The Media – a New Patch in the Quilt of English Studies

Abstract

At the opening of a new specialisation in communications at a Canadian University, the dean of the Faculty famously claimed that Media Studies was an interloper in academia in direct competition with his own discipline of English. Osler (2000) maintains that the order of occurrence of the two at Canadian Universities was the reverse – communications studies came before English. Elsewhere, Media Studies are reported to have replaced English on the assumption that more often than not people read newspapers and not literary texts (Haig 2005). On a more commercial footing, many departments prefer to offer training in communications than in languages because of the greater interest from applicants. In Bulgaria students can only do English Studies while Media Studies is not on offer as an academic subject. The result of this situation is that the graduates can mainly take up jobs as teachers or translators, and remain banned from the broad spectrum of qualifications offered in the field of communications.