Institutional profile and challenges during early years of journalism teaching at ECA-USP

Abstract

This article maps the characteristics and challenges behind the institutionalization of journalism teaching at ECA, between the 1960s to the 1970s. Special attention is given to aspects of the school’s educational project, curricular structure and its institutional design, in addition to the profiles of the teachers who founded the journalism course, particularly the role of one teacher who would go on to become the school’s main leader - José Marques de Melo. This paper includes institutional documents and excerpts from interviews conducted with former professors from the institution during the aforementioned time period. Despite the obstacles experienced within the institutional space - especially since the 1970s with the repressive political situation due to the country’s military regime – this paper describes the efforts of the team of teachers during the early years of the course, when they were conducting laboratory activities and research, holding seminars, not to mention articulating with the productive sector. These were efforts by the department of journalism to become a leader in debates on the teaching and training of professionals in the area, thus establishing the ECA as a course of reference.