
Professor Simon Cottle
Professor of Media and Communication / Director of Communications, Human Security and Atrocity in Global Context Research Group
School of Journalism, Media and Culture
- cottles@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 208 74506
- Two Central Square, Central Square, Cardiff, CF10 1FS
Overview
Summary
Simon Cottle is Professor of Media and Communications at the School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies (JOMEC) at Cardiff University where he was formerly Head of School (2013-2015) and Deputy Head of School (2008-2013). Previously he was Inaugural Chair and Head of the Media and Communications Program at the University of Melbourne and he holds honorary positions at various universities in other countries. He is currently Director of a new Research Group at Cardiff: ‘Communications, Human Security and Atrocity in Global Context.’
Simon is the author of 13 books on media, globalization and the communication of conflicts, crises and catastrophes. Most recently these include Mediatized Conflicts (2006), Global Crisis Reporting (2009), Transnational Protests and the Media (Ed. with L. Lester)(2011), Disasters and the Media (with M. Pantti and K. Wahl-Jorgensen) (2012), Humanitarianism, Communications and Change (Ed. with G. Cooper)(2015), and Reporting Dangeorously: Journalist Killings, Intimidation and Security (with Richard Sambrook and Nick Mosdell)(2016). Currently he is exploring the history of violence and communications and the possible leverage that global communications can help secure in contexts of human insecurity and imminent atrocity.
Global Crises and the Media Series
Simon is Series Editor of the Global Crises and the Media series published by Peter Lang - a series of 20 plus research monographs and edited volumes. The series aims to examine and theorize the complex roles and current performance of media and communications in some of the most profound challenges confronting the world today.
Series titles published, in press and contracted include the following:
1) Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives. (2009) (Eds.) S. Allan & E. Thorsen.
2) Terror Post 9/11 and the Media. (2009) D. Altheide.
3) Climate Change and the Media. (2009) (Eds.) J. Lewis & T. Boyce.
4) Transnational Protests and the Media. (2011) (Eds.) S. Cottle & L. Lester.
5) Migrations and the (2011) (Eds.) K. Moore, B. Gross & T. Threadgold.
6) Disasters and the Media. (2012) M. Pantti, K. Wahl-Jorgensen & S. Cottle.
7) Environmental Conflict and the Media (2013) (Eds.) L. Lester & B. Hutchins.
8) Global Journalism: Theory and Practice (2013) P. Berglez.
9) Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives, Volume II. (2014) (Eds.) E. Thorsen & S. Allan.
10) Pandemics and the Media (2015) M. Levina.
11) Patents, Pills and the Press: The Rise and Fall of the Global HIV/AIDS Medicines Crisis in the News. (2015) T. Owen.
12) Global News: Reporting Conflicts and Cosmopolitanism (2015) A. Robertson.
13) Worker Resistance and Media: Challenging Global Corporate Power in the 21st Century. (2015) L.Dencik & P. Wilkin.
14) The Dynamics of Mediatized Conflicts. (2015) (Eds.) M. Eskjær, S. Hjarvard & M. Mortensen.
15) Humanitarianism, Communications, and Change. (2015) (Eds.) S. Cottle & G. Cooper.
16) Human Rights and the Media. (2016) S. Dias
17) Climate Change and the Media, Volume II. (2016) (Ed.) J. Lewis & B.Brevini
18) Communication and Political Crisis: Media and Governance in a Globalized Public Sphere. (2016) B. McNair.
19) Media and the Ukraine Crisis: Hybrid Media Practices and Narratives of Conflict, (2016)(Ed.) M. Pantti.
20) Mourning News: Reporting of Violent Death in the Global News. T. Morse.
Biography
Publications
2021
- Cottle, S. 2021. Massacre of the innocents? On historically shifting registers of sensibility. In: Chouliaraki, L. and Jorgensen, A. V. eds. Routledge Handbook of Humanitarian Communication. Routledge International Handbooks Abingdon and New York: Routledge
2019
- Cottle, S. 2019. Humanitarianism, human insecurity, and communications: What's changing in a globalised world?. In: Cottle, S. and Cooper, G. eds. Humanitarianism, Communications and Change. Peter Lang Publishing Inc
2018
- Cottle, S. 2018. Journalism coming of (global) age, II. Journalism 20(1), pp. 102-105.
