Normative professionalisation of freelance journalist. A perspective of professional education and training

Abstract

In times of fake news, «Lügenpresse»-presumptions and discussions about how good media work should look like, the pressure on journalistic actors to deal with professional ethics is increasing. Those who have undergone appropriate professional training during their qualification have come into contact with such ethical topics. However, the increasing number of freelancers without corresponding professional training, combined with the easier access to digital journalistic production and dissemination resources, leads to a situation that many journalists are not able to make use of traditional professional ethical qualification measures, e. g. courses in the context of a trainee program or during their university studies. Therefore, it is necessary to think about new ways of teaching these media professionals about professional values in the future and about the conditions that are supportive for processes of ethical reflection among freelance journalists. First results suggest that freelancers see foremost activities of editors and publishers in terms of a more restrictive professional normalization to be an adequate answer to their lack of professional ethical reflection. But compared to that, measures that rely on the intrinsic activity and motivation of freelance journalists seem to be more sustainable and promising for this process. This raises the issue of effective ways of learning and teaching. The measures should be based on digital teaching and e-learning concepts, depending on the digitally defined work environment of the target group.