BAMS BITES BACK...

Two weeks ago Westminster News Online reported Jeremy Paxman’s latest comments on media studies courses. He called media studies “a bogus subject and a waste of three years”. Colin Sparks, a media studies lecturer at the University of Westminster, gives his reaction to Paxman’s comments and explains why students should study the media:

Why study the media at University? The first reason is that you are interested in them. This is the best reason for studying anything at all: accountancy, astrophysics or Old Norse. Every society needs to encourage the young in the exploration of the world. Societies that try to limit human enquiry face stagnation and eventual collapse.
The second reason is that the mass media matter. Anyone who has reflected on the social, political and cultural life of the contemporary world can see that the mass media are of central importance in all of those areas, and that it is pretty sensible to know as much as possible about them.

The third reason is that studying the mass media teaches valuable intellectual skills. Contemporary societies need large numbers of people who are highly literate, used to working in teams, have versatile minds, understand the importance of research, know how to meet deadlines, are good at relating to others, and so on – all of the things that media degrees specialise in teaching.

The final reason for studying the mass media is that it teaches valuable practical skills. Many University courses, like law and medicine, teach the elements of professional practice. Media studies is no different. Learning how to write a feature article, or how to edit a radio programme, is a preparation for working in a major contemporary industry. Of course, no one comes out of University a fully-fledged judge or surgeon or journalist or producer, but the right course of study is a useful step on that road.

Not all people who study the media will work in the industry, just as not all people who study literature will become poets. As it happens, media studies graduates have a much better record of employment than do other humanities and social science graduates, and many of these graduates work in the media.

Not all people who start work in the media are graduates of media studies courses. That is a very good thing. If becoming a journalist were restricted only to graduates of particular degrees or special institutions, that would be a serious blow to freedom of speech. The media need to be open to talent wherever it comes from.

Media Studies is not a plot to stop gilded youth with Cambridge degrees getting jobs at the BBC. But people who come from that sort of background would give the public better value for money if they stopped repeating clichés based on a lot of snobbery and very little research. I cannot help thinking that even mediocre media studies graduates would have known to think for themselves and do a little research rather than parrot bar room prejudices. The best media studies graduates would certainly have found the originality and courage to say something interesting about education today.