Practising What We Preach: the role of practice in media degrees—and journalism teaching in particular

In this paper, two practising journalists argue for the legitimacy of ‘practice’ within media and communications degrees against both those inside the academy and outside in the media industries. The paper challenges the nervousness of both traditional media and communications theorists and those outside the discipline who, fearing the new, have sought to marginalise media practice and undermine practitioners through the machinations of the Research Assessment Exercise. It also engages with the spurious claims of critics from inside the media industries who challenge the ‘employability’ of media graduates, despite the fact that these graduates have, overall, a good record of success in finding work in the sector. However, the paper questions the legitimacy of vocational media degrees per se, since they must perforce lack the intellectual rigour which should still be at the core of an undergraduate degree. The paper concludes by arguing for a culture of mutual respect between media theoreticians and practitioners as the best way of resisting onslaughts on the discipline.