David Deacon

Mediatization: key concept or conceptual bandwagon?

Mediatization is emerging as an influential new concept that places the media at the centre of all kinds of important cultural, political and social developments. However, it has so far attracted little critical evaluation. In this article the authors identify three areas of concern, namely, how causal processes are thought about, how historical change is understood, and how concepts are designed. It is hoped this article will generate critical debate and reflection to prevent the term from being applied so inconsistently and indiscriminately that it becomes a ‘concept of no difference’.

Yesterday’s Papers and Today’s Technology: Digital Newspaper Archives and ‘Push Button’ Content Analysis

This article considers the methodological implications of using digital newspaper archives for analysis of media content. The discussion identifies arange of validity and reliability concerns about this increasingly prevalent mode of analysis, which have been under-appreciated to date. Although these questions do not deny a role for the use of proxy data in media analysis, they do highlight the need for caution when researchers rely on text-based, digitalized archives.

From inception to reception: the natural history of a news item

This article compares the complex dynamics involved in the production and reception of a newspaper article. This case study is used as the basis for a broader discussion of the encoding and decoding of meaning via the news media. The article recommends that closer attention needs to be given to the linkages between these moments in the mass communication process, and the temporal contexts within which they occur.

Mediating social science

What is the interface between social scientists and the media? How does social science come over in news and current affairs in print and broadcasting media? This book examines issues in reception and production studies to build a holistic approach to the study of media representations. The authors give an accessible and authoritative guide to the mass communication process. They examine media production, the nature of media texts, the role of news sources, the general social and political context of mass communication and the ways in which media outputs are assimilated by audiences. The discussions are developed by an examination of the following areas: the interaction between journalists and social scientists; the publicity seeking activities of universities, research institutes and government departments; the attempts of individual social scientists to get noticed; the social policy environment surrounding social scientific research and its dissemination; pressure from funders; and the public understanding of social science in the news.

Collision or collusion? A discussion and case study of the unplanned triangulation of quantitative and qualitative research methods

In recent years there has been a growth of interest in breaking down the divisions between qualitative and quantitative research. However, although examples of multi-method studies now abound, there has been little discussion within the literature about the empirical and theoretical challenges that such eclecticism can pose. This article provides an example of a multi-method investigation into social scientists and their media relations wherein qualitative and quantitative findings appeared to contradict each other, and describes how the authors sought to explain and accommodate these discrepancies. Using this case study, they argue that it is incumbent on all researchers committed to the integration of research methods to deal with any differences that may emerge, rather than to resort to selective, epistemic prioritization as a get-out clause.

‘Mediatization and’ or ‘Mediatization of’? A response to Hepp et al.:

We welcome Hepp et al.’s (2015) response to our recent critique of the concept of ‘Mediatization’ (Deacon and Stanyer, 2014), which they also use to showcase new literature on this topic. Their article demonstrates why further robust debate on this matter is needed. For when internationally renowned academics start to declare ‘paradigmatic shifts’, then a much wider community of scholars need to consider whether or not the earth is moving for them (see Hepp et al., 2015: 314–315, 321).

The Voluntary Sector in a Changing Communication Environment A Case Study of Non-Official News Sources

Debates about the sociology of news production have recently been influenced by two emerging research trends. The first has focused attention on the power of news sources to pre-structure news and current affairs, the second has addressed the influence of non-official institutions in the news creation process. Drawing on research into communication activity in the British voluntary sector, this article discusses these new trends and provides extensive empirical data on the media strategies and objectives of a large and varied collection of voluntary organizations. The discussion also relates these findings to important contextual developments that are transforming the communication environment of these non-official agencies.

‘Sod off and find us a boffin’: journalists and the social science conference

Social scientists perform a multi-functional role as researcher, teacher and expert. The academic conference provides an opportunity for all these roles to be engaged and as such is a political and social site where meaning is debated and new research born. The conference is also attractive to journalists as news fodder. This article considers the relationship between journalists and social scientific organizations in the context of a professional conference and seeks to explain the tensions that exist. It concludes that the two cultures of journalist and academic are in conflict where they converge.

Reporting the 2010 General Election: Old Media, New Media — Old Politics, New Politics

To say that the media are central to modern election campaigning may be axiomatic, but there are specific reasons why the media are particularly significant in British general elections. Britain still has a very unitary political system, only partially tempered by political devolution. It also has centralised and nationally orientated news media whose dominance is arguably increasing, as pressures on regional news broadcasting intensify and cost-cutting, conglomeration and falling circulation undermine the vitality of the local press. The coexistence of these factors is a recipe for a highly media-centred political culture.

Communicating philanthropy: The media and the voluntary sector in Britain

Whether in looking for resources or doing their work, voluntary and charitable organisations have always needed to publicise their existence. However, major changes in the role and funding of the sector in Britain have meant that the issue of publicity has gained particular salience. This article discusses these changes and provides preliminary findings from a large-scale investigation into media and public attitudes towards voluntary and charitable activity. It explores how voluntary activity is reported by mainstream news media, and how these presentations are framed by media professinals perceptions of, and value judgements about, different types of voluntary action.