2017
- Cottle, S. 2017. Communication, human insecurity and the responsibility to protect. In: Robinson, P. ed. Routledge Handbook of Media, Conflict and Security. Routledge, pp. 321-333.
2016
- Cottle, S., Sambrook, R. and Mosdell, N. 2016. Reporting dangerously: journalist killings, intimidation and security. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (10.1007/978-1-137-40670-5)
2015
- Cottle, S. and Hughes, C. M. 2015. The United Nations' "responsibility to protect" and the world's press: establishing a new humanitarian norm?. In: Hoffmann, J. and Hawkins, V. eds. Communication and Peace: Mapping an Emerging Field. Routledge Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution Abingdon and New York: Routledge, pp. 76-91.
- Cottle, S. and Cooper, G. eds. 2015. Humanitarianism, communication and change. New York: Peter Lang.
- Lester, L. and Cottle, S. 2015. Transnational protests, publics and media participation (in an environmental age). In: Hansen, A. and Cox, R. eds. Routledge Handbook of Environment and Communication. Routledge, pp. 100-110.
2014
- Cottle, S. 2014. Rethinking media and disasters in a global age: What’s changed and why it matters. Media, War and Conflict 7(1), pp. 3-22. (10.1177/1750635213513229)
- Cottle, S. 2014. Mediating the environment: modalities of TV news. In: Hansen, A. ed. Media and the Environment. Critical Concepts in the Environment Abingdon: Routledge
- Lester, L. and Cottle, S. 2014. Visualizing climate change: television news and ecological citizenship. In: Hansen, A. ed. Media and the Environment. Critical Concepts in the Environment Abingdon: Taylor & Francis
- Cottle, S. 2014. Journalists witnessing disasters: from the calculus of death to the injunction to care. In: Chouliaraki, L. and Blaagaard, B. eds. Cosmopolitanism and the New News Media. Journalism Studies Vol. 14/2. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 83-99., (10.1080/1461670X.2012.718556)
2013
- Cottle, S. and Matthews, J. 2013. U.S. TV news and communicative architecture: between manufacturing consent and mediating democracy. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 57(4), pp. 562-578. (10.1080/08838151.2013.845831)
- Cottle, S. 2013. Environmental conflict in a global, media age: beyond dualisms. In: Lester, L. and Hutchins, B. eds. Environmental Conflict and the Media. Global Crises and the Media Vol. 13. Oxford: Peter Lang, pp. 13-28.
- Cottle, S. 2013. Ulrich Beck, 'risk society' and the media: a catastrophic view?. In: Hansen, A. ed. Media and the Environment: Environment, Media and Environmental Communication., Vol. 1. Routledge
- Cottle, S. 2013. Journalists witnessing disaster: From the calculus of death to the injunction to care. Journalism Studies 14(2), pp. 232-248. (10.1080/1461670X.2012.718556)
2012
- Cottle, S. 2012. Mediatized disasters in the Global Age: on the ritualization of catastrophe. In: Alexander, J. C., Jacobs, R. and Smith, P. eds. The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology. Oxford Handbooks in Politics & International Relations Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 259-283.
- Cottle, S. 2012. Series Editor's Preface. In: Moore, K., Gross, B. and Threadgold, T. R. eds. Migrations and the Media. Global Crises and the Media Vol. 6. Oxford: Peter Lang, pp. ix-x.
- Pantti, M., Wahl-Jorgensen, K. and Cottle, S. 2012. Disasters and the media. Global Crises and the Media Vol. 7. New York: Peter Lang.
2011
- Cottle, S. 2011. Arab uprisings, media inscriptions. Re-public: Re-Imagining Democracy
- Cottle, S. 2011. Cell phones, camels and the global call for democracy. In: Mair, J. and Keeble, R. L. eds. Mirage In The Desert? Reporting The 'Arab Spring'. Bury St. Edmunds: Amina Publishing, pp. 196-210.
- Cottle, S. 2011. Taking global crises in the news seriously: notes from the dark side of globalization. Global Media and Communication 7(2), pp. 77-95. (10.1177/1742766511410217)
- Cottle, S. 2011. Media and the Arab uprisings of 2011: research notes. Journalism 12(5), pp. 647-659. (10.1177/1464884911410017)
- Cottle, S. 2011. Camels, cell phones and the global call for democracy. Presented at: Mirage in the Desert: Reporting the Arab Spring, Coventry, UK, 15 June 2011.
