Mickey Mouse and the state of media and cultural studies

In a recent interview to the Daily Mail Sir Michael Parkinson, the veteran talk-show host, said that media studies is a ‘mickey mouse’ degree and that students would be better off learning ‘on the job’. These pronouncements reveal what must surely feel like a chasm between media and cultural studies as academic disciplines and media as an industry beholden to, and controlled by, important national and transnational business interests.