Staff Profile
Dr Murray Dick
Senior Lecturer In Multimedia Journalism
- Email: murray.dick@ncl.ac.uk
- Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 4640
- Address: Media Culture and Heritage
School of Arts and Cultures
Room 2.86
2nd Floor Armstrong Building
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
Consultation & feedback hours 2020-21: email me for an appointment
Introduction
I lecture in Multimedia Journalism in the department of Media, Culture, Heritage.
Before moving permanently into academia (in 2009), I was a trainer in online research at the BBC, and latterly at the Centre for Investigative Journalism. I was also an occasional freelance technology journalist.
During my time at the BBC (2004-2008) I established a training praxis that involved applying theories from the field of Information Science to the practices of professional journalism,
This knowledge informed much of my early research, including my first monograph: Search: Theory and Practice in Journalism Online (Palgrave 2013).
Today, my approach to teaching and learning at Newcastle involves challenging the conventional ways in which journalism is often understood within the academy; compromised between vocational and liberal arts perspectives.
Qualifications
- PhD ('News Values in Online and Data-visual Journalism') (Brunel University, London)
- Postgraduate Diploma in Academic Practice (Brunel University, London)
- MSc in Information Science, with distinction (City University, London)
- BA(Hons) in English (University of York)
Membership of scholarly societies
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2012-present).
Academic activities
Editorial Board member: Journalism Practice
Summary
My PhD by publication ('News Values in Online and Data-visual Journalism' [2015]) was concerned with how news values are operationalized in online journalism and in visual data journalism. This early phase in my research was informed by reflexive and ethnographic methods with a particular focus on newsroom ethnography.
More recently my research has shifted towards visual methods. Over the last few years I have devised and developed a new (multilevel discursive) theoretical framework for exploring data visualizations.
I have written a number of articles, chapters and reference works on this topic, and, in 2020, a monograph: The Infographic: A history of data graphics in news and communications, which is published by MIT Press.
An excerpt from this book has been re-published by TIME magazine, and by Popular Science.
I am currently developing a range of literary methods for analysing (and improving) data visualizations.
My other research interests concern media hoaxes, and investigative journalism.
Teaching roles
I lead on the following modules:
- MCH2060: Multimedia Journalism I
- MCH8014: Cultures of Data Visualization
I also contribute to teaching, and supervise students on the following modules:
- MCH3072: Journalism and Media Research Dissertation
- MCH8299: Dissertation for MA Media and Journalism
Administrative roles
I am currently acting Degree Program Director for our International Multimedia Journalism MA programme.
-
Articles
- Murray D. The Datatext: A multilevel-discursive theory for improved public health data visualizations. Javnost: The Public 2022, 29(2), 130-146.
- Dick M. How Data Visualization During Public Health Crises Has Saved Lives for Centuries. Time 2020.
- Dick M. Astroturfing in online comment: An investigation. Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics 2016, 13(1), 32-38.
- Dick M. Just Fancy That: An analysis of infographic propaganda in The Daily Express, 1956-1959. Journalism Studies 2015, 16(2), 152-174.
- Dick Murray. Interactive Infographics and News Values. Digital Journalism 2014, 2(4), 490-506.
- Dick Murray. The Rebirth of the Beat: A Hyperlocal News-gathering model. Journalism Practice 2012, 6(5-6), 754-765.
- Dick Murray. Vanishing Point: On the consequences of lost online news in the UK. Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics 2011, 8(1/2), 14-19.
- Dick Murray. Search Engine Optimisation in UK News Production. Journalism Practice 2011, 5(4), 462-477.
-
Authored Books
- Dick M. The Infographic: A History of Data Graphics in News and Communications. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2020.
- Dick M. News values in online and visual data journalism [PhD Thesis]. London: Brunel University, 2015.
- Dick Murray. Search: Theory and Practice in Journalism Online. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Higher Education, 2013.
-
Book Chapters
- Murray D, Vizoso Á, Silva-Rodríguez A. Noticias falsas en Reino Unido y España. Algunas definiciones, historia y estrategias para su verificación. In: García Orosa B, ed. 25 años de ciberdemocracia en España. Cizur Menor, Navarra: Aranzadi, 2022, pp.131-150.
- Vizoso A, Figueiras A, Dick M. From infographics to post-infographics. In: Toural-Bran,C;Vizoso,A;Pérez-Seijo,S;Rodriguez-Castro,M;Negreira-Rey,M, ed. Information Visualization in the era of Innovative Journalism. Routledge, 2020, pp.21.
- Dick M. Infographics and data visualization. In: Tim P. Vos and Folker Hanusch, ed. The International Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2019.
- Dick M. Developments in infographics. In: Franklin, B; Eldridge, S, ed. The Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies. London: Routledge, 2017, pp.498-508.
-
Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)
- Dick M. Vers une herméneutique du pragmatisme une théorie communicative et une méthode analytique pour les projets de visualisation de données. In: Actes / Proceedings TICEMED 12. 2021, Athens: Association Internationale Ticemed.
- Dick Murray. From Muckraker to misfit: an epistemology of investigative journalism. In: Brunel Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies Forum on Intelligence Analysis. 2012, Brunel University, London.
- Dick Murray. Content Analysis 2.0: A Framework for Using Wordle. In: AHRC research network conference: Exploring the language of the popular in Anglo-American Newspapers 1833-1988. 2011, ICOSS, University of Sheffield.
- Dick Murray. Investigative online search [Translated into Russian by Emin Milli]. In: Conference for investigative journalists from Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan. 2010, Open Society Institute Azerbaijan.
-
Online Publications
- D Murray. Search Heuristics for Digitized News Archives. Sage Research Methods, 2022. Available at: https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781529799231.
- Dick M. Infographics have helped keep us alive for centuries. Popular Science, 2020. Available at: https://www.popsci.com/story/science/history-public-health-infographics/.
- Dick M. News values in data journalism, or: zOMG you won’t believe what data is doing to our news…. European Journalism Centre, DataDrivenJournalism.net, 2016.
- Dick Murray. Investigative Online Search: CIJ Handbook. London: Centre for Investigative Journalism, 2011. Available at: http://www.tcij.org/resources/handbooks/investigative-online-search.
- Dick Murray, Ward Mark. Web searches for minority groups. BBC News, 2008.
- Dick Murray. Is the future in bits?. BBC News, 2008.
- Dick Murray. Faking News: Avoiding Internet Hoaxes. 2007. Available at: http://static2.docstoccdn.com/docs/24380409/Lecture-3-Faking-News-Avoiding-Internet-Hoaxes.
-
Working Paper
- Dick M. Investigative Online Search (updated version). 2012, 1-26.