Entrepreneurial Education and Market Alignment in Journalism: Impacts on Graduate Career Outcomes and Job Satisfaction

This research addresses the problem of misalignment between journalism education and entrepreneurial and market-ready careers. Using a sample of 300 journalism graduates with under 2 years of industry experience from multiple countries, the research employs a quantitative survey design to assess the impact of journalism education on their mindset, entrepreneurial skills, entrepreneurial knowledge, and their perceived connectedness with the journalism market needs. The primary objective is to assess how these educational outcomes impact market alignment, job satisfaction, and career status, and whether gender moderates these relationships. The findings indicate that while respondents rate themselves high on mindset, knowledge, and attitude, they perceived a lack of entrepreneurial skills. Moreover, a negative connection is found between entrepreneurial skills and market connectedness, while a positive connection is observed between mindset, knowledge, and connectedness. Perceiving connected to the journalism market needs did not translate into job satisfaction or result in entrepreneurial ventures. Gender moderates the relationship between connectedness and job satisfaction. The research underscores a gap between curriculum and market expectations, and recommends reforms in the form of more experiential, applied, and industry-aligned journalism education to prepare graduates for entrepreneurial and freelance careers.