Journalism Studies
This group conducts research analysing the professional practices of journalism within the media and communications industries. Specifically, we examine the media’s role in relation to politics, democracy and citizenship in local, national and international settings, as well as developing cutting edge, practice-based research.
The questions we address include:
- What are the practical, ethical and technical challenges and opportunities confronting journalists and the media industries?
- How have developments in government policy changed understandings of what it means to be a journalist?
- How well have the media performed when reporting elections and political crises?
- What is the role of journalism in a democracy?
- How do the media reflect social diversity?
- When it comes to the reporting of climate change and sustainability, is the news media part of the problem of the problem or part of the solution?
The group is located in the Centre for Journalism which enjoys a longstanding and international reputation for the quality of its journalism education and training. The group also houses several journalism archives.
Funded Research
Major funded research project topics include Welsh Assembly elections, reporting of general elections, digital storytelling and listener online engagement.
Funding bodies include the BBC, AHRC, ITC and Broadcasting Standards Commission. In addition, members of the group are involved in major projects focussed on issues such as the reporting of war, immigration and scientific controversies (see our other Research Groups).
Government and Industry Consultancies
Members of the group have served as research consultants and advisers to significant public inquiries into different areas of journalists’ work, including the Phillis inquiry into public trust in media and government, the Neil inquiry concerning journalists’ professional practices following the Hutton inquiry and the Hansard Society study of the reporting of Parliament and strategies for raising the media profile of the House.
PhD Students
JOMEC has a large community of postgraduate students exploring topics such as: 'Television policy and the future of television in the digital age' (Rakesh Kaushal); 'The history of magazine journalism' (Tim Holmes); 'Audience responses to 24-hour rolling news services' (Sally Reardon); 'The role of the press in the Thai general election' (Sopark Panichpapiboon); 'Media discourse and European identity' (Bernhard Gross); 'Readers’ Letters in the Arab press post 9/11' (Kholood Alqahtani); 'News media coverage of youth citizenship' (Stephen Cushion); 'The Public Sphere and Popular Journalism in Taiwan' (Yu-Hsien Tai). Other students are addressing issues around the reporting of science and health, racism and asylum, or war and conflict (see our other research groups).
Publications
Journalism Studies and Journalism Practice, the leading academic journals in the field, are edited by a member of the Journalism Studies research group.
Events
Researchers in the School meet regularly to exchange ideas and support research plans. In addition we organise seminars and conferences, often in collaboration with outside organisations such as Voice of the Listener and Viewer and the Association of Journalism Educators.
JOMEC and Routledge, Taylor and Francis, publishers of Journalism Studies and Journalism Practice, hosted an international conference assessing The Future of Newspapers in September 2007.
Links with other Research Groups
Many of our Research Projects involve interdisciplinary collaborations with other Schools at Cardiff, and members of the 'Journalism Studies' Group also contribute to research within JOMEC focusing on ‘Mediatized Conflict’, ‘Risk, Science and Health and Media' and ‘Race, Representation and Cultural Politics'.
International collaboration
We also have strong links with colleagues both nationally and internationally and the School attracts Visiting Fellows from all over the world.