- Cottle, S. and Rai, M. 2011. Global 24/7 news providers: emissaries of global dominance or global public sphere?. In: Gripsrud, J. et al. eds. The Public Sphere. London: SAGE Publications, pp. 321-343.
- Matthews, J. and Cottle, S. 2011. Television news ecology in the United Kingdom: a study of communicative architecture, its production and meanings. Television New Media 13(2), pp. 103-123. (10.1177/1527476411403630)
- Cottle, S. and Lester, L. eds. 2011. Transnational protests and the media. Global Crises and the Media Vol. 10. New York and Oxford: Peter Lang.
- Cottle, S. and Lester, L. 2011. Transnational protests and the media: an introduction. In: Cottle, S. and Lester, L. eds. Transnational Protests and the Media. Global Crises and the Media Vol. 10. Oxford: Peter Lang, pp. 3-15.
- Cottle, S. 2011. Afterword: Media and the Arab uprisings 2011. In: Cottle, S. and Lester, L. eds. Transnational Protests and the Media. Global Crises and the Media Vol. 10. Oxford: Peter Lang, pp. 293-304.
- Cottle, S. 2011. Transnational Protests and the Media: new developments, challenging debates. In: Cottle, S. and Lester, L. eds. Transnational Protests and the Media. Global Crises and the Media Vol. 10. New York ; Oxford: Peter Lang, pp. 17-40.
- Cottle, S. and Lester, L. 2011. Transnational protests and the media: toward global civil society?. In: Cottle, S. and Lester, L. eds. Transnational Protests and the Media. Global Crises and the Media Vol. 10. Oxford: Peter Lang, pp. 287-291.
- Cottle, S. 2011. Television agora and agoraphobia post-September 11. In: Zelizer, B. and Allan, S. eds. Journalism after September 11. Communication and Society London: Routledge, pp. 232-251.
- Cottle, S. 2011. Hawkins, Virgil: Stealth conflicts: how the world’s worst violence is ignored - 234pp, Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot 2008, £55.00, ISBN 978-0-7546-7506-8 [Book Review]. Journalism Studies 12(1), pp. 130-132. (10.1080/1461670X.2010.534596)
2010
- Cottle, S. 2010. Global cries and world news ecology. In: Allan, S. ed. The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism. New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 473-484.
- Cottle, S. 2010. Foreward. In: Matthews, J. ed. Producing Serious News for Citizen Children: A Study of the BBC’s Children’s Program 'Newsround'. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, pp. v-ix.
- Cottle, S. 2010. Global crises and world news ecology. In: Allan, S. ed. The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism. Oxford: Routledge, pp. 473-484.
- Cottle, S. 2010. Forward. In: Samuel-Azran, T. ed. Al Jazeera and US War Coverage. New York: Peter Lang, pp. ix-xi.
- Rai, M. and Cottle, S. 2010. Global news revisited: mapping the contemporary landscape of satellite television news. In: Cushion, S. and Lewis, J. M. W. eds. The Rise of 24-Hour News Television: Global Perspectives. New York: Peter Lang, pp. 51-79.
2009
- Nolan, D. and Cottle, S. 2009. How the media’s codes and rules influence the ways NGOs work. Nieman Journalism Lab
- Cottle, S. 2009. Series editor's preface. In: Boyce, T. and Lewis, J. M. W. eds. Climate Change and the Media. Global Crises and the Media Vol. 5. New York: Peter Lang, pp. vii-xi.
- Cottle, S. 2009. Series editor's preface. In: Allan, S. and Thorsen, E. eds. Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives. Global Crises and the Media Vol. 1. New York: Peter Lang, pp. ix-xii.
- Cottle, S. 2009. Participant observation: researching news production. In: Hansen, A. ed. Mass Communication Research Methods. SAGE Benchmarks in Social Research Methods London: SAGE Publications, pp. 260-285.
- Cottle, S. 2009. Analysing visuals: still and moving images. In: Hansen, A. ed. Mass Communication Research Methods. SAGE Benchmarks in Social Research Methods London: SAGE Publications, pp. 227-254.
- Cottle, S. 2009. Global crises in the news: Staging new wars, disasters and climate change. International Journal of Communication 3, pp. 494-516.
- Lester, L. and Cottle, S. 2009. Visualizing climate change: Television news and ecological citizenship. International Journal of Communication 3, pp. 920-936.
