Journalism as research: models of practice

Although there has been an increasing acceptance of practice based research in the fields of visual arts and design there has been little work on journalism practice as research.

As a media practitioner in a specialist area - alternative media or gay and lesbian publishing - I am interested in how this particular practice might be conceived of as research.

I have undertaken a historic study of the development of the Sydney Star Observer (see excerpts in side bar) and I am currently working on the development of a practice based research model that involves a reflective investigation of my own work over the last six years at the Star.

I am interested in looking at the narrative of social change that emerges in the history of gay and lesbian media. I would argue that in cases such as the Star Observer where a new form of media practice gradually evolved there is a:

• Constant awareness that something new is being created
• Constant self narration
• Constant attempt to relate practice to particular notions of community and visions of community politics
• Constant sense of adaptation to changing circumstances
• Theoretical framework: gay liberation/queer theory

Looked at in this way a model of journalism as practice research begins to emerge:

• Research as narration of professional and social practice
• Research as engagement with social and cultural change
• Research as production of new resources/forms
• Research as audience engagement and development

This is a model of journalism as research which places an emphasis on journalism projects rather than journalism texts. The reflective essay or exegesis that might arise out of a study of such a journalism project is not the only or even the primary research outcome but the project as a whole can be regarded as a research artifact in which new knoweldge is discovered, explored and articulated.

These notions of creative and professional practice as research are closely related to the debates about teaching as research or the scholarship of teaching. Ernest Boyer's deliniation of four areas of scholarship across academic practice is a helpful model for other areas of non-traditional research:

the scholarship of discovery - close to the old idea of research;

the scholarship of integration - which involves making connections across the disciplines and placing the specialties in larger context;

the scholarship of application - which goes beyond the application of research and develops a vital interaction and so informs the other;

the scholarship of teaching - which both educates and entices future scholars by communicating the beauty and enlightenment at the heart of significant knowledge. (The Australian Scholarship in Teaching Project)

These elements of discovery, integration, application and communication are both key research practices as well as key production practices in many professional situations.