The importance of the School of Journalism of the Catholic Church in the system of the reform in Francoist Spain

Abstract

This article deals with the issues of educating journalists during the Franco regime in Spain and the place occupied by the School of Journalism of the Catholic Church in this system. The first years of dictatorship were characterized by a strong subordination of education and occupation to the current interests of the state, which regulated access to the profession and education only within the framework of the State School of Journalism. In the second half of the 50’s there was a gradual liberalization of the system, consisting in the gradual admission of other entities to the organization of vocational education of journalists, especially the Catholic Church. This allowed for the launch in 1960 of the School of Journalism of the Catholic Church, the functioning of which was the first manifestation of the regime’s gradual withdrawal from state supervision over the process of educating journalists. The Catholic Church School referred to the pre-war, excellent traditions of the journalism school organized by the Catholic daily El Debate, becoming a kind of counterweight to the regime’s State School of Journalism. The competition between schools (although still slight at that time) contributed to an increase in the quality of education. The emphasis on the completion of general education or the design of curricula taking into account the development of information technology made it possible to equip students with competences required in the labour market, which previously could only be obtained to a greater or lesser extent in practice.