Dr Cynthia Carter

Biography

Education and qualifications

(1998) PhD in Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. “News of Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls in the British Daily National Press,” School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, University of Wales, Cardiff (Cardiff University).

(1995) Master of Literature in Media and Culture. “Constructing ‘Normalcy’: A Feminist Analysis of Mass Media Images of the Nuclear Family,” John Logie Baird Centre, Department of English Studies, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

(1989) Master of Arts in Canadian Studies (majoring in Cultural Studies and Women’s Studies). “Skirting the Subject: A Feminist Investigation of Critical Cultural Theory,” Institute of Canadian Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa.

(1987) Bachelor of Arts (High Honours, Dean’s Honours List) in Mass Communication. “The Social Construction of Femininity in Chatelaine Magazine, 1950-1959,” Mass Communication Programme, School of Journalism, Carleton University, Ottawa.

Honours and awards

*Cardiff Universit;y Research Leave Fellowship, 2018.

* Outstanding Contribution Award (Sustained), College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Cardiff University, 2015

* Rising Star Award, Cardiff University, 2009

Student awards

* Doctoral Fellowship, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 1991-1994

*Dean’s Honours List, Carleton University, 1987

Professional memberships

*  Member, Executive Committee, Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association, 2015-present

*  Member, Institute of Welsh Affairs, UK (IWA Women), 2010-11.

*  Theresa Award Committee, Feminist Scholarship Division, International Communication Association, 2008-2012.

*  Member, Voice of the Listener and Viewer, 2007-present

* Member, Association for Journalism Education, 2006-present.

*  Member, ICA Nominations Committee, 2005-2006.

*  Member, European Communication Research and Educational Association, 2005-present

* Immediate Past Chair, Feminist Scholarship Division, International Communication Association, 2005-2007

*  Chair, Feminist Scholarship Division, International Communication Association, 2003-2005

*  Vice-Chair, Feminist Scholarship Division, International Communication Association, 2001-2003

* Member of the Executive Organising Committee, Women’s Media Studies Network, Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association, 2001-2007

*  Member, International Association for Media and Communication Research, 2001-present

Academic positions

Academic positions

2016-present: Reader, Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff, UK

2005-2016: Senior Lecturer, Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff, UK

1992-2005: Lecturer, Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff, UK

1989-1992: Part-time Lecturer, Historical and Contextual Studies, Cumbria College of Art and Design, Carlisle, UK

Speaking engagements

Selected Recent Keynote, Plenary and Invited Papers and Panels

• Invited paper – Carter, C. (2017) "Children’s Citizen Journalism: Rights of Access, Opportunities and Voice,” Monitorial Citizen: The Ordinary Witness conference, NeMe, Limmasol, Cyprus, 8-11 December.

• Invited paper  - Carter, C. (2017) “Fake News and False Friends” Panel, Children’s Media Conference, Sheffield, 6 July.

• Invited paper – Carter, C. (2017) “Watching children, watching news in times of war and conflict,” Broadcasting War: An interdisciplinary 1-day workshop, Department of Comparative American Studies and the Centre for Television History, Heritage and Memory Studies, University of Warwick, 6 May.

• Invited paper – Carter, C. and Ross, K. (2016) “Global Media Monitoring Project 2015,” Women on Air, City, University of London, 19th May.

• Invited round table participant – Carter, C. (2016) “Children and Screen Time,” Family Self-Regulation of Media symposium, LSE Media Policy Project, London, 10th May.

• Plenary panel paper - Carter, C. and Allan, S. (2015) “Remembering BBC Newsround: Interpreting adult stories and recollections” The Story of Children’s Television, Warwick University, 6-7 July.

• Invited paper – Carter, C. (2015). “Global Media Monitoring Project, 2015: Critical Reflections on the Longitudinal Study of Women and the Global News Media,” London School of Economics and Political Science, Commission on Gender, Inequality, and Power, Gender Institute seminar on Media, 24 April.

