Heading
Even though students’ motivation and expectations regarding their chosen field of study have been a topic that has drawn a lot of interest, in Croatia there has not been a systematic study that questions journalism students’ motivation and/or study experience. Therefore, the aim of this study is to provide answers to questions about journalism students motives, expectations they have regarding their studies, the fulfillment of those expectations, the general satisfaction they have with their program, and their desire to work in the media in the future. Also, the goal is to establish whether there are differences between first and third year students regarding the questioned satisfaction with the enrolled study, the fulfillment of their expectations, and their assessment of employment opportunities. The research was conducted on a convenience sample of 109 first (36.7%; 80% females) and third year (63.3%; 83% females) undergraduate journalism students at the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Zagreb. Participants completed a survey with closed-ended questions that was designed for the purpose of this research. The results show that the third year students are more dissatisfied with the program, more pessimistic in assessing their job prospects and more prone to choosing public relations over a career in journalism as their future profession.
