Monday 11 December 2017 – Lunchtime Seminar with Mark Subryan (C3RI PhD candidate)
Speaker: Mark Subryan (C3RI PhD candidate)
Title: Heroes and Villains: What do the discursive practices of national tabloid journalists in the UK say about professional identity and newsroom practice?
Hosted by: Dr David Clarke
The public’s perception of the tabloid press is either extremely positive or extremely negative. Supporters will read no other type of newspaper and detractors always complain about the tabloids. In the UK, these newspapers face daily accusations of unethical behaviour; promoting racism, xenophobia, and homophobia; and, pandering to the lowest common denominator. The phone hacking scandal implicated several tabloids and led to the closure of News of the World and the subsequent Leveson inquiry focused primarily on the tabloids. These actions further reinforced society’s suspicions about tabloid journalism. However, members of the tabloid press, specifically those who work in news departments, beg to differ with what has become a hegemonic view of the tabloid. This presentation will unpack and examine what tabloid journalists really think of themselves, how they validate and justify their practices, and how they make sense of internal and external challenges to their daily lives.
This presentation will be based on data collected for Mark Subryan’s larger PhD thesis on the identity and practice of print journalists in the UK in the post-Leveson journalistic landscape. This presentation will focus on how the use of heroic discourse validates the journalistic practices and professional identities of tabloid journalists in the UK. The presentation will highlight how practice is justified within the framework of journalism in the fourth estate, which is the focus on holding power structures (government, businesses, police, and courts) to account to the public.
Mark Subryan is a PhD candidate at Sheffield Hallam University researching how print journalists in the United Kingdom make sense of professional identity and newsroom practices in the post-Leveson journalistic landscape. Following a 16-year career as a journalist in Canada, he left journalism to pursue opportunities in academia and earned a MA in International Journalism at Sheffield Hallam University in 2015 before embarking on the PhD also at Hallam. Mark’s research interests lie in understanding the lived experiences of journalists and how they contribute to the way journalism is practised. He is also interested in how journalists address unprecedented challenges to journalism in the post-truth, fake news era.
1.00PM – 2.00PM
MONDAY 11 DECEMBER 2017
CANTOR 9137
See here for details of other seminars in the series.
All SHU staff and students are welcome to attend the C3RI Lunchtime Research Seminars. If you are from outside of the University and would like to attend a seminar, please email C3RI Administrator to arrange entry.