Máire Messenger Davies is Professor of Media Studies, and Director of the Centre for Media Research at the University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland. A former journalist, with a PhD in psychology, who has taught in universities on both sides of the Atlantic, she is the co-ordinator of the recently-formed Meccsa Policy Network .
Her research interests focus on media, young people and children; broadcasting in the USA and the UK; and teaching research methodology. A recent research project, in collaboration with colleagues at Cardiff, Bournemouth and Nottingham Universities, was on young people, citizenship and news – especially in relation to the transition from broadcast to online journalism; this is a BBC/AHRC Knowledge Exchange funded project.
Her most recent books are ‘Star Trek and American Television’ (University of California Press, 2014), co-authored with Professor Roberta Pearson of the University of Nottingham, and ‘Children, Media and Culture’ (Open University Press/Mcgraw Hill, 2010). She is co-ordinator of the MeCCSA Policy Network