The study of journalism has not been — nor should it be — restricted to those who call themselves ‘journalists' or ‘journalism educators’. The cultural practice of journalism focuses on issues, institutions and events ‘from the outside’, so it would seem hypocritical to suggest that journalists alone should have the right to critique journalism. This article looks at the usefulness of cultural studies in enabling a critique and analysis of journalism from a broad range of theoretical and methodological approaches. Drawing from the work of Gramsci and Canadian journalism educator and cultural studies advocate G. Stuart Adam, it suggests that journalism is a set of cultural practices which frame experience and form public consciousness of the here and now.