Journalism Cannot be Both ‘Subject and Research’ Per Se

Abstract

The article argues that the ‘research’ pursued by the journalists cannot be considered as ‘as an output of academic research’ for several reasons. Firstly, as curricular theory of education demands, journalistic content and research must be part of academic study in journalism schools. Secondly, the ‘research output’ found in the investigative stories will not disclose to the readers the variables/hypotheses primarily formulated in the journalistic research, and to what extent they have been found right/wrong by the journalists. Further, the paper, while dealing with the views of a number of former journalists-turned academics, argues that the ‘subjectivity’ of the ‘journalistic output’ is very difficult to eliminate given the organizational structures of Indian media houses and their alignment with the political organizations. The study also raises questions as to why some investigative stories put out by the BBC and The Hindu in the past failed to measure up to the requirements of law to hold the persons concerned guilty. In order to be considered as an ‘output of academic research’ the paper argues that ‘journalism research’ as a ‘practice’ should be highly definitive, qualitative and open to verifiability.