Andrew Calcutt trained as a magazine journalist back in the days of cow gum and paste-up. He became culture editor of Living Marxism/LM and commissioning editor of Channel Cyberia (one of the earliest online magazines in the UK), before joining the University of East London as its first ‘hackademic’.  As a journalism academic, he is concerned ‘for the future of journalism, alongside the future of my students in journalism.’

With the future in mind, Andrew has been experimenting with new forms of journalistic writing. ‘Assuming that the people-formerly-known-as-readers now have free access to basic information and a wide spread of opinion,’ he explains, ‘journalists have to ask themselves what they can do that these people would be willing to pay for. Perhaps journos could develop a form of reporting that is less like a snapshot and more like a painting; not rolling news but so much as a study of it.’ He maintains that finding new forms of journalism is far more important than lobbying for moral reform.