Practitioners' Perception of Entry-level and Graduating Journalists versus Academic Requirements of ACEJMC

Controversy exists over the skills required of graduating and entry-level journalists. There are no clear boundaries to define the skills pertaining to course work, education, and experience that are required for entry into the journalism profession. To determine the skills that are necessary for the graduating and entry-level journalist, perceptions of the supervisors/copy editor's from participating news organizations of Journalism Incorporated were used. The identified proficiencies were delineated as either hard or soft skills. A survey of one hundred (100) news editors who have participated in the Journalism Incorporated Internship program was conducted using quantitative data collection method analysis. The findings revealed that graduating journalists need to have broad skills, which include traditional core skills and technical/online skills; entry-level journalists are not very competent in skills deemed to be very important; and graduating journalists need to have a minimum of one internship accompanied by soft and hard skills in order to be proficient in their profession.