Kewartawanan solo dari perspektif editor Malaysia

Journalism education is necessary to improve the skills and knowledge of journalism graduates. The current issue suggests that the industry needs solo journalists who have the complete package of skill and professionalism. A solo journalist is a journalist who is equipped with technological equipment and serves as a writer, photographer, and videographer to deliver news across the globe. The emergence of citizen journalists increasingly active in the digital age causes professional journalists to compete to deliver news quickly to the public while maintaining the credibility of journalistic professionals. However, the weakness of journalists who are not wise in taking pictures creates the difficulty in comparing citizen journalists. These problems caused this study to focus on aspects of skills and professionalism to overcome the gap in previous studies that only discuss some skills, but do not describe in detail the types of skills required. Even if there are, they are not comprehensive and do not discuss professionalism and solo journalism. Studies in the field of journalism are important to produce comprehensive and efficient graduates. The objective of this study was to explore the skills and professionalism required by the industry to produce solo journalists. The final goal of this study was to produce information in terms of skills and professionalism to help improve the quality of journalism education in Malaysia. Semi -structured interviews were carried out on seven Malaysian newspaper editors. The interview data about skills and professionalism were analyzed using thematic analysis. News editors in Malaysia have a similar understanding with Western perspectives that emphasize writing skills as basic skills. But the need for the use of devices such as mobile phones shows that there is little difference in the skills required. Based on the responses of the informants, the skills required of solo journalists are writing skills, multimedia skills, communication skills and bilingual skills, while professionalism required autonomy, commitment and honesty. Based on the informants’ responses and the Media Accountability Theory, solo journalists must comply with the Malaysian Journalism Ethics and need to be equipped with various skills to be labelled as solo journalists. The Journalism Curriculum Model could serve as a guideline for improving the syllabus of journalism education to suit the expectations of the industry.