John C. Merrill candidly discusses of institutions or the process of institutionalism or journalism as a profession. What is it that the institution is supposed to do? What is the objective, the philosophical goal, of the institution? What is its proper function in society? Every institution, the sociologists tell us, has both a concept and a structure.
The concept is the purpose, entailing all the proper functions, and the structure comprises the physical and human resources with which the institution tries to achieve the concept.
Journalism may well be considered such an “institution” it* society; and further, within the institutionalized activity of journalism, its “units”-newspapers, magazines and broadcasting stations-may also be considered institutions. When we talk about the purpose of journalism, we all talk of the activity. When we talk about the purpose of a particular medium, e. g.. Reader’s Digest, we are discussing an individual or specialized institutional concept. Thus, the press can be thought of as an institution and, at the same time, a certain newspaper can also be considered an institution.
The press, theoretically, has a concept (general purpose-or purpose), and each individual medium also has a concept. And, of course, the press has a structure (all the media of the country including buildings, equipment and personnel of the total press system), and each medium has its structure (its own building, equipment and staff).
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Journalistic institutionalization may be of three levels: (i) the total media system, (ii) the individual medium, and (iii) the individual journalist. In this connection, Merrill rightly says: “The individual journalist increasingly finds himself fitting neatly into the organisation, writing to formula, making fewer and fewer personal decisions, lost in the bureaucratic maze of the Journalistic Machine.
Autonomy suffers in each instance, and blandness spreads at each level: in the total journalistic system, in the particular medium and in the individual journalist. Journalists might fight against this pervasive loss of autonomy. Admittedly, this is not easy, for the forces of social institutionalization, starting with the big organizations, creep steadily downward until the beleaguered journalist finds himself isolated, captured as it were, by impersonal and potent forces which threaten at every turn to affect his sense of values and his daily journalistic life.”
Journalism, through increased emphasis on codes of conduct, press councils, elite pressure, entrance requirements checked by standard examinations and by more rigorous demand for professional journalism education, has become a true profession.
Editors and publishers, broadcast news directors, and advertising and public relations executives, are every year hiring more and more of their new staffers from “professional” journalism, education programmes in our colleges and universities. It gets harder each year; happily attest the journalism educators, for the major in English or sociology or political science to get a job in the communications media. Usually this is said with great satisfaction as if this tendency in the direction of professionalization will assure the world of better journalism.
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Journalism programme accreditation is doing much to standardize the coursework in various universities across the world. Also the increase in the number and size of professional meetings, conventions, workshops for journalism educators, as well as the proliferation of literature dealing with journalism education, is having an impact on the development of a more coherent and unified programme of education in journalism.