Producing Media Pedagogy: Sound, Listening, and Civic Practice in Polarized Times

Background: Amid shifting institutional and cultural pressures, media practice has increasingly been positioned as a specialized supplement rather than a core element of curricula in communication and media studies. Such a reframing risks obscuring the longstanding role of practice-based learning in shaping the field’s intellectual, civic, and pedagogical foundations. Analysis: This brief reasserts the centrality of practice-based learning by tracing its lineage through the soundscape studies tradition. Drawing on The Place of Sound, a student-led audio project, it demonstrates how listening-centred pedagogy fosters civic awareness and collective engagement, particularly in politically polarized contexts. Conclusions and implications: The brief argues that the strength of media education lies not in continual reinvention, but in renewing the civic commitments that have historically defined practice-based learning in communication and media studies. Recentring these commitments has important implications for curriculum design, pedagogical priorities, and the future orientation of the field.