Prof Seamus Simpson

Culture, Communication and Media Research Seminar: CCM Research Seminar: New Books by Salford CCM Researchers
Feb 11, 2025

Description This extended seminar will feature short talks from three CCM researchers on their recently published research monographs:

Dr Diwas Bisht (2025) Animating British Bangladeshi Memory, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter.
Dr Richard Jones (2024) Reporting the Courts, London and NY: Routledge
Dr Laura Minor (2024), Reclaiming Female Authorship in UK Television Comedy, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Location MediaCity

People Seamus Simpson

Research Centres/Groups Creative Technology Research Centre

Description	This extended seminar will feature short talks from three CCM researchers on their recently published research monographs: Dr Diwas Bisht (2025) Animating British Bangladeshi Memory, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. Dr Richard Jones (2024) Reporting the Courts, London and NY: Routledge Dr Laura Minor (2024), Reclaiming Female Authorship in UK Television Comedy, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Location	MediaCity
People	Seamus Simpson
Research Centres/Groups	Creative Technology Research Centre

Culture, Communication and Media Research Seminar: Voicing embodied knowledge about the craft of radio and podcast storytelling Dr Abigail Wincott (Falmouth University)
Dec 10, 2024

Description In the ten years since Serial, there has been a well-documented elevation of the cultural status of audio documentary and longform audio journalism (Hilmes, 2018). There are festivals, awards, programmes of education and training and a growing field of academic study. Still public service broadcasters have made successive budget cuts to documentary, and the pressure to produce the next true-crime blockbuster podcast may be encouraging a homogeneity of narrative style and formulaic programme-making (McHugh, 2016; Rosenthal 2023). The critical frameworks of documentary film studies support a sophisticated culture of criticism, the education of future film-makers in universities and innovation and creativity in the sector, while the critical vocabulary to talk about radiophonic documentary - its invisible and ephemeral cousin (McHugh 2014) - remains very underdeveloped in comparison (Abgrall, 2023).
Audio documentary and other kinds of longform audio journalism are regarded as an intimate medium, associated with solitary listening and unlike documentary film-making, creative and editorial decisions are usually made between a lone producer and their computer screen, with little need for explicit communication about detailed aspects of the craft. Producers pick up what is expected in terms of style, as embodied or tacit knowledge. This helps explain the lack of a shared vocabulary, and it also makes it difficult to research.
This talk introduces a Leverhulme-funded project, ‘New approaches to the context and craft of radiophonic storytelling’. The project is working with producers in two public service broadcasters in France, to capture ephemeral interactions between people and audio technology and to articulate judgements are made in the construction of their stories, and the conceptual frameworks and institutional and sector values that inform them. The resulting insights should help generate concepts and vocabulary that are relevant to practitioners as well as researchers and educators.

Location online

People Seamus Simpson

Research Centres/Groups Creative Technology Research Centre

Description	In the ten years since Serial, there has been a well-documented elevation of the cultural status of audio documentary and longform audio journalism (Hilmes, 2018). There are festivals, awards, programmes of education and training and a growing field of academic study. Still public service broadcasters have made successive budget cuts to documentary, and the pressure to produce the next true-crime blockbuster podcast may be encouraging a homogeneity of narrative style and formulaic programme-making (McHugh, 2016; Rosenthal 2023). The critical frameworks of documentary film studies support a sophisticated culture of criticism, the education of future film-makers in universities and innovation and creativity in the sector, while the critical vocabulary to talk about radiophonic documentary - its invisible and ephemeral cousin (McHugh 2014) - remains very underdeveloped in comparison (Abgrall, 2023). Audio documentary and other kinds of longform audio journalism are regarded as an intimate medium, associated with solitary listening and unlike documentary film-making, creative and editorial decisions are usually made between a lone producer and their computer screen, with little need for explicit communication about detailed aspects of the craft. Producers pick up what is expected in terms of style, as embodied or tacit knowledge. This helps explain the lack of a shared vocabulary, and it also makes it difficult to research. This talk introduces a Leverhulme-funded project, ‘New approaches to the context and craft of radiophonic storytelling’. The project is working with producers in two public service broadcasters in France, to capture ephemeral interactions between people and audio technology and to articulate judgements are made in the construction of their stories, and the conceptual frameworks and institutional and sector values that inform them. The resulting insights should help generate concepts and vocabulary that are relevant to practitioners as well as researchers and educators.
Location	online
People	Seamus Simpson
Research Centres/Groups	Creative Technology Research Centre

Culture, Communication and Media Research Seminar: The manosphere and the femosphere: gender politics and reactionary rage in the digital "mirror-world" Dr Jilly Kay (Loughborough University)
Dec 3, 2024

