TV Journalism & Deliberative Democracy
Grant Holder: Professor Simon Cottle
Funder: Australian Research Council
Period: 2004 to 2007 inclusive
This research project focuses on the ‘communicative architecture’ of television journalism, that is, the different ways news stories are professionally organized and communicated and with what consequences for the views and voices involved. Based on an extensive analysis of television journalism produced and practiced in six countries (Australia, USA, UK, India, South Africa and Singapore) as well as by global satellite news providers, the research originates new data and discussion about the possible contribution of television journalism to deliberative democracy and processes of ‘democratic deepening’.
In today's increasingly globally interconnected, socially reflexive and culturally contending societies, the public representation and deliberation of issues, interests and identities has become more central and contested. This research provides a new conceptualization of the communicative forms of TV journalism established around the world and how these impact and inflect the communication of cultures and conflicts. It reveals a communicative complexity, hitherto overlooked and under-theorized in the field of journalism studies, and demonstrates how this is consequential within processes of democratic communication.
To date, a number of journal articles and chapters based on this project have been published or accepted for publication (as below) with further publications currently under preparation.
- (2008) ‘Global 24/7 News Providers: Emissaries of Global Dominance or Global Public Sphere?’ (with Mugdha Rai) Global Media and Communication, 4(3) (forthcoming).
- (2008) ‘Television News in Singapore: Mediating Conflict and Consent’ (with Mugdha Rai) Asian Journal of Social Science, 36(3-4): (forthcoming).
- (2008) ‘Television News in South Africa: Mediating Emerging Democracy’ (with Mugdha Rai) Journal of Southern African Studies, (forthcoming).
- (2008) ‘Television News in India: Mediating Democracy and Difference’ (with Mugdha Rai) International Communication Gazette, 70(1): 76-96.
- (2007) ‘Mediatized Recognition and the "Other"’, Media International Australia, Number 123, pp: 34-48.
- (2007) ‘Australian TV News Revisited: News Ecology and Communicative Frames’ (with Mugdha Rai) Media International Australia, Number 122, pp: 43-58.
- (2007) ‘Global Mediations: On the Changing Ecology of Satellite Television News’ (with Mugdha Rai) Global Media and Communication, 3(1): 51-78.
- (2006) ‘Mediatizing the Global War on Terror: Television’s Public Eye’ pp. 19-48 in A. P. Kavoori and T. Fraley (Eds.) Media, Terrorism, and Theory: A Reader. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield.
- (2006) 'The Changing Global Landscape of 24-7 Satellite News’ (with M. Rai) Biblio: A Review of Books. Vol XI, Sept-Oct
- (2006) ‘Between Display and Deliberation: Analyzing TV News as Communicative Architecture’ (with Mugdha Rai) Media, Culture and Society, 28(2): 163-189.
- (2005) ‘In Defence of "Thick" Journalism or How Television Journalism can be Good for Us’, pp. 109-124 in S. Allan (Ed.) Journalism: Critical Issues. Maidenhead: Open University Press.