Research in Media and Cultural Studies
Research in Media and Cultural Studies at Newcastle University is dynamic, interdisciplinary and international in focus. Our research agenda is centred on producing high-quality publications of international standing in the key areas of media and cultural theory, journalism and public relations. Providing a critical space for intersections between the arts and the social sciences, Media and Cultural Studies plays a leading role in a number of cross-Faculty, interdisciplinary and regional research groups. We are committed to building strong links with regional and national creative and business sectors and are engaged in major academic and policy debates in the arena of media, culture and society.
Research agenda and themes
The central focus of research in Media and Cultural Studies is on identities, media and culture. We are engaged in a broad set of interdisciplinary research themes which include the following areas: media and cultural theory; sociology of the media; gender, the body and culture; feminist theory, media, journalism and popular culture; intimacy, sexuality, family, childhood and education; affect, emotion and psychoanalysis; globalisation, nationalism and ethnicity; hyperlocal journalism, media ethics and public relations.
Staff in Media and Cultural Studies have authored international agenda-setting publications within the field, such as Chambers’ New Social Ties: Contemporary Connections in a Fragmented Society (Palgrave: 2006), Women and Journalism (Sage: 2004) and Families and Intimate Relations: A Global and Cultural Perspective (Polity Press: January 2011) and Haywood’s Gender, Culture and Society: Contemporary Femininities and Masculinities (with M. Mac an Ghaill, Palgrave, 2007). Staff publications have also become essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate study in Media and Cultural Studies internationally, including Purvis’ Media and Cultural Studies (Edinburgh UP: 2006) and Television Drama: Theories and Identities (with S. Thornham, Palgrave: 2005). New and forthcoming staff publications include Pedwell’s Feminism, Culture and Embodied Practice: The Rhetorics of Comparison (Routledge: 2010), among others.
Media and Cultural Studies were not included as a unit in the latest RAE, as the size of the subject area at the time was considered too small, but the recent move to the School of Arts and Cultures and the reconfiguration of the section, together with the current expansion in numbers, create the premise for an ambitious and successful submission to Unit of Assessment 66 Communication, Cultural and Media Studies (or equivalent in the upcoming REF). Media and Cultural Studies is on an upward trajectory in building research grant income, with a recent grant awarded by the ESRC for a seminar series exploring the lack of ethnic diversity in journalism.
ESRC Seminar Series Widening Ethnic Diversity in the News Media Workforce
A series of six seminars across different universities bringing together media academics, minority ethnic communities, journalism educators and policy-makers. The aim is to identify strategies to increase the representation of Black and ethnic minority communities in newsrooms and raise their participation and profile in civil society. The first seminar, hosted at Newcastle univeristy, explored the shortage of Black and minority ethnic minority groups in mainstream journalism corresponds with the misrepresentation and under representation of minorities in national and regional news. For details of the upcoming seminars and output from all sessions, click here.
Research community
Media and Cultural Studies facilitates and participates in an active and stimulating research community within the University. Committed to developing interdisciplinary research across the School and the Faculty, we play a key role in cross Faculty or regional research groups, such as the Northern Network of Cultural Studies; the Research Group in Film and Media; and the Gender Research Group. Through our research and teaching programmes in Digital Media we also have strong links with Culture Lab, a unique research infrastructure at the University which promotes socially and economically valuable synergies with artists, creative industries, and cultural and scientific institutions, and the development of innovative research with digital tools.
Media and Cultural Studies facilitates a dynamic and diverse programme research events, recently focusing on themes such as the future of Cultural Studies in the UK; ethnic diversity in the media; and feminism, culture and affect. We also run an exciting series of Media Master Classes featuring leading researchers and practitioners in the fields of media, journalism and public relations, including our Visiting Professor in Media and Journalism, Dianne Nelmes, Managing Director of Liberty Bell Productions, one of Britain’s most highly respected media executives and investigative journalists.
Media and Cultural Studies also take a leading role in engaging with regional and national creative and business sectors and developing links with a wide range public, private and voluntary organisations in the fields of media and culture, including partnerships with the British Film Institute, Channel 4 and the NFT, Press Association, Headliners, Liberty Bell, Tyne and Wear Archives Service, Northern Film and Media, NCJ Media, Association of Journalism Educators, Gardiner Richardson, Tyneside Cinema and Schools North East.
Postgraduate research
Media and Cultural Studies offers a thriving research culture for postgraduate students. Postgraduate numbers have risen dramatically since 2006 with the launch of our three MA programmes (Media and Journalism, International Multi Media Journalism, Media and Public Relations) and a growing PhD cohort.Our PhD students are engaged in a range of cutting edge research projects focused on themes such as sexual subjectivity, psychoanalysis and visual culture; representations of ethnic minorities in mainstream and alternative press; and discourses of celebrity and skin in cyberspace, among others. PhD students are centrally involved in a range of research and teaching activities with the subject area, as well as cross Faculty and interdisciplinary research groups and initiatives.