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The Kuratorium für Journalistenausbildung (KfJ) in Salzburg is the only institution offering basic and mid-career training for journalists in Austria. Legally it is a private association, and the members are the Austrian Newspaper Editors Association (VÖZ Verband Österreichischer Zeitung), the Austrian Magazine Association (ÖZV Österreichischer Zeitschriften- und Fachmedien-Verband) and the Austrian Journalists' Union (ÖGB, Sektion Journalisten).
The Kuratorium is the first institution of its kind in Austria. In 1971 the VÖZ arranged the first basic training course for journalists in Austria. This first three-week training course was a success, and in 1978, after some further basic training courses, the Kuratorium was founded by the Newspaper Publishers, the Periodical Publishers and the Journalist Union. In 1994, after the Österreichische Journalisten-Kolleg had a successful start, the Österreichische Medienakademie was established within the framework of the Kuratorium für Journalistenausbildung.
At the beginning the intention was to provide regular basic training courses. Over the years the basic training developed from being a three-week course to a twelve-week course of lectures (Österreichisches Journalisten-Kolleg) (4x three weeks spread over nine months).
The staff at the Kuratorium comprise five permanent employees, while lecturers and trainers for each course or seminar are engaged individually from various fields of activity.
The programmes of the KfJ are developed in very close cooperation with those concerned: the publishers, the unions, the broadcasters, i.e. the whole industry. This means that on our advisory council, reporters, editors, publishers and experts from universities work together to find the most suitable way to transmit the desired contents. It appears, however, that journalism training programmes need to take into account the following conditions:
* news offices are understaffed - therefore, journalists cannot easily take too much time off for training purposes;
* journalists are mainly interested in current themes, which they can use instantly in their daily work;
* journalists prefer to receive information in the most compact form.
Our seminars are therefore designed to last between one and three days, and only the basic training course (Kolleg) lasts four times three weeks (twelve weeks in total).
The predominant subject matters of our courses and seminars are:
1) improvement in journalistic skills (language, layout, computer-aided research,
management skill, press law)
2) imparting knowledge on different fields of coverage (local politics, interior
politics, foreign politics, economy, ecology, science, culture, criminal reporting,
court reporting, social relations)
3) imparting background knowledge on current themes (Austria and the Common
Market, Aids, privatization and exchange transactions, the Third World, ecological
developments)
4) imparting background knowledge on developments in mass communication and
research (computers and newspapers, cable-TV and satellite-communication, internet-publishing,
digital photography, foreign media, opinion polls, effects of mass communication,
ethics and journalism).
Practically all courses comprise lectures on the relevant theme and related topics as well as practical exercises of varying degrees (ranging from drawing up research plans or working out layouts in groups to practical research work and writing full articles individually). Most of our lecturers either come from the top ranks of Austrian and European journalism or are practical experts in their respective fields of activity. Whenever possible we arrange encounters between our trainees and important figures from politics, business, science, ecology or whatever field the course deals with.
The teaching material principally consists of the book: Praktischer Journalismus in Zeitung, Radio und Fernsehen edited by Heinz Pürer ('Practical journalism in newspapers, radio and TV'). The book was first published by the Kuratorium für Journalistenausbildung in 1984, and has since been published in its fourth revised and enlarged edition.
With our mailing list we reach all former participants of our courses. In addition, all our programmes are distributed by the two publishers' associations and by the journalists' union. Most of our programmes are distributed to all these addressees, which equates to roughly 7,000 journalists and other media workers. Our courses are open to everybody in the media or those interested in journalism - subject to a restriction on the number of participants for individual courses. The number of participants can vary between 15 and 45, depending on the subject and on the degree of practical exercises.
All participants receive a certificate of participation.
Generally speaking, we think that training programmes for journalists should always recognise that topics, techniques and working conditions in journalism change fast, and so do the media themselves. Training should enable journalists to cope with the fast-changing or new situations in an adequate manner and should enable them to perform their task: informing the public.
