News media managers routinely complain that university journalism programs are out of sync with practice. Yet their views are not always shared by academics in journalism programs or by journalists. This raises questions about how the views of journalism held by journalism students are formed. What students are exposed to during their studies exercises a major influence on their perceptions. Information was col-lected from students about (a) mainly classroom learning; (b) industry internships; and (c) a voluntary cooperative activity. Their feedback indicated that, while overlapping, each experience illuminated a some-what different journalism “reality”. This suggests that if students were exposed to a range of experiences of journalism, they would form dif-fering opinions of the occupation; that work integrated learning (WIL) in particular would help them make sense of various journalism “reali-ties” and that more research is required into this aspect of journalism education. © 2012, Intellect Ltd.. All rights reserved.
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