A GNA feature by Boakye-Dankwa Boadi

Accra, Jan. 21, GNA - "Is Journalism a trade, vocation or profession?

" It is a profession. Why?"

"Oh I asked because there is an ongoing debate on the issue in this country."

"Journalism is one profession that can easily bring the practitioner into conflict with governments."

This was a dialogue between this Writer and Mr Nuruddin Farah, an Eminent Somali Journalist, who is visiting the country.

This Writer having been a Senior Lecturer at the University of Jos College of Education at Oju in Benue State of Nigeria from 1981 to 1985 can say with some level of authority that in Academia one does not make definitive statements on issues since invariably there might be different schools of thought on any given point.

It, therefore, sounded weird when a shrill voice of a Lady was heard on a Ghana Television programme preview to the effect that Journalism had never been a profession but a trade. The Lady sounded as somebody, who held Journalists in this dear country of ours in disdain.

In the early 1970s a number of Professors at the University of Ghana, Legon always tried to avoid definitions because they held that definitions tended to limit and to set rigid boundaries. Professor K. B. Dickson, of blessed memory, said definitions tended to categorise knowledge into compartments with rigid boundaries but in reality there is no such situation. Definition is, therefore, a device of the intellect to enable it to make its way through the conundrum of knowledge. What exists in reality is the concept of "Distance Decay".

At the risk of sounding contradictory one might say that a practitioner of a trade or vocation is a person who has undergone instruction intended to equip him or her for industrial or commercial occupation. The skill may be obtained either formally in trade schools, technical secondary schools or on the job training programmes or more informally by picking up the necessary skills on the job.

"Vocational education in schools is a relatively modern development. Until the 19th century such education except for the professions was provided only by apprenticeship.

This situation was partly due to the low social status associated with such instruction as opposed to a classical curriculum, which was considered "necessary for gentlemen". (Encyclopaedia Britannica) It follows from the above that anyone who postulates "Journalism" as a trade lowers the noble profession on the social ladder. Webster's New World Dictionary defines "Profession as " a vocation or occupation requiring advanced education and training and involving intellectual skills."

It could be deduced from the above that anybody who postulates that Journalism is a trade or a vocation and not a profession is saying that Journalism does not require advanced education and training involving intellectual skills.

Under the heading - "Journalism - The Profession" The "Encyclopaedia Britannica" writes "Journalism in the 20th century has been marked by growing professionalism.

"There were four important factors in this trend; increasing organisation of working Journalists; specialised education for Journalists; growing literature dealing with history, problems and techniques of mass communication and increasing sense of social responsibility on the part of Journalists."

Like all the other professions Journalists in the past learnt their craft as apprentices, beginning as Copy Boys and Cub Reporters. However, much water has passed under the bridge since those days and the first course in Journalism was given at the University of Missouri (Columbia) in 1879 to 1884.

In 1912 Columbia University in New York City established the first graduate programme in Journalism, with a grant from New York City Editor and Publisher Joseph Pulitzer. It was recognised that the growing complexity of news reporting and newspaper operations required great deal of specialised knowledge.

Editors also found that in-depth reporting of special types of news such as political affairs; business, economics and science often demanded reporters with background training in these areas. By the 1950s many colleges and universities were offering courses in Journalism (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

One has taken the liberty to quote extensively from Encyclopaedia Britannica to show that scholarship regards Journalism as a profession. It is not a trade or vocation. One could only leave those who define Journalists to include those who frame and distribute pictures at the Arts Centre in Accra to their wiles.