- Cottle, S. 2009. Journalism studies: coming of (global) age?. Journalism 10(3), pp. 309-311. (10.1177/1464884909102573)
- Cottle, S. 2009. Analysing visuals. Still and moving images. In: Hansen, A. et al. eds. Mass Communication Research Methods. SAGE Benchmarks in Social Research Methods Vol. 3. SAGE Publications, pp. 227-254.
- Cottle, S. 2009. New(s) times: towards a "Second Wave" of news ethnography. In: Hansen, A. et al. eds. Mass Communication Research Methods. SAGE Benchmarks in Social Research Methods Vol. 1. London: SAGE Publications, pp. 366-386.
2008
- Cottle, S. 2008. Humanitarian NGOs and news media: Relations of communicative power in the global age. Presented at: The Mediatisation of Humanitarian Crises, London, UK, 13 November 2008.
- Cottle, S. 2008. Global crisis reporting: Journalism in the global age. Issues in Cultural and Media Studies. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
- Cottle, S. 2008. Journalism and globalization. In: Wahl-Jorgensen, K. and Hanitzsch, T. eds. Handbook of Journalism Studies. International Communication Association Handbook London: Routledge, pp. 341-356.
- Cottle, S. 2008. Reporting demonstrations: The changing media politics of dissent. Media, Culture & Society 30(6), pp. 853-872. (10.1177/0163443708096097)
- Cottle, S. and Rai, M. 2008. Global 24/7 news providers: emissaries of global dominance or global public sphere?. Global Media and Communication 4(2), pp. 157-181. (10.1177/1742766508091518)
- Cottle, S. and Rai, M. 2008. Television news in South Africa: Mediating an emerging democracy. Journal of South African Studies 34(2), pp. 343-358. (10.1080/03057070802038017)
- Cottle, S. and Rai, M. 2008. Television news in India: mediating democracy and difference. International Communication Gazette 70(1), pp. 76-96. (10.1177/1748048507084579)
- Cottle, S. 2008. 'Mediatized rituals': a reply to Couldry and Rothenbuhler. Media, Culture & Society 30(1), pp. 135-140. (10.1177/0163443707084351)
- Cottle, S. 2008. Social drama in a mediatized world: The racist murder of Stephen Lawrence. In: St. John, G. ed. Victor Turner and Contemporary Cultural Performance. New York and Oxford: Berghahn, pp. 109-124.
- Cottle, S. 2008. Conflict as media content. In: Donsbach, W. ed. The International Encyclopedia of Communication., Vol. III. Oxford and Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 915-917., (10.1111/b.9781405131995.2008.x)
- Cottle, S. and Rai, M. 2008. Television news in Singapore: mediating conflict and consent. Asian Journal of Social Science 36(3 - 4), pp. 638-658. (10.1163/156853108X327137)
2007
- Cottle, S. and Nolan, D. 2007. Global humanitarianism and the changing aid-media field: "Everyone was dying for footage". Journalism Studies 8(6), pp. 862-878. (10.1080/14616700701556104)
- Cottle, S. 2007. Ethnography and news production: new(s) developments in the field. Sociology Compass 1(1), pp. 1-16. (10.1111/j.1751-9020.2007.00002.x)
- Cottle, S. 2007. Mediatized recognition and the “Other”. Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy 123, pp. 34-38.
2006
- Cottle, S. 2006. Mediatized conflict: Developments in media and conflict studies. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
- Cottle, S. and Rai, M. 2006. Between display and deliberation: analyzing TV news as communicative architecture. Media Culture Society 28(2), pp. 163-189. (10.1177/0163443706061680)
2004
- Cottle, S. 2004. The racist murder of Stephen Lawrence: media performance and public transformation. Praeger.
