. Nevertheless, the training provided by the existing General Education departments in universities is still underdeveloped. Half of the interviewed teachers agreed that senior journalists are capable to teach General Education or Humanities in university, and they valued their technique of analyzing news the most. It is believed that if the students could learn from the senior journalists in this aspect, they would generalize the skills and easily apply it on other issues, which would be very beneficial to their learning in General Education.This research had raised several problems and come up with corresponding solutions. First of all, General Education in the new educational reform bears some fundamental defects. There are neither guidelines given to the teachers on how to provoke students' thinking, nor adequate aids given to the students, which making General Education becomes a "blind exploration". Different universities in Hong Kong are currently putting effort in developing their department of General Education, and quite amount of senior journalists are invited to share their experiences with current secondary school teachers and undergraduates. Those senior journalists not only pass on their systematic way of analyzing problems to them, but also boost up their social awareness and sensitivity. After all these valuable training, on one hand the current General Education school teachers would be more confident in teaching the subject, on the other hand, those undergraduates who attended the courses might also help supplementing the current situation.