‘Media Wars’

Abstract

The relationship between journalism and cultural studies in the tertiary education system in Australia has never been a comfortable one. Communications studies, journalism studies, media studies and cultural studies programmes have all developed over the last two decades, but in an institution-specific manner. The tensions embedded in some of these ad hoc arrangements – tensions not necessarily confined to these disciplines but often implicit in any merger between critical theory and professional practice – boiled over in a series of newspaper articles by journalism educator Keith Windschuttle in 1998 which attacked the use of cultural and media studies in journalism programmes. A one-day conference was held in November 1998 specifically to debate the relationship between journalism educators and cultural studies academics. This review essay outlines some of the lessons to be learned from the ‘Media Wars’ conference, before defending the value of developing specific areas of common ground – both in the academy and in public debates about the function of the media – between the two disciplinary fields.