Professional knowledge, beyond the opposition of theory and practice

Abstract

The long-standing efforts to affirm journalism as an autonomous field with a minimally clear scientific basis, as well as the extended commitment of journalists themselves to build a real professional community, legitimized and recognized as such by society – according to the demands and challenges of professionalism –, implied the definition (not always very easy) of a body of knowledge and skills specific to the job, both in the theoretical and the practical levels. The issues concerning the education through practice and training, particularly by means of working in the real situation of a newsroom, have always been particularly prized by the journalists – actually, not few of them still argue that that is the only acceptable model for their effective professional education –, but, on the other hand, they have always been somehow devaluated by the scientific community, which tends to associate the status of a real profession (instead of an occupation, as characterized by the Anglo-Saxon tradition) to the mastery of a theoretical, formal and abstract knowledge, properly developed and scholarly certified. In this paper, we argue for the advantage to re-locate the issue of the journalists’ practical knowledge in a level that may grant it the due recognition and value, even in theoretical terms, following the supposition that “knowing-in-action” should be regarded as an essential element of the “professional knowledge” and can’t be reduced neither to the routinely use of a set of techniques, nor to the mechanical resolution of some pre-defined problems; on the contrary, this “knowing-in-action”, practiced and shared in the context of real and responsible work experiences, can play a very important role in the development of the professionals’ reflexive abilities, which enables them to find by themselves, in the future, new answers to new problems. In this sense, then, it seems to be a central element of an adequate professional education, both theoretical and practical, contributing to put these two vectors in association and cooperation, rather than in opposition or mutual exclusion. The emphasis in a competence model, dialectically articulated with the more frequently mentioned qualification model, could help us to re-think this issue, approaching the academic and professional fields in the common effort to enhance the quality of journalism and to reinforce the autonomy of journalists as true professionals.