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Helsinki Edition
October 1998
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Widespread prejudices
Journalism in Italy is not a free trade. A state-controlled association decides who can call himself a journalist. By defining the educational standards the "Ordine dei Giornalisti" still hinders journalism training programs at schools or universities to develop without interferences.
Italians are only allowed to work as professional journalists if they are formally registered by the Ordine. Applicants must fulfil certain qualifications: Basically they have to pass an exam at the Ordine and must have been through a traineeship. Thus, this association controls the access to the profession by defining and controlling the educational standards. Its general tasks are to give out the official Id-cards to journalists, to manage the register of its members and to suppress unauthorised practice of the journalistic profession. The Ordine accepts three different types of members: professionals (professionisti), free-lance journalists (pubblicisti) and interns (practicanti). At the beginning of 1997, the Ordine had about 60.000 members: 13.742 professionals, 1.263 interns and 44.430 publicists.
The Ordine´s "journalism exam" mainly consists of questions on law, politics and general knowledge. But before applicants are permitted to take part in this examination, they have to go through a 18-month traineeship called "practicantato". Mostly these compulsory "practicantatos" are salaried very poorly - if they are paid at all.
In Italy the idea of "teaching" journalism at school or university is still strongly opposed. The main reason: Most of the registered journalists only have a "practicanto" as their basic qualification and regard this to be sufficient. Consequently many Italian journalists still question the value of academic journalism training programs. The powerful journalists' union FNSI in particular, does not miss an opportunity to limit and check expansion of those programs. Critics say, their main aim is to defend the interests of whoever is already a professional, which means that union tries to limit the number of young journalists from the schools.
Most journalists in Italy still consider their job to be a "craft", says Paolo Mancini, professor and academical director of the Scuola di Giornalismo Radio Televisivo at Perugia university. "Especially in the past, many held the view, that predominately practical knowledge was required for the job. All that was assumed to be necessary was intuition, curiosity, nerve and, of course, skills in writing - 'bello scrivere'." Furthermore, Mancini believes that for many careers devotion and political loyalty were of high importance. "An excellent education was not always required. For many journalists the 'right friends' or connections to a political party or other relevant groups were the driving-forces for their careers." Even today many editors consider young journalists coming from the schools to have exaggerated career expectations and a more theoretical than practical preparation for the job, says Mancini. "There are widespread prejudices - which are usually denied, of course - but they still persist."
During the last years, alternatives to the "practicantato" have emerged: Some journalism schools and post-graduate university programs were officially approved by the Ordine, which means that graduates from these recognised programs do not have to go through the trainineeships to get registrated. But nevertheless, they are still obliged to pass the Ordine's exam as well. Today, there are six recognised schools or universities in Italy: Schools are situated in Bologna, Milan, Perugia and Urbino, the university programs are in Milan and Rome.
During the last years dozens of new journalism programs have been introduced in Italy, many of them offered by private institutes. But until now none of them has been approved by the "Ordine" as an alternative to the "praticantato", because they only have scanty contact with the job market. Moreover, degree courses for Communication Sciences were established at several universities, which now offer specific journalism courses within their program. The Ordine dei Giornalisti took part in the setting up of these courses, assuring that they could be recognised as alternatives to the "practicantato" in the future - but still the Ordine decides if they fulfil the required characteristics.
Torsten Holtz |
