To teach or to learn journalism. The pedagogical model of the Garcia Marquez foundation for a new iberoamerican journalism

Abstract

Journalism is traversing a bad period: precarity and lack of credibility appear nowadays as integral to the profession. The reasons for this situation are directly related to the economic crisis and managerial doubts regarding a business model faced with new technologies. But the causes can also be traced back to the abandonment or failure to comply with sacred norms such as rigor, ethics and quality. Can these defining and moral qualities be learned? Is it possible to teach them? Media and business owners do not trust formal education and accuse universities of creating unprepared journalists. The academic environment denounces the attempt to disparage university training as part of the search for cheap labour and compliant journalists. This article analyzes the case of the Foundation for a New IberoAmerican Journalism. The Foundation is an institution of worldwide reputation, designed and set up by Gabriel García Márquez in 1995 with precisely the purpose of recovering essential elements of journalism. For 20 years it has been training young journalists on the basis of developing strong narrative skills, a commitment to rigorous investigation and ethical responsibility. A pedagogical model that puts forward a model for reclaiming journalism’s prestige, principles and public status. The example of the masters appears indispensable to all forms of learning.