Journalism students Access to Public Relations in Albania

Abstract

This paper aims to introduce the approach of journalism students to PR-practices and public relations in general. The paper is based on empirical results obtained from an extensive survey with students of journalism in Tirana, Elbasan and Shkodra in 2015. The main goal is to analyse the priorities of students before emerging in the labour market and specifically their attitude to PR as field employment in the future. At a time when the boundaries between PR and classical journalism are becoming indecipherable, we are interested to know the attitude of the students of journalism to these developments. How endangered is the journalistic profession from interference of PR offices? How optimistic are they about the future of journalism? Where do they see themselves employed in the near future? Etc. The paper will attempt to answer these questions and others that will raise with concrete figures.