Media Enterprise in Higher Education: A Laboratory for Learning

This chapter explores enterprise pedagogies in media courses by drawing on the experience of postgraduate students in higher education (HE). The risks and challenges associated with media work are discussed with reference to two key discourses: firstly, literature from media and cultural studies, which tends to be critical of ideas of entrepreneurship (see Banks and Hesmondhalgh, 2009; McGuigan, 2010; Oakley, 2011); and secondly, investigating enterprise education literature in general and as it applies specifically to media education. Entrepreneurship in media education is explored through a case-study based upon observations in the classroom, along with interviews and feedback from postgraduate media students. The case-study builds upon earlier research conducted by Carey and Naudin (2006), and on a recognition that entrepreneurship and self-employment are increasingly important in UK media courses, as discussed in the report Creating Entrepreneurshi? (ADM-HEA and NESTA, 2007).