Category Archives: academic research

Paul Lashmar has a chapter in major new academic text.

Moral panics

June 2013 – Paul has a chapter “Journalist, Folk Devil?” in Moral Panics in the Contemporary World. (Eds: Critcher, Hughes, Petley and Rohloff). London: Bloomsbury. Moral panic theorists say the media are central to the forty year old and popular concept, but in this chapter Paul Lashmar challenges the model observing that no research into actual journalism practice on stories deemed moral panics has previously been undertaken.

Interesting academic paper on the evolving practices of foriegn correspondents in London. Journalism journal April 2013

Journalism in the age of global media: The evolving practices of foreign correspondents in London

Cristina Archetti

University of Salford, UK

Cristina Archetti, School of English, Sociology, Politics and Contemporary History (ESPaCH), University of Salford, Crescent House, Salford, Manchester M5 4WT, UK. Email: c.archetti@salford.ac.uk

Abstract

The article challenges the widespread notion that, in the age of global and instantaneous communication, foreign correspondence is becoming ‘redundant’. Based on a range of in-depth interviews with foreign correspondents in London, it examines the identity, newsgathering routines, and outputs of journalists working for a range of foreign media organizations. The study suggests that foreign correspondence is indeed evolving, but that the changes are not necessarily for the worse. In fact, not only are foreign journalists not disappearing, but the heavy use of new communication technologies – rather than leading to superficial and low-quality reporting – also supports the pursuit of exclusive news-story angles and a fuller delivery of the correspondent’s value.
To see
April edition of Journalism journal – accessible via Brunel online library

(Posted by PL)

Memorial live stream to the great Professor Eric Hobsbawn

You can watch the memorial live here and listen to the tributes from Eric’s family, friends and colleagues from all around the world.

A lecturer at Birkbeck since 1947, Eric became the President of the College in 2002 and his passionate service to Birkbeck over six decades has left an indelible mark.

For more information about Eric at Birkbeck, including his video interviews with Professor David Latchman, Master of Birkbeck visit http://www.bbk.ac.uk/erichobsbawm .

Twitter logo Use the hashtag #EricAtBirkbeck to join the discussion on Twitter.

Really interested radio series on the question of what is news.

This three part series  starts on Tuesday morning at 9.00am on Radio4 and will be on iPlayer.

Ideal for stimulating those writing essays and dissertation which discuss news values.

What’s the Story?
Tuesday 02 April 2013

Journalist and broadcaster Steve Richards examining the News. From bulletins to rolling news and citizen journalism, from sensation to public service: what was News, what is it now and what will it become. Why is something ‘news’ and something else not, and what’s the real thinking behind its production? Is the news a public service, a self-fulfilling cycle, an entertainment with its roots in sensation, a constant narrative of ‘breaking’ events, or a form of national communion and shared belonging?

Once a daily fix, now a 24/7 multimedia blitz, the news is ubiquitous, constant, insistent, updated every moment, multi-channelled and delivered in ever widening and more intimate formats. Perhaps one of the reasons we watch the news, beyond wanting actual information, is a need to feel incorporated into the world, a sense that we have internalised or are included in events on some level. Or is the picture a little darker – a deeper psychological appetite for images of disaster, reports of violence and intense distress that have no decipherable pattern or obvious national significance.

The series talks to reporters, journalists, editors, news producers, historians and experts – including Jon Snow, Sarah Sands, Alistair Campbell, Will Self, Adam Boulton, Ceri Thomas, Paul Staines (aka Guido Fawkes), Ed Stourton, Debora Turness, Kevin Williams, Roger Alton, John Birt, Andrew Pierce and psychotherapist Adam Phillips.

Producer: Simon Hollis
A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio

To read synopsis

(Posted by PL)