Schools of journalism facing participative Web 2.0

This article looks at how students and teachers at four schools of journalism from Grenoble and Marseille (France), Bucharest (Romania) and Geneva (Switzerland), represent and make use of amateur online publishing practices. It analyses the current conflict between the values associated with Web 2.0 and the normative model underpinning journalism, which is historically rooted in opposing the figure of the amateur. Combined research methods were used in the study, such as a questionnaire carried out on a group of 85 first-year master’s students in journalism, semi-structured interviews with second-year students and teachers, and focus groups conducted among volunteer students. The survey’s results highlight the role played by training establishments in legitimizing and internalizing the standards of journalistic professionalism.