From Message Received (GUMG ed. Greg Philo, Longman, 1999)
Teaching Journalism in Britain (Kevin Williams)
Hello, Professor Brown? Have you got a couple of minutes? I'm researching a new TV series for Channel 4 and we're looking for programme ideas. What programme is it? It's a sort of magaziney thing: people, places, events; you know. Places? Are you a geographer then? No, actually, I don't know anything about geography. Oh, you're doing the people. Psychologist are you? No, I don't know anything about psychology. You must be doing the events then. Historian are you? No, I don't know much about History. I don't know much about anything. I trained as a journalist.
Posing the question of how students of journalism are being prepared for work in the media, this chapter looks at the content of jourmalism courses and asks what students are likely to know about the world around them and the tools they are given to learn with.