John Steel - Reasearch
John Steel's current research
Freedom of the Press/Press Censorship
John is interested in the history and theory of debates concerning freedom of speech and censorship.
He currently working on a book entitled Journalism and Free Speech for Routledge which will be published in 2011, and has recently completed a survey of press censorship in Britain over the past thirty years for the Journal for the Study of British Cultures.
He has also recently completed an analysis of radical perspectives in media history which focuses on early nineteenth century liberal debates about press freedom. This work has been published in the journal Media History.
The Language of Newspapers
John is also working with Dr. Martin Conboy and the British Library on a study of non-explicit ideological discourse in the nineteenth century press.
The study will be published in a book entitled The Language of Newspapers in Nineteenth Century England and will be published in 2012 by Palgrave.
This work focuses on how ideological language permeated non-political journalistic discourse in the coverage of scientific discovery and exploration; sport, leisure and recreation, and faith and spirituality.
This work emerges from earlier research that looked at historical and theoretical studies of news and technology and the changing constitution of popular tabloid journalism.