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Beyond classroom-newsroom gap: why do Nigerian students study journalism in the age of convergence?

ABSTRACT This study examines one of the most critical questions about journalism education by looking beyond the quandary between the classroom and the newsroom while dwelling on the career expectations and choices of journalism students in the era of convergence when newsroom jobs are shrinking globally and when amateurs are contending with professional journalists in terms of contents production and distribution. The study triangulated both quantitative data generated from a sample of 292 final year students and qualitative data generated from in-depth interviews of six students drawn from six universities across Nigeria. This study found that although students noticed some gaps between the classroom and newsroom, Nigerian journalism students still found classroom experience valuable as the knowledge and skills acquired therein, assisted them in the discharge of their professional responsibilities during internship. However, while findings from studies reveal palpable evidences of media convergence of varying degrees within the media ecology in the country, journalism students in the country still hold firmly to the traditional conceptualisation of journalism, which constricts journalism jobs to radio, television, newspaper and magazine, suggesting a manifest conflict between the idealistic perception of journalism students and what journalism in Nigeria currently portends.