• Invited Paper  – Carter, C. (2014) “The Macho Culture of News and Journalism in the UK and RoI: Global Media Monitoring Project, 2010,” Bournemouth University Academic Women’s Network Seminar, 28 February.

• Invited Paper – Carter, C. (2013) "The News as Seen through the Eyes of Men: Global Media Monitoring Project, 2010," Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand, 16 December.

• Invited Paper  – Carter, C. (2013) "This is (Still) a Man’s (News) World: Report from the UK Study for the Global Media Monitoring Project, 2010," Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand, 11 December.

• Plenary panel paper  – Carter, C. (2013) "Whose News, Whose Voices? A Report from the UK Study for the Global Media Monitoring Project, 2010,” International Women’s Day seminar, Nuffield College, Oxford, 8 March.

• Invited Paper  - Carter, C. (2013). Who Makes the News?: Global Media Monitoring Project 2010,”  Feminist Society, University of Glamorgan, Cardiff, 28 February.

• Invited Paper – Carter, C. (2012) “Communication and Children’s Well-Being.” Children and Youth Temporary Working Group session, ECREA, Istanbul, Turkey, 24-27 October.

• Keynote Paper  – Carter, C. (2011) “Feminist Journal Editing, Journal Ranking Systems and Issues of Quality,” Foro Internacional de Revistas Científcas/International Forum of Scientific Journals, Bogotá, Colombia, 12 May.

• Invited Paper – Carter, C. (2010) “Children and Traumatic News: A Critical Perspective on the Research,” University of Glasgow, 25 June. Invited by Prof Philip Schlesinger.

• Keynote  – Carter, C. (2010) “GMMP Wales 2010,” Centre for Research into Gender in Culture and Society (GENCAS), Swansea University, 7 May.

• Invited paper – Carter, C. (2010) - “Representing Women in the Welsh Media: Global Media Monitoring Project,” Institute of Welsh Affairs, IWA Women Conference, Making a Mark in the Media: Women, the Media and Politics in Wales, Cardiff, 8 March.

• Invited paper – Carter, C. (2009) “Newsround and the Welsh Child Audience,” Cyfrwng/Wales Media Conference, BBC Broadcasting House, Cardiff, 7-8 May.

• Invited paper – Luce, A. and Carter, C. (2008). “Researching Gender Representation on UK Children’s Television,” Gender and Childhood Workshop, Linköping University, Norrköping, Sweden, 4-5 December.

• Invited lecture – Allan, S. and Carter, C. (2008) “Young People and the News Media,” lecture for members of staff of children’s programming at al Jazeera, Qatar, presented at the Bournemouth University Media School, Bournemouth, UK, 16 January.

• Invited presentation- Carter, C. (2008) “Children’s Television Good Gender Practice: International Study on Gender and Children’s Television Worldwide,” Geena Davis Institute Gender in Media Conference, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA, 31 January.

• Invited presentation  - Carter, C. (2008) “Children’s Television Good Gender Practice: International Study on Gender and Children’s Television Worldwide,” Geena Davis Institute Gender in Media Conference, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA, 31 January.

Selected Recent Conference Papers

• Carter, C. (2018) “Yes, I’m a nine-year-old girl. But I’m a reporter, first. I report the news”: Journalism, girls and power," Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia, University of Tasmania, Hobart, 3-5 December.
• Carter, C.  (2018) “What are the best ways to link media pedagogy, media practice, and theory in order to advance feminist epistemologies?” Feminist Scholarship Division Preconference Promises and Perils of Feminist Theory: Common and Uncommon Ground,” International Communication Association, Prague, Czech Republic, 24 May.
• Carter, C. (2018) “The Gendered Politics of Brexit News Coverage: Metropolitan Elite Feminism, Media and Women’s Voices in the UK’s Referendum on EU Membership,” Feminist Scholarship Division “Feminist Counterpublics and ‘Multi-issue Activism” The Ongoing Struggle for Voice and Visibility,” International Communication Association, Prague, Czech Republic, 25-29 May.

