Community Engagement in Journalism Education at UK Higher Education Institutions

Journalism education in the UK must adapt imaginatively to the challenges of the new technological, cultural and economic order which have made old media industrial models increasingly irrelevant. Yet, despite a pervading sense of crisis, journalism’s democratic mission and pivotal role in securing a functioning public sphere should also be seen to afford a range of possibilities within the academy, an institution which faces similar demands to harness its powers to address societal challenges through the production of useful knowledge and understanding.
This thesis presents the first overview of journalism education at UK higher education institutions explored through the lens of community engagement. The author, drawing on their experience as a professional journalist and academic, describes the unique characteristics of a discrete new field, its affordances and limitations, and signals the potential for engagement practice involving journalism educators, students, community partners and institutional leaders.
An adapted multi-dimensional framework was used to capture elements of research, knowledge exchange, learning and teaching, student activities and institutional policies which make up community engagement. The mixed and multimethod approach included the analysis of REF and KEF submissions from the period 2013-2021 and current journalism undergraduate programme specification documents from 33 institutions. This was enriched with online survey data gathered from 43 UK journalism academics and eight in-depth interviews.
The study uncovered a rich vein of innovative practice across the different dimensions, much of it initiated and sustained by individual academics. Collaboration with external journalistic communities was found to achieve societal impact at different geo-spatial levels and generate transformative learning experiences. Community engagement offered a route to enhance the status of journalism education in universities and to support the academy’s ‘third mission’. It is argued that an uncertain policy environment, sectoral financial challenges, institutional inertia, excessive focus on competitive national audit exercises and failure to embrace diversity may, however, undermine authentic engagement in journalism education.
Journalism