Constructing ‘common sense’ policies for schools: the role of journalists

Abstract

This article focuses on how five journalists arrived at their decisions about how to report policy, particularly educational policy. It is part of a larger study that takes the position that the media play a central role in educational policy‐making and that educators need to understand the power that journalists working within corporate structures have to shape educational policy. I suggest that this power must be understood at two levels: at the level of the media structure and at the level of journalists' personal experiences of schooling and policy‐makers.

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge the support of the Hampton Research fund in supporting this research. I would also like to thank André Mazawi, Allison Tom, Deirdre Kelly and Jim Ryan for their feedback on earlier drafts of this paper. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their immensely helpful feedback.

Notes

1. These themes are drawn from work done on cross‐fields by Lingard and Rawolle (2004).

2. CanWest MediaWorks Inc. is a subsidiary of CanWest Global Communications Corp., which owns Global Television, a coast‐to‐coast Canadian broadcasting network that reaches more than 94% of English speaking Canada, CH, a second network that broadcasts in Montreal, Hamilton and Victoria, eight specialty channels that offer niche programming, including TVTropolis, radio stations in Winnipeg and Kitchener and the National Post newspaper (http://www.canwestglobal.com/mediaworks/index.html).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michelle Stack

Michelle Stack is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Email: [email protected]. Her primary interests are the role of the media in defining the successful educational leader and the influence of the media on the educational policy‐making process.