tandfonline.com – Journalists as Media Educators: Journalistic Media Education as Inclusive Boundary Work

ABSTRACT

This article locates media literacy both theoretically and empirically in the public practices carried out by journalists and journalistic actors in the case of Finland. In the theoretical section, the paper discusses the activities under the frameworks of non-formal education and strategic audience development as part of media organisations’ work. In the empirical section, central journalistic actors and their typical best practices are identified. These activities are grouped into three categories: media education on, in and via journalism. It is found that the initiatives aimed at promoting journalistic media education can be seen as focusing on a specific form of journalism literacy in which drawing the boundaries of journalism and non-journalism is a distinguished feature. The paper concludes by suggesting that demarcating journalistic media education as a separate field within the media literacy framework helps to identify media education as more incorporated in media organisations’ functions and promotes the development of this field in its own right.