| Abstract: | SUMMARY Since the end of the Second World War, the growing influence of television and the gradual decline of newspaper readership worldwide have been linked to a continuing lowering in the level of cultural literacy and general knowledge of the general population, and specifically that of adolescents. Various surveys have confirmed that specialisation can also be linked to this phenomenon. Since 1987 the debate about the causes of the decline in acceptable levels of cultural literacy has centred on the study of E D Hirsch who refused to lay the blame for this state only at the door of television, rather suggesting that a great deal of accumulated evidence exists that faulty policy in the schools is the chief cause of deficient literacy and, eventually, cultural literacy. Journalism educators are confronted daily by the reality of unacceptable levels of cultural literacy when it is often expected of them to bring journalism students up to standard, even in postgraduate courses. In this article a brief historical background is given of the debate about the causes of cultural illiteracy. Definite proposals are also made to address the question of eliminating this problem among journalism students who purport to be the future information gatherers and messengers. Some of these are, inter alia, the introduction of stricter admission standards at journalism schools and a structured course in cultural literacy and general knowledge, as well as the teaching of higher-order skills (metaskills) to students. |