- Cottle, S. 2004. Producing nature(s): on the changing production ecology of natural history TV. Media Culture & Society 26(1), pp. 81-101. (10.1177/0163443704039494)
1998
- Cottle, S. 1998. Ulrich Beck, "Risk Society" and the Media: A Catastrophic View?. European Journal of Communication 13(1), pp. 5-32. (10.1177/0267323198013001001)
Teaching
Simon currently teaches the following Masters degree modules:
- MCT503 Mediatized Conflicts: The Politics of Conflict Reporting
- MCT494 Global Crisis Reporting
- Plus guest lectures, BA, MA and PhD supervision
Past and current PhD students include:
Ahmed Othman, ‘Disaster and Democratic Communications: A Case Study of Oman TV News Coverage of Natural Disasters.’ JOMEC, Cardiff University (2015-2018)
Carlo Piccinini, ‘NGOs, Humanitarian Advocacy and Communications’, JOMEC, Cardiff University (2013-2016)
Dr. Idil Osman, ‘The Role of the Somali Media in Somalia’s Ongoing Civil War’, JOMEC, Cardiff University (2011-2015)
Dr. Susana Dampio Dias ‘Humanitarian Emergencies and Portuguese Television’ JOMEC, Cardiff University (2009-2014)
Dr. Phansasiri Kularb ‘Thai Journalism and the Reporting of Thailand’s Southern Conflict’ JOMEC, Cardiff University (2009-2013)
Dr. Jonathan Cable ‘Protest in Action: An Examination of the Production, Media Representation and Reflexivity of Protest Group Communications Strategies and Protest Tactics' JOMEC, Cardiff University (2007-2012)
Dr. Max Pettigrew ‘The Oxygen of Publicity and the Suffocation of Censorship: British Newspaper Representations of the Broadcasting Ban (1988-1994)’, JOMEC, Cardiff University (2010-2011)
Dr. Adeyinka Oduwole, ‘Publics, Policy-Making and Democracy in the European Union: Regulating the Audiovisual Media Services Sector’ JOMEC, Cardiff University (2006-2009)
Dr. Colleen Murrell, University of Melbourne, ‘Publicly Funded International Broadcasting in a New Age: Politics, Purposes and Propaganda’ (2004 - 2006)
Dr. Mugdha Rai, University of Melbourne, ‘Media Representations of State Sovereignty: A Comparative Study of International Law Debates in Australia, the US and India’ (2004 - 2006).
Dr. Tal Azran, University of Melbourne, ‘”Contra-Flow” in Global News: A Case Study of U.S. Media’s Re-presentation of Al-Jazeera’s News Material in the Wake of 9/11 (2002 - 2006).
Dr. Libby Lester, University of Melbourne, ‘Contesting Wilderness: Media, Movement and Environmental Conflict in Tasmania’ (2004 -2005).
Dr. Julian Matthews, Brunel University, ‘Childrens TV News: Production and Representations of Risk’ (Sept 1997 - 2001).
Simon's current research centres on the necessity to engage empirically and theoretically with the rise of global crises and the complex roles and responsibilities of media in their public constitution. His more recent books – Mediatized Conflicts (2006), Global Crisis Reporting (2009), Transnational Protests and the Media (2011), Disasters and the Media (2012) and Humanitarianism, Communications, and Change (2015) – as well as Series Editorship of the Global Crises and Media Series for Peter Lang Publishing (20 titles), for example, all address media performance and possibilities for transnational community under conditions of endemic global crises. His latest book is Reporting Dangerously: Journalist Killings and Security (2016), written with colleagues at the International News Safety Institute (INSI).
This research agenda around contemporary global crises and the parts played by global communications within them inform his understanding of how and when media and communications can become aligned to civil society and movements for change. In-depth study of disasters and the ‘injunction to care’ inscribed into news reporting by some correspondents (Cottle 2014a, b), the ‘beneficent embedding’ of correspondents when reporting the Egyptian revolution from Tahrir Square (Cottle 2011), and the ‘performative visualisation’ of climate change by many broadcasters in the wake of the 2006 International Panel on Climate Change report (Cottle 2009, Lester and Cottle 2009), as well as findings from his major six nation study of 56 plus news outlets and the complex ‘communicative architecture’ of TV news around the world (Cottle and Rai 2006), serve to better understand and theorise how media and communications can sometimes perform an important role in processes of cultural reflexivity and societal change.
From July 2016 -Augist 2017 Simon is on research leave and starting to prepare a major investigation. This sets out to re-visit and re-theorise the history of violence and communications, from the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia up to and including the role of media and communications in globalised ‘civil’ and ‘uncivil’ society.
Simon’s views on the unprecedented and catastrophic nature of global crises and their critical dependence on rapidly changing media and communications are found in his book Global Crisis Reporting: Journalism in the Global Age (Open University Press 2009) (Global Crisis Reporting flyer) and recent articles including: ‘Taking Global Crises in the News Seriously: Notes From the Dark Side of Globalization’, Global Media and Communication, (2011), 7(2): 77-95.