De-westernization of media and journalism education in South Asia: in search of a new strategy

Abstract

South Asian educators train journalism students with borrowed curricula from the West. Professionals and recruitment authorities often critical to the curricula, as those are not to fit with the local context. Journalism/ media/ mass communication graduates are therefore being undervalued in the local media recruitment process. Along with the ignorance of the native industry requirements and the flaws of the west-centric curricula evident that the South Asian journalism institutions require a different approach to course contents – precisely mean the de-westernization or localization of curricula. This article focuses on the importance of western values in journalism education, failure of conventional west-oriented or readymade curricula, complexity between theory and practices, the necessity for a new approach to form a curricula model and the responsibility of journalism educators in South Asian universities.