Former journalist achieves his doctoral goal with aplomb 

Former journalist in the Eastern Cape, then journalism lecturer at Technikon Natal in Durban and now the recipient of a Doctorate in Cultural and Media Studies, Dr Marc Caldwell has travelled a long and winding road to this pinnacle of his academic career.

Dr Caldwell’s thesis is titled: ‘Between Empiricism and Intellectualism: Charles Taylor’s Answer to the Media Wars.’

The thesis gets to the heart of a key contention between cultural theorists and certain journalism trainers who consider the theorists to be relativists, linguistic idealists, and a range of epithets that contradict the realist and empirical outlook of journalism practice.

Dr Caldwell’s study uses the case of the perennial split between theory and practice in journalism education and training to demonstrate how the Canadian philosopher, Charles Taylor, is relevant to the methodology of cultural studies. The thesis shows how Taylor’s views of agency in culture can defuse differences between realists and idealists in situations where theory appears to contradict practice.

Dr Caldwell, a lecturer in the School of Literary Studies, Media and Creative Arts, said: “Naturally I am delighted to have received praise from my examiners, and to have had the thesis accepted without any revisions or corrections apart from a few typos!”

Professor Keyan Tomaselli, who supervised Dr Caldwell’s thesis said: “His work stood the test of an interdisciplinary panel which included a social psychologist, a philosopher, a communication scholar and a journalism professor. It is rare indeed that a single work can so absolutely satisfy such a transdisciplinary group like this”.

Professor Tomaselli describes Dr Caldwell’s thesis as highly original and his work has also been enthusiastically commented upon by one of the founders of the field of cultural and media studies. “As supervisor, my congratulations to Marc, he was an exemplary student who has historicized cultural and media studies to a new level of sophistication.”

...and praise from one of his examiners

Mr Marc Caldwell’s thesis, Between Empiricism and Intellectualism: Charles Taylor’s Answer to the ‘Media Wars’, uses the case of the perennial split between theory and practice in journalism education and training to demonstrate how Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor is relevant to cultural studies methodology. The thesis shows how Taylor’s views of agency in culture can defuse differences between realists and idealists in situations where theory appears to contradict practice. One examiner says the thesis “presents us with a plausible model of subjectivity and agency which has relevance to all of the contemporary social sciences.” He adds that the thesis falls “comfortably within the summa cum laude category” were such a mark to be awarded. Another examiner writes: “This dissertation is among the top five percent of the more than 150 doctoral theses for which I have been an examiner in the USA, Europe and Asia