The following recent publications by the Media Group are available to download.
Bad News for Disabled People: How the Newspapers are Reporting Disability (Emma Briant, Greg Philo and Nick Watson, October 2011)
A new study of how media are reporting disability in the context of government spending cuts reveals a major shift in how disabled people are portrayed and the negative impact this is having on public attitudes and on disabled people themselves. The research was commissioned by Inclusion London and conducted by Glasgow Media Group in partnership with the Strathclyde Centre for Disability Research. Download the report above or find out more at the Inclusion London website.
Making a Drama out of a Crisis: Authentic Portrayals of Mental Illness in TV Drama (Greg Philo, Lesley Henderson, Katie McCracken, June 2010)
The original link to the Shift document has been taken down, but this link will lead to an updated version of the findings.
You Gov Poll Results on Attitudes to Paying off the National Debt (Including Tax on the Richest 10%) June 2010
This poll helped to inform Greg Philo's article 'Let's Really Be In It Together', published in The Guardian. The poll shows clear public support for clearing the national debt through a one-off tax on the richest 10% of the population. Visit the Wealth Tax section of our website to find out more.
Cultural Encounters between China and Britain: Key Factors in the Formation and Transfer of Ideas and Values(Greg Philo, 2010, Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, Vol. 7(1), 91-110, London: University of Westminster)
How do we learn about cultural norms that are different to our own, and what are the effects of exposure to these? This article focuses on cross cultural perceptions and the processes by which ideas and values move between societies. Drawing on focus groups, questionnaires and interviews with Chinese students, teachers and cultural workers, it shows how the experience of living in Britain can both alter prior expectations of the country and generate processes of critical reflection about the nature of China and of Western societies.
China cityscape: http://www.freeimages.co.uk.
Debates on the Active Audience: A Comparison of the Birmingham and Glasgow Approaches(Greg Philo, 2008)
This article examines key approaches in media and cultural studies which have been used to emphasise the active nature of audiences and their capacity to resist messages, including the 'encoding - de-coding' model of Stuart Hall when at the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. It compares these approaches with recent studies from the Glasgow University Media Group which show that audiences can indeed sometimes be active and critical, but which also found strong evidence pointing to the power and influence of media. This dimension of media power is often neglected in current scholarship. The arguments which have led to this 'reduced' view of media effects are re-evaluated in relation to contemporary evidence on the nature of reception processes.
Community Cohesion and the Role of the Local: Report for JCPR (Greg Philo and Emma Briant, 2008)
This report for Jackie Cooper Public Relations examines community as a social issue and the historical and contemporary role that pubs play in this. The first section of the report deals with the history of the local pub - the 'local' - and its development in the contemporary world. The second section examines contemporary arguments of the harmful effects of drink culture and concerns about binge-drinking and anti-social behaviour. Finally, it looks at the issue of community participation in city life and the role of pubs and bars within this.
YouGov poll on Israel/Palestine (2008)
Results of a 2008 YouGov poll on attitudes to radio and tv news coverage of Israel and Palestine.
More News Less Views(Greg Philo. 2008)
This article was originally sent to the Guardian for its comments page. It shows how public debate on political issues is narrowed on the most influential media because of the absence of critical voices – whether the issue is
the financial crisis or world conflicts such as in Israel/Palestine.
The Internet, Mobile Phones and Blogging How new media are transforming traditional journalism (Rena Kim Bivens, 2008, Journalism Practice 2, (1) pp 113 - 129.)
This research examines adaptations of traditional journalistic practice within news rooms that are a result of the varied use of new media among both journalists and the public at the begining of the twenty first century.
Young People, Violence and Media (Greg Philo, 2007)
Conference paper presented at Television, News, Young People and Politics: Generation Disconnected, held at the BFI SouthBank in December 2007.
Media Group Methods and the discourse analysis of Norman Fairclough and Teun Van Dijk: A comparison of approaches (Greg Philo, 2007)
Chinese translation (格拉斯哥媒介学派研究方法 中文版)
Spanish translation (Medios de Comunicación Grupo Métodos Traducción al Español )
Also appeared as: Philo, G. ‘Can Discourse Analysis Successfully explain the Content of Media and Journalistic Practice’ in Journalism Studies , Vol 8 Number 2
This article outlines the methods developed by the Glasgow University Media Group and compares them to discourse analysis in the work of two theorists, Norman Fairclough and Teun van Dijk. Their text-based studies are limited in the conclusions which can be drawn, since their approach does not include the study of key production factors in journalism or the analysis of audience understanding. A case study is presented on how it is possible to study simultaneously the three processes of production, content and reception of news messages.