Mickey Mouse Studies

In 2003, then Higher Education Minister Margaret Hodge branded certain degree courses, such as Media Studies, "Mickey Mouse" degrees. Five years later, research has been published suggesting she may have been justified. The QCA report aimed to compare standards between subjects at A-Level, to decide once and for all whether some were 'easy options'.

Although the report itself found "little evidence that the A-level subjects sometimes described as 'soft' were any less demanding than their more established counterparts", the headline most of the papers chose to go for, was some form of "Media Studies is easy." Indeed, there was a 'slightly' lower standard of work expected of students in Media Studies at grades A and E compared to those achieving the same grades in English and History. However, the study did not take into account coursework, some 40% of the marks! The only place in the mainstream press I found that picked up on the unreliability was the Guardian's 'mortarboard' blog.

"According to Cambridge Assessment's research director, the QCA book on comparability was "high quality", but the report was a "highly defective" mixture of unreliable results and contradictory assertions.

This is the real story - that the research is so poor. But will anyone heed this complaint? Sadly, what is most likely to stick in peoples' minds, confirming unfair assumptions as it seems to, is that media studies is somehow less worthy. Is it?"

That is an interesting question. Public perception tends to be that yes, Media Studies is an easy ride and doesn't actually mean anything. The more classical subjects such as the aforementioned English and History are seen to have more depth and substance to them, and a qualification in them to be somehow more impressive. However, in today's world, the media has an infinite amount more power and influence in society than any Emily Bronte novel or William Blake poem. The key themes of life and love, triumph and tragedy, sex, drugs and religion can be as easily analysed through a catalogue of screen offerings, as through the works of literature. As History defines the past, Media defines the present. How this can be seen as unworthy, I do not know.

Saying that, there was a specific reason I chose not to take Media Studies myself; it is seen as a joke by the very industry its students hope to by employed in. The full title of my degree is "New Media Journalism with PR", yet when I'm asked I drop the "New Media" prefix. It somehow has more gravitas, although changes nothing of the nature of the course. This writer in the Independent sums up the attitudes of many media professionals I have spoken to in the past.

"Journalism is just a trade where the gifted, the average and the incompetent sit side by side in the same office producing work of varying quality. Least of all is it an academic discipline, though undertaking a demanding course in something else at university is the best preparation for it. Were I still an editor, I wouldn't offer a job to a graduate in media studies; I would always prefer that the applicant had been tested in one of the older disciplines"

As a fast-moving young industry, these old-school attitudes about the subject may die out in a matter of years. Until then, Media Studies is certainly not the easy option; for those who want a career in the media, it may be the hardest option of all.

(For those interested in the full QCA report you can find it here.)