Language training in journalism education in China

In China, modern university education in journalism started in the 1920s. Since then journalism education underwent a constant process of adaptation to local conditions in its curriculum and teaching methods as well as its targets. Today journalism education is a well-established discipline, a relevant field for research and teaching. In undergraduate programs in journalism education in China, news writing is listed amidst the course basic learning objectives. And this curriculum design feature is consistent with the collective belief that written language is a crucial professional skill for journalists. In the academic field, the widespread agreement on the centrality of language in journalists’ work is testified by the variety of approaches used in language studies to examine media texts. As the writing skills are considered fundamental professional abilities to become a journalist in China, identify the scope and the targets of the news writing teaching is relevant to pinpoint the professional community profile. In order to address these issues, the paper will focus on the analysis of a corpus of textbooks of Chinese language training for journalists published between 2002 and 2014 in China. In examining the teaching materials, the attention will first be focused on the content and the structure of the books. And then the paper will highlight the relevance accorded by the authors to the identification of textual genres and to the explanation of their functions and use for didactic purposes.