About the lecture

This talk, based on a recently published book, examines pressing debates concerning how and why journalism education should respond to digital changes in and around the industry. It questions market-oriented ideology and civic responsibility in the field.

Surveying a broad field of discourse and research into journalism education, this talk explores how public ideals, market logics and industry concerns have come to animate discussions about digital journalism education and journalism’s future, as well as how academic structures and cultures are positioned as a key obstacle to attaining that future. Labor conditions, critiques of journalism education as an institution, and curricular change, all operate as sites where normative debates about journalism’s future all circulate. After interrogating how market-centric ideologies set boundaries for understanding journalism’s education’s relationship to the profession, the talk argues for a critical pedagogy of journalism education, one that pushes beyond jobs training and instead is centered around a commitment to public and civic value via a liberal arts tradition made practicable for the digital age.

About the speaker

Brian Creech is an associate professor of journalism and director of the Media and Communication doctoral program in Temple University’s Lew Klein College of Media and Communication. His research focuses on critical approaches to journalism studies, with a particular emphasis on professional discourses and the technology industries. Aside from his book, Journalism Education for the Digital Age, recent articles have been published in the journals Media, Culture, & Society; Journalism Practice and Television & New Media.