Francis Beckett in The Guardian says that British academics and news professionals sniff at media studies. But the truth is that we need to study media now more than ever for media are in upheaval and it’s a great time to watch.
However genteel the language, what Cambridge has effectively done is stick a flashing neon sign saying “Mickey Mouse subject” over the door of the media studies department in every school, college and university in Britain. . . .
Maybe Feldman has hit on the subtext behind journalists’ contempt for the subject. They are not at all sure they like people responding to the media. Media studies students examine the actions of editors and journalists, and sometimes find them wanting. Media folk, as a class, are not used to being examined. If there is to be examination, they prefer it to be done by their own kind, hence the explosion of “media commentators” in the newspapers, the majority of them former editors.
Guilty.