Description This paper offers a conjunctural analysis of anger, gender and reactionary digital culture. It asks: what does it mean that the historic rise in the visibility of women’s anger in the #MeToo movement (at sexism, misogyny and gendered abuse) emerged at the same historical moment as the rise of reactionary forms of political anger (associated with authoritarian populism, growing nationalisms, misogyny, racism, and the “anti-gender” movement)? While women's anger has been a progressive and galvanising force in the resurgence of left and pluralist feminisms, some of this affective energy is also channelled into reactionary politics, including Islamophobia, transphobia, racism, and right-wing populism. An important and rich body of media scholarship has analysed the manosphere, the alt-right, reactionary male influencers, and the 'red pill' philosophy. In this paper, I call attention to the femosphere – a gender-flipped version, or “mirroring” of the manosphere. The femosphere, like the manosphere, has its own communities, influencers and intellectual “gurus”, and it also reflects the manosphere's bio-essentialism, political fatalism and hatred of social justice. The paper argues that we need a media theory of anger and gender to understand the ways that political rage is shaped, fomented and directed through the highly specific communicative architectures of contemporary digital media. It draws on Naomi Klein's argument that contemporary politics plays out in a disorienting "mirror-world", and it considers how, in the digital hall of mirrors, women's anger can be refracted into troubling new alliances

Location MediaCity

People Seamus Simpson

Research Centres/Groups Creative Technology Research Centre

Description	This paper offers a conjunctural analysis of anger, gender and reactionary digital culture. It asks: what does it mean that the historic rise in the visibility of women’s anger in the #MeToo movement (at sexism, misogyny and gendered abuse) emerged at the same historical moment as the rise of reactionary forms of political anger (associated with authoritarian populism, growing nationalisms, misogyny, racism, and the “anti-gender” movement)? While women's anger has been a progressive and galvanising force in the resurgence of left and pluralist feminisms, some of this affective energy is also channelled into reactionary politics, including Islamophobia, transphobia, racism, and right-wing populism. An important and rich body of media scholarship has analysed the manosphere, the alt-right, reactionary male influencers, and the 'red pill' philosophy. In this paper, I call attention to the femosphere – a gender-flipped version, or “mirroring” of the manosphere. The femosphere, like the manosphere, has its own communities, influencers and intellectual “gurus”, and it also reflects the manosphere's bio-essentialism, political fatalism and hatred of social justice. The paper argues that we need a media theory of anger and gender to understand the ways that political rage is shaped, fomented and directed through the highly specific communicative architectures of contemporary digital media. It draws on Naomi Klein's argument that contemporary politics plays out in a disorienting "mirror-world", and it considers how, in the digital hall of mirrors, women's anger can be refracted into troubling new alliances
Location	MediaCity
People	Seamus Simpson
Research Centres/Groups	Creative Technology Research Centre

Culture, Communication and Media Research Seminar: Trying and failing at alternative local journalism in the UK – lessons from two ‘scenes.’ Dr Dave Harte (Associate Professor in Journalism and Media Studies Birmingham City University)
Nov 19, 2024

Description This paper brings together research on two failed moments in recent history when local alternative journalism in the UK seemed to thrive and offer genuine hope that an alternative public sphere could be sustained. The paper’s first case study is of a single city, Birmingham, where a number of local and hyperlocal community newspapers in the 1970s and 80s sought to provide “news that wouldn’t get into the local press” (Brian Homer, activist and publisher). The analysis here engages with archives of alternative newspapers as material objects, through which journalists and activists recount their memories of place and emotion. The second case study explores the growth of community hyperlocal news websites in the late 2000s to mid-2010s, drawing together reflections from those who ran the websites – along with funders, advocates and policy-makers – who collectively worked to “anticipate, assemble and animate” a broader UK hyperlocal media ‘scene’ (Rodgers 2017). This case study contributes to perspectives that examine local alternative journalism through a subcultural lens. Both case studies offer insights into progressive moments in citizen-led media where journalistic norms were often eschewed, offering an alternative media space for audiences to see their everyday lives and places reflected back to them. The paper reflects on the failure of these moments, contributing to Karin Wahl-Jorgenson’s call for the need to pay attention to, and draw lessons from, the failure of those operating at the unfashionable margins of local journalism (2017: 264).

Location MediaCity

People Seamus Simpson

Research Centres/Groups Creative Technology Research Centre

Description	This paper brings together research on two failed moments in recent history when local alternative journalism in the UK seemed to thrive and offer genuine hope that an alternative public sphere could be sustained. The paper’s first case study is of a single city, Birmingham, where a number of local and hyperlocal community newspapers in the 1970s and 80s sought to provide “news that wouldn’t get into the local press” (Brian Homer, activist and publisher). The analysis here engages with archives of alternative newspapers as material objects, through which journalists and activists recount their memories of place and emotion. The second case study explores the growth of community hyperlocal news websites in the late 2000s to mid-2010s, drawing together reflections from those who ran the websites – along with funders, advocates and policy-makers – who collectively worked to “anticipate, assemble and animate” a broader UK hyperlocal media ‘scene’ (Rodgers 2017). This case study contributes to perspectives that examine local alternative journalism through a subcultural lens. Both case studies offer insights into progressive moments in citizen-led media where journalistic norms were often eschewed, offering an alternative media space for audiences to see their everyday lives and places reflected back to them. The paper reflects on the failure of these moments, contributing to Karin Wahl-Jorgenson’s call for the need to pay attention to, and draw lessons from, the failure of those operating at the unfashionable margins of local journalism (2017: 264).
Location	MediaCity
People	Seamus Simpson
Research Centres/Groups	Creative Technology Research Centre

