Kelvin Smith PhD Scholarship, University of Glasgow

(In) Security In The Mainstream: Riots and the Media

Andrew Hoskins (Adam Smith Research Foundation) and Karen Renaud (Computing Science) have been awarded a four year Kelvin Smith Scholarship (as joint supervisors) to appoint a student to work on this project from September 2012.

Project overview:

Much is being attributed to the traumatic and charismatic power of digital communicationsmedia (mobile phones, social networking services) in mediating new forms ofsocial relations, inciting, organising or countering public disorder, and placing the self at the heart of a highly connected new media environment.

How though is this new power of media attributed, by whom and to what effect?

This project explores the mediations of the 2011 riots in English cities to interrogate the discourses of the power of new communications media in shaping public security crises. Through combining mixed media content analysis of both mainstream news coverage and new communications media, with interviews with key actors, we will be able to gain a holistic insight into these events.

This project tests for evidence of a ‘mainstream’ culture of security contrasted with the popular notion of the ‘self-organising’ or independent effects of New Communications Media (NCM). 

Application key criteria:

A minimum 2:1 (or equivalent)first degree in a relevant discipline

A Masters level degree (or equivalent) in a relevant discipline

Experience in:

Television and online media discourse analysis

Ethnography (devising, organizing and undertaking interviews and focus groups)

Implementing significant software systems (not only web-based systems)

Mastery of at least one programming language such as Java or C

Understanding of databases, SQL and XML

For further details and information on how to apply email: andrew.hoskins@glasgow.ac.uk

See also: http://www.gla.ac.uk/research/kelvinsmithfellowshipsscholarships/re.../

Closing date: 2nd April 2012