Glasgow Media Group

The "Glasgow Media Group", also known as "Glasgow University Media Group", is a leading group of media researchers based in Glasgow, Scotland, who pioneered the analysis of television news in a series of studies starting in 1976 with "Bad News". [http://www.gla.ac.uk/centres/mediagroup/index.htm, accessed 19 September 2008] They claimed that television news was biased in favour of powerful forces and actors in society and against less powerful groups such as the organised working class.

Critical assessment

Media and cultural analyst Shaun Best has argued that:

:For over twenty five years the Glasgow Media Group have argued that both BBC News and ITN cannot refrain from editorialising and fall short of their legal obligation to present political and industrial news in a balanced, neutral and objective fashion... One of the key problems with the Groups research is concerned with the manner in which they gather the data for their arguments. The group rejected conspiracy theories of the media; rather the group have always argued that news was structured and organised by taken for granted professional routines of journalists. Their initial research made use of the content analysis in an effort to identify and measure ideology and its consequences. John Eldridge has strongly supported the use of the content analysis by the Group. Eldridge (1995) argues that the content analysis is a methodologically unobtrusive measure, which can be used to analyse data without influencing what is produced. However, there are issues about how the group define and measure ideology and if conceptual and methodological devices the Group used can support their conclusions. [Shaun Best [http://shaunbest.tripod.com/id8.html Glasgow Media Research Group Reading Ideology: An Evaluation of the Glasgow Media Group] , accessed 19 september 2008]

A defence

Media analyst Adrian Quinn has written a full academic journal article in defence of the work of the group. He summarises his argument as follows:

:Since the appearance of its first book, Bad News (1976), the Glasgow University Media Group (GUMG) has made a sustained contribution to our understanding of media culture and especially to notions of objectivity and impartiality. Despite this, for the last 30 years the group has been the object of a diffuse and often gratuitous campaign of ridicule and misrepresentation. The authors of this misrepresentation first caricature the group, labelling it a band of Marxist conspiracy theorists, then blame the group for alienating journalists and retarding the cause of media research. This article presents evidence of this misrepresentation and then offers an apologia for the GUMG, in the now archaic sense that to apologize is to defend. [ [http://www.atypon-link.com/INT/doi/abs/10.1386/macp.3.1.5_1?cookieSet=1&journalCode=macp Contrary to claims, conventions and culture: An apologia for the Glasgow University Media Group] doi: 10.1386/macp.3.1.5_1 International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics, Volume: 3 | Issue: 1 January 2007 Page(s): 5-24]

People

*Peter Beharrel | John Eldridge | Lesley Henderson | Jenny Kitzinger | David Miller | Jean Oddie | Greg Philo Research Director | Kevin Williams | Brian Winston

Publications

*Bad News, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1976.
* [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/18439 More Bad News] Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980.
*Glasgow University Media Group [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Really-Glasgow-University-Media-Group/dp/090649544X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221858795&sr=1-1 Really Bad News] , Writers and Readers, 1982.
*Greg Philo [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seeing-Believing-Influence-Television-Communication/dp/0415036216/ref=pd_sim_b_3 Seeing and Believing] , Routledge, 1990
*John Eldridge (Ed.) Getting the Message: News, Truth and Power (Routledge, 1993)
*John Eldridge (Ed.) [http://www.amazon.co.uk/News-Content-Language-Visuals-Communication/dp/0415127300 News Content, Language and Visuals: Glasgow University Media Reader] (Communication and Society) (Paperback), Routledge, 1995.
*Greg Philo (Ed.) [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Industry-Economy-War-Politics-Communication/dp/0415130379 Industry, Economy, War and Politics: Glasgow University Media Reader: 2] (Communication and Society) (Paperback), Routledge, 1995.
*John Eldridge, J.Kitzinger and K.Williams) The Mass Media and Power in Modern Britain (Oxford University Press,1997)
*David Miller, Jenny Kitzinger, Peter Beharrel and Kevin williams [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Circuit-Mass-Communication-Strategies-Representation/dp/0803977034/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221858857&sr=1-1 The Circuit of Mass Communication: Media Strategies, Representation and Audience Reception in the AIDS Crisis] , Sage, 1998.
*Greg Philo [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Message-Received-Greg-Philo/dp/0582298008/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221858973&sr=1-1 Message Received] (Paperback), Longman, 1999.
*Greg Philo and David Miller [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Market-Killing-market-social-scientists/dp/058238236X/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221858704&sr=8-13 Market Killing: What the free market does and what social scientists can do about it] (Paperback), Longman, 2000.
* [http://openlibrary.org/a/OL3949316A Reporting Child Deaths] by Glasgow Media Group (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), February 1, 2001) Paperback
*Greg Philo and Mike Berry [http://www.amazon.com/Bad-News-Israel-Greg-Philo/dp/0745320619 Bad News From Israel] , Pluto, 2004.

Notes