KINGSTON, Jamaica — Media practitioners and academics are calling for closer partnerships among universities, employers and Corporate Jamaica to better prepare students for a communications industry being reshaped by artificial intelligence, shrinking newsrooms and changing audience demands. The call came during a Brand Builders Live panel discussion hosted by Red Stripe under the theme, “The Future of PR: A Journalist’s Perspective”. Editors, journalists, educators and communications professionals debated the continued value of university degrees, the structure of internship programmes and whether graduates are receiving enough practical preparation before entering journalism, public relations and corporate communications.
While the panellists agreed that the industry was changing more quickly than many classrooms could match, they differed on whether formal qualifications remained essential. Our Today Chief Executive Officer Al Edwards said a university degree continued to signal discipline and an ability to complete a structured programme. “A degree shows you can complete a process, remain disciplined, and achieve goals,” Edwards said.
“From there, we can work with you.” Jamaica Observer Business Content Manager Dashan Hendricks argued that academic qualifications alone did not determine whether someone would succeed in journalism. “I’ve supervised journalists without degrees who became my best reporters. It’s not the degree, it’s the person,” Hendricks said.
He noted that several respected Jamaican journalists entered the profession through apprenticeships and developed their skills inside newsrooms. Senior Associate Editor for Lifestyle at the Jamaica Observer, Novia McDonald-Whyte, said the debate should extend beyond whether graduates have degrees to whether they possess the specialist knowledge required to cover increasingly complex subjects. She said lifestyle journalists, for example, must understand areas such as food, design, fashion, travel and culture rather than simply attend events and report on personalities.
“You have to be well read,” McDonald-Whyte said, arguing that subject knowledge had become as important as writing ability. The panel also questioned whether internships were being introduced too late in university programmes, leaving students with limited time to apply classroom theory in professional settings.
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