Communication, Culture and Media Research Seminar:
Nov 5, 2024

Description 5 November
Dr Emma Graves-Sandriman (Canterbury Christchurch University) Media Framing of Emerging Technologies: The Power of Big Tech

The news media have significant power to impact public opinion of emerging technologies because they are often the general public’s first and main source of information about such innovations (Scheufele and Lewenstein, 2005; Sun et al., 2020). As the perceptions of new technologies are key to their success or failure (Buenaflor and Kim, 2013), the news media can have an impact not only on how these products are viewed but also on their adoption and diffusion (Rogers, 2003). It is therefore important to understand how the media represents such technological innovations. Based on my recent book, Covering Extended Reality Technologies in the Media, this seminar explores the results from a multimodal, mixed methods framing analysis of the news and marketing of XR devices. It provides insight into how XR is represented, the overlap between XR news and marketing and the power of technology companies to shape this news discourse. Comparisons are made with my other studies on the news framing of big data and artificial intelligence. It finishes by presenting the Frame Categories for Emerging Technologies (FCET) model, demonstrating how it can be applied to study media discourse of other technologies.

Location online

People Seamus Simpson

Research Centres/Groups Creative Technology Research Centre

Description	5 November Dr Emma Graves-Sandriman (Canterbury Christchurch University) Media Framing of Emerging Technologies: The Power of Big Tech The news media have significant power to impact public opinion of emerging technologies because they are often the general public’s first and main source of information about such innovations (Scheufele and Lewenstein, 2005; Sun et al., 2020). As the perceptions of new technologies are key to their success or failure (Buenaflor and Kim, 2013), the news media can have an impact not only on how these products are viewed but also on their adoption and diffusion (Rogers, 2003). It is therefore important to understand how the media represents such technological innovations. Based on my recent book, Covering Extended Reality Technologies in the Media, this seminar explores the results from a multimodal, mixed methods framing analysis of the news and marketing of XR devices. It provides insight into how XR is represented, the overlap between XR news and marketing and the power of technology companies to shape this news discourse. Comparisons are made with my other studies on the news framing of big data and artificial intelligence. It finishes by presenting the Frame Categories for Emerging Technologies (FCET) model, demonstrating how it can be applied to study media discourse of other technologies.
Location	online
People	Seamus Simpson
Research Centres/Groups	Creative Technology Research Centre

Culture, Communication and Media Research Seminar: Listening to the City through Sound Technology — A Practice-Based Approach Dr Marcel Zaes Sagesser (SUSTech School of Design, Shenzhen, China).
Sep 10, 2024

Description 10 September MediaCity 3.07

Listening to the City through Sound Technology — A Practice-Based Approach

Dr Marcel Zaes Sagesser (SUSTech School of Design, Shenzhen, China)

What does a high-tech city like Shenzhen sound like? Electric cars next to fruit vendors’ megaphones, bluetooth speakers next to glass elevators with pop music broadcasts: contemporary urban spaces are increasingly characterized by assemblages of media that extend the built and natural worlds around us. Sonic technologies, sometimes thought of as an extension of the human, have become a constitutional element of the city, and a key part of our contemporary aural economies. They shape our perception; and thus, shape the city itself. This talk presents field recording, data analysis, creative (re-)interpretation and interdisciplinary perspectives as an approach to understanding the aural economy of Shenzhen. The speaker presents a few case studies in which creative media arts projects, informed by critical theory, produce opportunities to rethink the techno-social noise politics of a far-from-silent high-tech city

Location MediaCityUK and online

People Seamus Simpson
Daniella Gati

Research Centres/Groups Creative Technology Research Centre

Description	10 September MediaCity 3.07 Listening to the City through Sound Technology — A Practice-Based Approach Dr Marcel Zaes Sagesser (SUSTech School of Design, Shenzhen, China) What does a high-tech city like Shenzhen sound like? Electric cars next to fruit vendors’ megaphones, bluetooth speakers next to glass elevators with pop music broadcasts: contemporary urban spaces are increasingly characterized by assemblages of media that extend the built and natural worlds around us. Sonic technologies, sometimes thought of as an extension of the human, have become a constitutional element of the city, and a key part of our contemporary aural economies. They shape our perception; and thus, shape the city itself. This talk presents field recording, data analysis, creative (re-)interpretation and interdisciplinary perspectives as an approach to understanding the aural economy of Shenzhen. The speaker presents a few case studies in which creative media arts projects, informed by critical theory, produce opportunities to rethink the techno-social noise politics of a far-from-silent high-tech city
Location	MediaCityUK and online
People	Seamus Simpson Daniella Gati
Research Centres/Groups	Creative Technology Research Centre

Prof Seamus Simpson's Events (6)