• Carter, C. (2018) “Children’s Citizen Journalism: Exploring Rights of Media Access, Opportunity and Voice,” Children, Adolescents and Media Division panel “Young People, News and Politics,” International Communication Association, Prague, Czech Republic, 25-29 May.

• Carter, C. (2017)  “Children’s News and Citizenship: An Ethnographic Newsroom Study of Children’s BBC Newsround,” Children’s Global Media Summit, Manchester, UK, 7 December.

• Carter, C.  (2016) "Back to the Future or the Importance of Documenting the (Her)stories of FSD,” Panel session: Feminist Scholarship Division of ICA is 30: What do we gather from the past and how do we plan for the future? International Communication Association, Fukuoka.
• Carter, C. and Allan, S.  (2015) “Remembering John Craven’s Jumpers: Personal Memories of BBC Newsround,” Comparing Children’s Media Around the World, University of Westminster.
• Frost, S. and Carter, C.  (2015) “Rape Culture, the UK Press, Campaigning and Social Media: A Feminist Analysis,” IAMCR, Montreal, Canada.
• Carter, C. “Adult Memories of Children’s News: The Case of BBC Newsround,” IAMCR, Montreal, 2015
• Carter, C.(2014)  “News Media, Children’s Rights, and Civic Well-Being,” ECREA, Panel on Children, Youth and Media, Children’s Communication Rights: A Research Assessment for the 25th Anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Lisbon, Portugal.
• Carter, C. (2014) "Researching children, youth and media – lessons from the field, Discussant to Professor Sonia Livingstone, ECREA TWG Children, Youth and Media Preconference, Lisbon, Portugal.
• Carter, C. and Foulkes, H, (2013) “What TV News Provisions Does the Younger Teen Audience Want?,” JOMEC/Royal Television Society seminar, Cardiff.
• Carter, C. (2013) “News Media and Child Well-Being,” JOMEC Research Seminar, Cardiff.
• Allan, S., Brites, M.J., Carter, C., Lemish, D., Marôpo, L., Messenger Davies, M. (2013) “Researching News and Young People’s Identities,” Panel , International Communication Association, London.
• Carter, C. “Creating Meaningful Assignments,” (2013) Teaching CAM: Pedagogical Issues and Practical Strategies for Sharing Theory and Research Related to Children, Adolescents and Media Pre-conference, International Communication Association London.
• Carter, C. and Ross, K. (2012) "Women, News and Citizenship: A Content Analysis of News Representations of Women in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, Global Media Monitoring Project, 2010, ECREA, Istanbul, Turkey.
• Carter, C. and Messenger Davies, M. (2011) “What do Teenagers Want from the BBC? An Exploration of Teen News Service Ideas Devised by Teens around the UK,” Children, Adolescents and Media Division , “As a Matter of Fact: Exploring Children and Young People’s Relationships to Factual Media,” International Communication Association, Boston, USA.
• Carter, C. (2011) “A Feminist Challenge to Normative Definitions of Research ‘Quality’ and ‘Impact’,” Feminist Scholarship Division Roundtable “Editing Feminism and Feminist Editing:  Exploring the Politics of ‘Feminism’ in the Editorial Process,” International Communication Association, Boston, USA.
• Carter, C.  Results from Wales, (2010) "Women and News Media in Global Perspective: Reflections on the Global Media Monitoring Project” Gender Section Panel, IAMCR , Braga, Portugal.
• Carter, C., Messenger Davies, M., Allan, S. and Mendes, K. (2010) “Re-imagining Citizenship: Young Audiences’ Engagement with BBC Newsround,” Audience Studies Section Paper, IAMCR, Braga, Portugal.
• Messenger Davies, M. and Carter, C. (2009) “When Childhood Ends: BBC Newsround, Media Policy and the Teen Audience,” MeCCSA, LSE, London.
• Williams, A. and Carter, C. (2009) “Critical Discourse Analysis: Representing Empowerment and Medicines in Child-Centred Health Texts,”   School of Nursing and Midwifery Studies, Cardiff University.

