Speculative account taking in broadcast media (8)
I believe the answer is:
academic
'speculative' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'account taking in broadcast media' is the wordplay.
'account' becomes 'acc'.
'taking in' indicates putting letters inside.
'broadcast' indicates anagramming the letters (letters scattered or cast around).
'media' is an anagram of 'ademi'.
'acc' going around 'ademi' is 'ACADEMIC'.
(Other definitions for academic that I've seen before include "Intellectual" , "fellow" , "Scholarly or of a university" , "Scholar - relating to a college" , "This person may be a professor" .)