The progressive potential of journalism education - Recasting the academic versus professional debate

The crisis in the journalism profession has led an ever more concentrated corporate voice to assert itself in academia, diverting blame and shaping how future journalists are prepared. Historically interdisciplinary, oriented toward the liberal arts yet professional,journalism education faces mounting pressure to abandon its academic ethos to embrace its industry patrons, choosing from a false dichotomy advanced forcefully by a recent journalism foundation-supported research report. To preserve its value, however, journalism must be part of broader academic reforms, modeling an intellectually independent integration of theory and practice, supporting not just a media labor pyramid, but also a press-literate public.