Andy Bissell joined Bournemouth University as a Lecturer in News Journalism in September 2013 having spent 30 years as a newspaper journalist. During his journalism career, Andy was employed as a news reporter and feature writer before assuming news and feature editorships.

Andy is a graduate of the University of Birmingham where he studied Economic and Social History. He is the author of two social history books that record memories of Southampton and London during the 1920s, 1930s and Blitz years.

Andy is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and currently teaches journalism practice. He is also studying for a doctorate in education at Bournemouth University. Andy’s doctoral research explores how journalism students ‘become’ the journalists of the future. In this context, he aspires to ontologically reconsider the theory-practice dualism that typically hallmarks journalism education today; his investigation explores whether students should be further encouraged to consider their beliefs, feelings and experiences of becoming a journalist in a media world requiring reflective practice and a sense of journalistic self as well as multimedia skills.

Drawing upon the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer, Andy is experimenting with a hermeneutic model to interpret the reflections of former multimedia undergraduates who now work as journalists. Their experiences of becoming may help inform the teaching of tomorrow’s storytellers.