Bologna Process has attracted the attention of researchers from all over the world. It
deals with a changing in educational processes never seen before. As a result, studies
and researches have pointed out changes needed in order to advance from an
educational perspective to an educational reality all over the European continent. Social
Communication/Journalism courses, held in four Portuguese universities, evidence the
challenges faced at national scope. Therefore, this study investigates the several aspects
of Bologna Process, aiming to: understand the changes dynamics in university
education strategies for journalists in Portugal considering Bologna Process
implementation context and new professional practices resulting from technological
advances in the last two decades; comprehend educational processes carried out by each
of the institutions approached by this study in Portugal; and evaluate the impact of
educational/legal adjustment macro-processes based on the Bologna Process in
Portugal. Three guiding hypothesis (H) were the starting point of this research. H1: the
Bologna Process demanded important changes in European educational practices, in a
context marked by the emergency and the spread of digital technologies. They have
strongly changed communicational processes and, particularly, journalism as a social
practice. As a consequence, new competences and skills are required, and journalists
educational process have incorporated these new necessities and faced ad hoc
adaptation which does not depend on “curriculum review” in a broaden and traditional
meaning; H2: amendment processes in Journalism courses are prior to Bologna and are
initially a result of a perception about the necessity to answer to educational practices
advances. It has as its starting elements groups of Professors working as “advance
agents” – in contrast with the “resistant” ones – and the Professor demand itself who
gets to the university with a growing set of digital competences; and H3: crisis situation
and macro amendments in the case of Portugal, works as opportunity/optimization to adjustments favoring the incorporation of demands created by new ways to carry out
journalism activities. Under these three guiding issues, we approached political, social
and educational aspects in Sorbonne Declaration (1998), Bologna Declaration (1999)
and the consolidation of educational policies in conferences in Prague (2001), Berlin
(2003), Bergen (2005), London (2007), Louvain (2009), Budapest and Vienna (2010)
and Bucharest (2012). We find out that, along the years, the universities implicated in
Bologna Process have developed expertise in educational processes in first, second and
third cycles. Answering to the demands imposed by quality processes, higher education
institutions are modernized, reviewing the comprehension of what graduate and post graduate studies are. Besides the meaningful advances in policies implementation
regarding Bologna, the Portuguese universities present difficulties in instructional
alignment of their curriculum, common to educational changes reaching this dimension.
At the same time, Social Communication/Journalism courses we approached have
outlined in a different manner their practices searching to be closer to the results stated
in Bologna Process.
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