Contemporary media education: ideas for overcoming the perils of popularity and the theory-practice split

Abstract

This article addresses the current predicament of Media Studies, which attracts many undergraduate students but is also subject to often-savage criticism, especially in Britain. Mostly focusing on the United Kingdom and Australasia, it argues for more openness about slim Media Studies graduate prospects in ‘glamorous’ media occupations. However, it also sophisticated media education for many more students in the light of the growing power of the institution of the media. Media education, though, has experienced a debilitating theory-practice schism, and its standing could be improved by a greater commitment to quality research and a more confident assertion of the importance of serious, systematic analysis of the media. The article concludes with a brief reference to some research-in-progress involving journalists’ relationships with academics that suggests ways in which Media Studies can deal more effectively with tensions between theory and practice, and can help bypass the rancorous obstructionism of anti-Media Studies polemicists.¹

Keywords:

• media education
• image of Media Studies
• journalism
• theory-practice
• media labour market