The University of Sheffield
Department of Journalism Studies

Jackie Harrison

BA (Sheffield Hallam), PhD (Sheffield)

email : j.harrison@sheffield.ac.uk

tel: (+44)0114 2222509

Jackie Harrison

I joined the Department of Journalism Studies as a lecturer in September 1996 and was appointed Professor of Public Communication in January 2005, Head of Department in September 2007 and have been the Chair of the Centre for Freedom of the Media since September 2008. I read public administration for my first degree and my PhD was an analysis of the culture of production of terrestrial television news in Britain.

My area of expertise is the civil role and power of the news. My research examines three particular aspects of this: the architecture and culture of the news; the mediation of civil society and social identity by the news and issues of news freedom and standards. I have written extensively in these areas.

I have also undertaken research for the Media Subcommittee, Parliamentary Assembly Council of Europe (PACE) on monitoring media violations and freedom, The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Media Freedom in Europe, The Soros Foundation on Public Service Broadcasting in the EU, the British Academy on the use of User Generated Content at the BBC as well as having undertaken six funded research projects for the UK television industry. I have served as an expert advisor for the European Commission and for several global media companies on media regulation matters, the role and future of news and news journalism, the development of media infrastructure and the use of media capital and newsroom convergence. I have also acted as an expert adviser on EU broadcasting regulation to the Taiwanese National Communication Committee and the Taiwanese Industry Experts Cable TV Forum. I was an expert witness on a judicial review of Irish radio licences and have served on several professional journalism committees. I also serve on the editorial board of the community newspaper The Maltby News.

I am a member of the Economic and Social Research Council´s (ESRC) Peer Review College.

Research Interests

The Civil Power of The News

I approach the civil power of the news through three specific inter-related lines of inquiry: 1) the architecture & culture of the news; 2) the way the news mediates civil identity; 3) issues of news media freedom & standards.

  1. The architecture and culture of news.
    Here I look at the difference between the ideal and normative structures of news and its quotidian constituent features, the different cultures of production and ultimately how the news deals with issues of truth and truthfulness, particularly the issues of accuracy and sincerity, the use and reproduction of spatial and symbolic stories, imaginative geographies and histories and the problem of trust.
  2. The mediation of civil and social identity.
    Here I examine the ability of news to influence civil discourse. That is to promote different and intelligible versions of the civil and the un-civil, the social and the anti-social via its formal and informal ability to influence our dispositions, attitudes, emotions and desires and, through this our understanding of civil boundaries, inclusion and exclusion. I also look at the institutions of news, the different models of public service communication (PSC) which mediate public services for both civil (democratic) and social (welfare) purposes.
  3. Issues of freedom, regulation and standards.
    Here I focus on different legal and policy regimes, self regulation and codes of conduct and the concomitant risks of direct (and indirect) censorship; the failures and abuses of news media freedom and declining news standards across the world; the difference between journalism and partisan journalism, investigative news journalism and attack journalism; agenda-setting and modern forms of spin and news manipulation; the blurring of the distinctions between factual reporting and unsubstantiated opinion; the use of user generated content and the wider use of inter- activity between news media and audience or readers and more recently the significance of post integrated news journalism.

The Centre for the Freedom of the Media

I am currently Chair of the interdisciplinary research centre `The Centre for the Freedom of the Media´ (CFOM) at the University of Sheffield. CFOM studies issues of media freedom and standards.

It is a unique university-based body which will for the first time brings together journalists, experts and scholars of the media, with public figures and the newsmakers themselves to research and evaluate the role of free and independent news media in building and maintaining political and civil freedom and maintaining the highest standards of news reporting around the world.

The founding principle of CFOM is to illuminate where news media freedom is undermined or abused and to examine news media standards of independence and truthfulness through the study of:

Teaching

My main area of teaching is about the nature of news and its importance in contemporary societies.

My teaching is based on my research interests which focus on competing views about news media freedom and standards worldwide. Specifically I encourage students to think critically about the role of news in society, the diverse way news gathering is undertaken, combined with considerations of how it should be undertaken and the problems facing news organizations because of new forms of governmental, technological and commercial pressures in the 21st century.

I convey the importance of thinking about these things from an interdisciplinary perspective and try to enthuse students about the diverse, changing and challenging subject matter under discussion to help them to refine their intellectual skills-set required of modern news journalism.

My teaching seeks both to help a transition into the job market by providing students with a competitive edge when seeking employment and also to open up the possibilities of further academic study.

I deliver my teaching through a combination of lectures, participatory seminars and workshop-based sessions focusing on specific issues and sometimes via external speakers.

I am the module leader for:

I also contribute to:

PhD Supervision

I am currently a supervisor of 3 PhD candidates in the following areas:

Future candidates are particularly welcome in my principle research areas.