Questioning the ‘bleeding obvious’: What’s the point of researching journalism?

Abstract

Within higher education, journalism studies is often seen as an uncomfortable bedfellow with journalism training; there is evidence of a pervasive disconnect between research and teaching, as between theory and practice. However, voices within journalism education are calling for a more critical curriculum informed by scholarly research. There are suggestions that the journalists now doing much of the teaching within university journalism departments could play a key role in establishing a more critical journalism education and, by doing so, contributing towards more critical forms of journalism. Within this context, do journalists-turned-journalism-educators see any point in researching journalism or would they rather simply pass on vocational skills to the next generation? This article is based on asking a sample group of such ‘hackademics’ working in UK and/or Irish universities about the utility of scholarly inquiry into journalism. The article suggests that exploring ostensibly ‘bleeding obvious’ aspects of journalism may not be the pointless exercise derided by some commentators; rather, it could be precisely what journalism educators ought to be doing.

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