Serbian news magazines in transition and need for life-long journalists education (NIN and Vreme case study)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the structure of the editorial board of Serbian (weekly) news magazines and the level of education of the journalists employed in these editorial boards through the analysis of a questionnaire on the attitudes and education of journalists in Serbian news magazines, as well as to determine their correlates. On a sample of 43 respondents (more than a half of the employees in the two most influential Serbian news magazines - NIN and Vreme), the study analyzes the correlation of knowledge and skills of Serbian journalists, as well as the requirements that contemporary online journalism places before the media workers. The following items are singled out as the most important elements of the analysis: the surveyed journalists have a lower level of education than the average of Serbian journalists and in most cases they have secondary education, while in 90 percent of the cases they do not have any journalism education; the journalists who participated in the survey have a very high opinion of their education and skills needed for work in most cases, while the percentage of correct answers regarding the questions pertaining to their field of knowledge is very low. Modern job positions that have existed in international magazines for a long time are not yet present in the local media companies, and the largest number of the interviewed journalists have no experience with online journalism, which indicates that the human resources for developing the online editions of Serbian weekly magazines cannot be found among the existing members of the editorial board; instead, new experts whose education should be constantly updated throughout their career need to be hired.

Cilj ovog rada predstavlja ispitivanje strukture redakcija srpskih njuz magazina, kao i nivoa obrazovanja novinara zaposlenih u ovim redakcijama, kroz analizu Upitnika o stavovima novinara i obrazovanju novinara u srpskim njuz magazinima, kao i određivanje njihovih korelata. Na primeru 43 ispitanika (više od polovine zaposlenih u dva najuticajnija srpska njuz magazina - NIN i Vreme), u radu se analizira i korelacija znanja i sposobnosti koje poseduju srpski novinari i potreba koje savremeno novinarstvo na mreži postavlja pred medijske radnike. Kao najznačajniji elementi analize izdvajaju se sledeće stavke: anketirani novinari su manje obrazovani od srpskog novinarskog proseka i u najvećem broju slučajeva imaju završenu srednju školu, a u čak 90 odsto slučajeva nemaju obrazovanje novinarskog usmerenja; novinari koji su učestvovali u istraživanju u najvećem broju slučajeva imaju izuzetno visoko mišljenje o svom obrazovanju i sposobnosti za rad, dok na pitanjima iz oblasti znanja pokazuju izuzetno nizak procenat tačnih odgovora. Savremene pozicije koje odavno postoje u svetskim magazinima još uvek nisu prisutne u domaćim medijskim kućama, a najveći broj novinara koji su anketirani nema nikakvo iskustvo u on-lajn novinarstvu, što ukazuje da se ljudski resursi za razvijanje on-lajn izdanja srpskih nedeljnika vesti ne mogu pronaći među postojećim članovima redakcije, već se moraju uposliti novi stručnjaci na čijem bi se obrazovanju radilo aktivno tokom čitavog njihovog radnog veka.