Sue Thornham University of Sussex This time last year I began my report by referring to the ‘considerable uncertainty’ which marked the new academic year. Over the past year uncertainty has been replaced by the all too clear evidence of the threats we face: as academics, as academics within media, communication and cultural studies in …Continue Reading

Kay Richardson University of Liverpool   Katy Parry University of Leeds 8 October 2011 The Leeds/Liverpool Political Culture symposium This one-day Symposium came about as the result of a collaboration between staff at the Universities of Leeds and Liverpool, and was funded from a Liverpool AHRC award, ‘Media Genre and Political Culture’ (https://www.liv.ac.uk/communication-and-media/Staff/politicalculture.htm). It was …Continue Reading

Julian Matthews University of Leicester 28 September 2011 University of Leicester On 28th September 2011, The University Leicester played host to ‘Thinking with Food: An Ideas Exchange’, the first annual research event of the Department of Media and Communication’s Cultural Production & Consumption Research Group. The event attracted participants from across the UK and EU, …Continue Reading

Stephen Coleman University of Leeds Of three things we can be certain. Firstly, the Murdoch Empire has been severely destabilised by the public revelations of its criminal and unethical practices. Its capacity to wield pernicious influence upon public policy has been curtailed, certainly temporarily, possibly permanently. Secondly, the disgracing of News International has opened up …Continue Reading

Milly Williamson Brunel University Last summer was marked by widespread student protests at the attack on higher education and the plans to raise the cap on student fees to £9,000. But despite the widespread public anger at the cuts in public spending across the public sector, the coalition government is determined to push ahead an …Continue Reading