Committees and reviewing

Selected JOMEC and Cardiff University Committees and Administration

*  Equality and Diversity Networks Committee Member, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Cardiff University, 2015-present

“  Future of Journalism,” Organising Committee, JOMEC, Cardiff University, 2014-2015

*  Convenor, ESRC Wales DTC Journalism and Democracy strand, JOMEC, Cardiff University, 2014-present

*  Acting Director of Postgraduate Research Studies (PhD programme), JOMEC, 2013-2014

*  Equality and Diversity Contacts Committee Member, Cardiff University, 2013-present

*  Chair, Equality and Diversity Committee, JOMEC, 2013-present (also 2003-2005; 1998-2002).

*  Chair, Undergraduate Exam Board, JOMEC, 2013-present

*  Member, JOMEC School Board, 2010-present.

*  Annual Programme Review and Evaluation Sub-Committee, Cardiff University, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2004-2007.

*   Course Director, MA Journalism Studies, JOMEC, 2007-2008; 2005-2005; 2000-2002

* Member, JOMEC Research Committee, 2000-present.

Recent International and National Research and Other Professional Activities

*  Expert Judge, Gender Equity Award, Prix Jeunesse , 2016

*  Member, Executive Committee, Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association, 2015-present

*  News media expert, House of Lords Communications Committee inquiry, Women in News and Current Affairs Broadcasting, “Women in News and Current Affairs Broadcasting” report, 2014-2015

* Media Panel Commissioner, Commission on Gender, Inequality, and Power, Gender Institute, LSE, 2014-2016

* Media policy research advisor, Public Health Research programme, NETSCC, NIHR Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre, University of Southampton, 2014

*  Advisory Board Member - Scientific Advisory Board for the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Research (GIG) at the University of Gothenburg, 2012-2014

*  Council Member, Committee on Publication Ethics, 2011-2014

*  Member, ICA Nominations Committee,  2005

Publications

• Date
• Type
• Selected

Teaching

Current undergraduate teaching and coordination

Media and Gender (2nd year)

Mediating Childhood (third year)

Research interests

• Children, news, journalism and citizenship
• Newroom ethnographies
• Feminist news media studies
• Feminist media studies
• Citizen journalism and human rights
• Media, children's rights and well-being
• Child-centred healthcare information
• Violence and the media

Selected Funded Research

(2020) Open Data Institute, UK. “Flagship Stories,”  (with Prof Jeanette Steemers, KCL) focusing on important of data to tailor educational and media resources for learning during periods of lockdown and blended learning during the pandemic.

(2020) – "Children, Covid-19 and the Media," a global questionnaire with children aged 9-13 investigating their coping strategies and media use during the Coronavirus pandemic (with Prof Jeanette Steemers, KCL and Prof Emerita Máire Messenger Davies, University of Ulster), funded by the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation, International Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television (IZI).

(2020) Seed Corn funding (JOMEC) for research assistance - Global Media Monitoring Project, 2020.

(2018-2023) – Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC)  PSB workstrand investigating value proposition of public service broadcasting for children, teens and young adults under 30 (AHRC).

(2017-2018) Cardiff University Research Leave Fellowship.

(2015) Seed Corn funding (JOMEC) for research assistance - Global Media Monitoring Project.

(2014) Cardiff Undergraduate Research Opportunities Project (CUROP). “Childhood Memories of BBC Newsround” 

(2011) Seed Corn funding (JOMEC) for research assistance - Global Media Monitoring Project, 2010.

