[T]he traditional consensus is that journalism education should be focused on practical vocational skills including shorthand, news gathering and news writing and yet it is situated within an academic environment, whose core business is research.Although the practitioner academic is fairly common in universities today, due to the huge rise in converted polytechnics teaching vocational courses, a big divide still exists between practitioners and researchers. |  I recently decided that I wanted to continue working as a freelance journalist and teach practical skills, but also go on conducting academic research and teaching theoretical modules. The problem is that jobs are regularly advertised as research posts or practitioner posts, even though there is a contradictory expectation that practitioners will be willing to undertake some research. So in the future what type of post should a hybrid like me apply for? The message from universities is confusing. They advertise practitioner posts with an expectation that applicants will undertake research, but then they advertise separate research-only posts —The Guardian