Challenges And Limits Of Current Student Magazine Production - Case Study

The subject of the study is to review the current state of contemporary student journalism. The aim of the case study is to clarify the theoretical background and then evaluation of the state (challenges and limits) of selected student journals on the basis of defined attributes. Part of the authors' goals is also the identification of the most common errors and problems in the analysed school magazines. At the theoretical level, the authors define the main concepts of the issue, characterize the student media and the specifics of the creation of the media. Last but not least, the authors define the position of student media in the educational process and their contribution to education in the field of media education. Based on the theoretical definition of the issue, the authors' approach is to use qualitative analysis of selected student magazines. The case study focuses on six student magazines from six elementary schools in Slovakia, which are involved in a research project focused on material-didactic support of media education teaching at Slovak primary and secondary schools, as well as reflexive-productive media learning via full-time and e-learning courses. In the research part of the case study, the authors approach the journals via qualitative analysis in three defined categories: the content of the journal, the graphic aspect of the journal and the organization of work in the journal / editorial office. Within these categories, journals are analysed in several specified attributes, e.g. elaborated topics, journalistic genres, journal break, colourfulness, editorial process, editing process and others. The conclusion of the case study is to interpret and summarize the most important findings of the research and a set of recommendations that respond to the identified shortcomings of the analysed sample of student journals in the examined points.