Academic Journalism: A Modest Proposal

Abstract

The traditional business model of journalism is disintegrating. Meanwhile, the academy faces criticism over teaching quality and research relevance. Drawing on economics, communication, and journalism, we construct a modest proposal: that academia produce some forms of at-risk public-interest journalism, bolstering the civic mission of universities. To better understand current, realistic possibilities, our analysis also compares and contrasts academia and journalism*their economics, methods, cultures, and norms*and their respective weaknesses, accessibility, and complexity, to determine which journalistic public goods could conceivably be created in academia. We suggest criteria and examples for how academic journalism could address institutional weaknesses by producing investigations and analyses of complex problems, accessibly communicated. Precedents, barriers, and further implications are charted.

Keywords: higher education, interdisciplinary inquiry, journalism, public good, public scholarship