(2008-2013) NHS Service and Delivery Organisation - `Evidence into practice: evaluating a child-centred intervention for diabetes medicine management'. Consultant for CDA of information provided for children on diabetes. Principal investigator: Professor Anne Williams, RCN Professor of Nursing Research, Cardiff University. Co-investigator: Dr Cynthia Carter for CDA of health information provided for children with diabetes.

(2007-2011) NHS Service and Delivery Organisation R&D Programme, “Health, medicines and self-care choices made by children, young people and their families: Information to support decision making." Principal investigator: Professor Anne Williams, RCN Professor of Nursing Research, Cardiff University. Co-investigator: Dr Cynthia Carter, Professor Terry Threadgold, Dr Tammy Boyce for CDA of health information provided for children to help manage particular long term conditions (e.g. diabetes, epilepsy, asthma) and ENT surgery.

(2008-2009) Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation, International Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television. Project entitled “Children’s Television Worldwide: Gender Representation.” Twenty-country study, monitoring children television channels. Follow up study using initial data to undertake an international comparison of English language children’s TV introduction songs and non-fiction programming. Principal Investigator: Dr Cynthia Carter.

(2009) ARHC/BBC Knowledge Exchange Programme, Knowledge Infusion – Investigating the Transitional and Teen News Audience. Principal Investigator: Dr Cynthia Carter. Co-investigators: Professor Stuart Allan (Bournemouth University); Professor Máire Messenger Davies (University of Ulster); Dr Kaitlynn Mendes (De Montfort University); Ian Prince (BBC).

(2007-2008) AHRC/BBC Knowledge Exchange Programme. “What Do Children Want from the BBC? Children’s Content and Participatory Environments in an Age of Citizen Media.” Joint research with the BBC for the Children’s Content and Participatory Environments project. Principal Investigator: Dr Cynthia Carter (Cardiff University). Co-investigators: Professor Stuart Allan (Bournemouth University), Professor Máire Messenger Davies (University of Ulster), Roy Milani (former Editor, Newsround) and Louise Wass (BBC Learning), Kaitlynn Mendes (research assistant).

(2007-2008) "Children's Television Worldwide: Gender Representation," Bavarian Broadasting Corporation (International Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television). Principal investigator: Dr Cynthia Carter (Cardiff University) for a project on representations of gender on three UK children's television channels as part of an international study in over 20 countries.

Supervision

PhD supervision

I am particularly interested in supervising doctoral research in any area of;

• feminist news and journalism studies
• feminist media studies
• sexual violence in the news
• children, news, democracy and citizenship
• children, media and public service broadcasting
• children and media policy

Current MPhil and PhD student topics supervised

• "A Feminist Analysis of Sexual Abuse in the YouTube Community"
• #MeToo in the media: justice and discourse"
•  "Peppa Pig: ‘Poor Daddy having to work. Lucky Mummy, you can play at home all day!’ An investigation into the representation of gendered parenthood roles in pre-school and children’s television"
• "Nigerian press representation of female genital mutilation (FGM)"
• "Disasters and the Media: The Coverage of Cyclones Gonu AND Phet as Natural Disasters by the Omani Press"
• "Wanghong, Gender Platformativity and Economic Power"

Current supervision

Past projects

Completed PhD student topics supervised

• Faith, fashion and femininity: visual and audience analysis of Indonesian Muslim fashion blogs.
• Journalistic news values and assumptions about childhood shaping UK press accounts of bullying and child suicide in the UK.
•  News media representations of the women’s movement in the USA and the UK during the 1970s.
•  Korean self-help and time management delineated in Japanese and Korean self-help books.
•  Representations of femininity, science and nature in cosmetics industry advertising.
•  Propaganda used in news media reporting of the Israel/Lebanon conflict in the Lebanese press.
•  Online communities and their contribution to the formation of the public sphere in the PR China.
•  Representations of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK press.
•  Representations of female politicians in the Zambian news media.

