Well, I’ll be damned. Media Studies is not so shit…

Media studies is not held in very high esteem by the UK’s ‘top’ universities (see here). So much so that according to Policy Exchange think tank, ‘Pupils may be unknowingly ruining their chances of getting into a leading research university by choosing so-called ‘soft’  A-level subjects, including Law, Media Studies and Psychology’. But now this from the BBC:

Computer games and comics are to be analysed alongside the time-honoured classics of children’s literature at a new Cambridge University centre.

The ideas children pick up from books as well as other sources will be studied at the university’s new centre for the study of children’s literature.

Academics argue that books, films and other media, reach children in a way that their teachers and parents cannot.

The centre will be part of the University’s Faculty of Education.

Professor Maria Nikolajeva, who will be the centre’s first director, said: ‘It’s easy to say that these things are just kids’ fashions or that they’re trash, but I don’t believe that’s good enough. If what we regard as trash is popular with young people, we need to know why and whether, as researchers and teachers, we can offer them something that addresses the same needs but also deals with these themes in a critical and ethical way.”

Cambridge can try to dignify this research through its location in its Faculty of Education but there is no getting away from the fact that it’s doing media studies.

The full report is here.