Plumbers, button pressers, or academics? The media practitioner’s lot in UK Higher Education

An important conference takes place at Birmingham City University Monday 7th July that explores the role of the professional media practitioner in British Higher Education. I’m giving a paper asking the question asking whether the divide between practice and theory academics is the same as when I started teaching in universities in 1990. I go

The Statutory Dilemma, Leveson Inquiry and Media Law and Ethics Reform

The NUJ’s policy for ‘statutory underpinning’ of print regulation is one of the more troubling issues in my near 38 year career in journalism. It has been hard enough being in a University Department (Media & Communications, Goldsmiths) surrounded by colleagues who are at the very centre of the Hacked Off and Coordinating Committee for Media Reform that advocates the surrendering