PhD and MPhil Completions

• First supervisor  - PhD – Hyun-Jee Park– Social media and youth identity in South Korea (awarded 2020).
• First supervisor - MPhil – Elizabeth Munday -- Representations of Women in Video Games and Young Women Gamers.  (awarded 2019). 
• First supervisor - PhD – Aulia Wimboyono – Islamic fashion blogging and their young/modern community in Indonesia.   (awarded 2016).
• First supervisor - PhD – Ann Luce – Journalistic news values and assumptions about childhood shaping UK press accounts of bullying and child suicide in the UK. (awarded 2010).
• First supervisor - PhD – Kaitlynn Mendes – News media representations of the women’s movement in the USA and the UK during the 1970s (awarded 2009);
• First supervisor - PhD – Chekar, Choon Key -- Korean self-help and time management delineated in Japanese and Korean self-help books (awarded 2008).
• First supervisor -- PhD – Jen-Yi Chen -- Representations of femininity, science and nature in cosmetics industry advertising. (awarded 2008).
• Supervisory panel member -- PhD - Zahera Harb Propaganda used in news media reporting of the Israel/Lebanon conflict in the Lebanese press (awarded 2007).
• Supervisory panel member -- PhD – Yan Wu who looked at online communities and their contribution to the formation of the public sphere in the PR China (awarded 2006).
• Co-supervisor -- PhD - Xinyi Jiang -- Representations of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK press, with an emphasis on the incident in which 58 Chinese people died whilst being transported to the UK in the back of a lorry (awarded 2005).
• First supervisor -- PhD -Mwenya Chimba -- Representations of female politicians in the Zambian news media (awarded 2005).

Engagement

 My recent engagement activities fall into three areas:

• 1) children and the value of public service broadcasting
  1. Submission to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee Inquiry into “The Future of Public Service Broadcasting,” Arts, Culture and Public Service Broadcasting workstrand for the AHRC-funded Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC) led by Nesta (Eva Nieto Mcavoy, Prof Stuart Allan and Dr Cynthia Carter), (19 June 2020).
  2. Co-investigator in global questionnaire investigating children’s coping strategies and media use during the first Covid-19 lockdown, funded by the International Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television, Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation (April 2020). I presented UK findings to children’s media producers, children’s media advocacy groups and academics at the annual children’s media industry awards event, Prix Jeunesse, Munich, June 2020.
  3. Co-presenter (with Prof Stuart Allan, 2019) Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC), “Young People and Public Service Broadcasting,” for InnoPSM Workshop Programme: PSM in the Digital Eco-System: State of the Art and Research Priorities. Participants from media industry, policymakers, and academia.
• 2) children, news and citizenship
  1. Ofcom response to application made by CBBC Newsround to reduce on-air bulletins to focus more on its online provision (with Prof Jeanette Steemers, Kings College London and Prof Máire Messenger Davies, University of Ulster, November 2019).
  2. Keynote presentation to journalists, government officials, policymakers and academics for international conference on children and media literacy, Albanian Media Institute (May 2019).
  3. Advisory Member, Media Literacy Network, Office for Communication, UK (2019-present).
  4. Academic Advisory Board, Children’s Media Foundation, a UK based children’s media industry advocacy group (2016-present).
• 3) feminist news studies
  1. Keynote, presenter and respondent for series of research webinars hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Participants include advocacy groups, policymakers, academics, and media professionals (2020-2021).
  2. Wales Coordinator for the Global Media Monitoring project (volunteer) examining gender representation in the news across five monitoring years (2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020) across more than 120 countries. This important longitudinal analysis informs journalism education and practice, policy formation and academic research worldwide and is regarded as a key benchmark study in the field.
  3. Expert written evidence, House of Lords Communications Committee inquiry, Women in News and Current Affairs Broadcasting included in “Women in News and Current Affairs Broadcasting,” report (January 2015).