Surviving in the Hackademy

Abstract

Two journalist-academics suggest that, judging by the experiences of some rather research-battle-weary delegates at a recent conference of the Association for Journalism Education, it can be an uphill struggle to persuade the university to consider journalism research as suitable for the Research Assessment Exercise. "If journalism courses and hackademics are to flourish," they write, "it is important to balance delivering a quality professional education with publishing scholarly research - the latter generally being viewed as the route to promotion and career advancement... Despite the obstacles, we are certain that academic life demands scholarship from everyone. Teaching is a privilege and a pleasure and, we believe, so is research."