Mediating Music Journalism: Experience in Academia and Academia in Practice

There has never been a more crucial time to explore the balance between experience and theory. The crisis facing journalists is acutely felt in specialist arts areas like music journalism. Having spent 10 years as a music journalist practitioner and 20 as a music and journalist academic, I continue to enjoy the tension of this relationship. My day-to-day work in the lecture room revolves around the facilitation of engaging students in meaningful exploration of popular music and journalism. As a writer and reader I am intrigued to understand how my craft, my trade and my passion can continue to be relevant and exist in a format which both respects the musician, author and recipient in terms of meaning and quality. Reading about music relies on what Anderson calls, an ‘imagined community’. Creating a shared discourse with a purpose. I believe that re-evaluating the original purpose of music journalism will go some way to saving its future. To do that means we need to understand how we experience music journalism (through various platforms and discourses), how we engage with the content (what is the connection between the words and the music itself, both individually and collectively) and therefore how together this creates a particular meaning. For me there has never been a disconnect between writing about popular music and teaching about it but as the role of the music journalist as a ‘gatekeeper’ is eroded it is pertinent to now celebrate the key drivers of the profession to ensure quality is a key foundation.