Not my culturalist debate: Journalism and methods

That Keith Windschuttle's potent poke in a culturalist eye should provoke so much response among journalism and mass media educators is an interesting situation. While it is refreshing to see a lively debate played out in public, one hopes it will lead somewhere, especially given his call for development of Australian theory textbooks written by practitioners. Many in journalism education would support Windschuttle's fundamental characteristics of practice: journalism upholds a realist view and an empirical methodology; journalism's ethical obligation to audiences is paramount; and journalists should be committed to good writing.