Researching journalism in the digital age

Brian McNair

Professor of Journalism, Media & Communication

The expansion of journalism

Images of the EnemyThe 80s were polarised

times, during which the implicit political divide embodied by the cold war was firmed up by arguably the most ideologically driven government Britain has ever seen.(Guardian)

Dominance/control paradigmElite control and

dominance of media and other cultural institutions produce ‘consensus’ and support for status quo

Predictable outcomes (social stability) based on vertically hierarchical control of information

The propaganda model

‘Brainwashing under freedom’

Glasgow University Media Group

The New Cold War

Images of the Enemy

The Korean Airlines Shoot-down

‘a terrorist act’

Images of the Enemy

Moscow, 1985-86

Intimations of chaos - Chernobyl

The Fall of the Wall & the End of the Soviet

Glasnost, Perestroika & the Soviet Media

Chaos/competitive paradigm

Elites compete with non-elites for access to and impact on the globalised public sphere, which constantly evolves, changing

with each iteration of the cycle

The evolution of the system

cannot be forecast with

certainty

Monica-gate

9/11

Stormy Weather

Cultural Chaos

From control to chaos

  Acceleration of information flow (technological)

  Proliferation of information sources (technological)

  Dissolution of producer-consumer boundary (cultural)

  Loss of elite control (political)

  Collapse of 20th century media business models (economic)

GM Crops“Parts of the media

have conducted such an extraordinary campaign of distortion, it is hard to know where to begin. Anyone who has dared to raise even the smallest hand in protest is accused of being either corrupt or a Dr Strangelove”(Tony Blair, 1999)

Autism in the news

MMR

Health scare or cause for concern?

The MMR scare

Coverage clearly shaped the way many people understood the issue, and appears to have led to a loss of confidence in the vaccine in Britain

Chaos in the Middle East The instantaneous nature of

how social media communicate self-broadcast ideas, unlimited by publication deadlines and broadcast news slots, explains in part the speed at which these revolutions have unravelled, their almost viral spread across a region. It explains too, the often loose and non-hierarchical organisation of the protest movements unconsciously modelled on the networks of the web.(Peter Beaumont, February 25 2011)

An Introduction To Political Communication

An Introduction To Political Communication

An Introduction To Political Communication

An Introduction To Political Communication

An Introduction To Political Communication

An Introduction To Political Communication