Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre Projects
These are all the projects that Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre staff have worked on from 2007 onwards.
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Media Influence Matrix
The Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre and the Media Reform Coalition are hosting the UK report of the international Media Influence Matrix, originally founded by researchers at the Centre for Media, Data and Society at Central European University. Since 2017, the Media Influence Matrix Project has published 15 country reports (with a further 15 commissioned) that map the changing landscape of:
- Government and policy space, with a focus on the changes in the policy and regulatory environment
- Funding, with a focus on the key funding sources of journalism and the impact on editorial coverage
- Technology in the public sphere, with a focus on how technology companies, through activities such as automation and algorithm-based content distribution, impact news media and journalism
The project emphasizes news media in particular, including newly emerged players. The reports do not provide an exhaustive overview of the entire media industry nor are they intended to target specific media sectors. Instead, they map the most popular and most influential news media on a country-by-country basis and analyze their changing relations with politics, government and technology companies. The UK project is set to run from 1 September 2020 to 1 September 2021.
- Leo Watkins, 'Decriminalising TV licence fee evasion will cut BBC funding without helping the poorest', LSE Media blog, 5 October 2020
- Des Freedman, 'Losing its aura? Public service broadcasting in the UK', September 2020
Liberalism Inc: 200 Years of the Guardian
Liberalism Inc: 200 Years of the Guardian is a major conference taking place on 24 April 2021, examining the politics and culture of the Guardian as it approaches its 200th anniversary. Keynote speakers include Gary Younge (former editor-at-large of the Guardian and author of Another Day in the Death of America), Ghada Karmi (author of Return: A Palestinian Memoir), Alan Rusbridger (author of Breaking News and former editor-in-chief of the Guardian) and Mark Curtis (author of Secret Affairs and Dirty Wars).
Media Reform Coalition
The Media Reform Coalition was set up by members of the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre in 2011 and campaigns for increased diversity and accountability of the British media.
Leverhulme programme archive
The archive of the work of the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre during the period 2007-12 covers five projects.
- Project 1: Spaces of the News
- Project 2: Metadata in the Age of Ubiquitous Media
- Project 3: The Mediatised View
- Project 4: Europe in Motion
- Project 5: Tracking the Moving Image
- Publications
- Advisory Committee
The first project’s conclusion is that while the internet has enabled new voices to be heard, it is contributing to the deterioration of mainline journalism and has not dislodged legacy media oligopolies.
The second project on Metadata examines innovative applications in China and Japan, develops a new tagging system with the Tate Gallery, and examines with the BBC ‘liveness’ in the production and reception of the news. The third project creates three experimental devices that illuminate the global occurrence of news, enriches understanding of the local environment and empowers speech in the local community.The fourth project argues that European communication policy has ignored minorities, and private initiatives have given voice to migrants, the Roma in Italy, and gays and lesbians in former Yugoslavia. The fifth project examines the use of space, surveillance and screens in three cities: Cairo, London and Shanghai. New technology is reconfiguring urban space in both positive and negative ways that have not been fully understood by planners, designers and policymakers.
Carnegie
Carnegie UK Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society in UK and Ireland.
Natalie Fenton, Des Freedman and Tamara Witschge undertook research into Civil Society and the Media for the Carnegie UK Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society in UK and Ireland. The report is published on 15 March 2010 and can be found on the Carnegie UK website
Even though there now is a plethora of media outlets, and citizens and civil society can publish media content more easily than ever, there still is a dominance of certain players that control news, information content and public debate.
With a broken funding model, lack of diversity in media content, and online challenges to the production of material that is in the public interest, this report examines how to protect and enhance the plurality of media (both in terms of funding models and in terms of content). As consolidation of media power continues, media ownership is still a key issue. As the debates around the news media intensify, it is a critical point in time to consider alternatives to media ownership and funding models that can better serve the public interest.