Goldsmiths - University of London

Professor James Curran

James Curran is Director of the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre, supported by a £1.25 million grant from the Leverhulme Trust. He has held a personal chair at Goldsmiths since 1989. He has also held endowed visiting chairs at Penn, Stanford, Stockholm and Oslo Universities.

He is also one of seven senior researchers engaged in a five-nation media and public knowledge investigation, directed by Toril Aalberg, centred at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and supported by the Norwegian Research Council with a grant of £1 million.

He has written or edited eighteen books about the mass media, some in conjunction with others. His work is in four main areas - media political economy, media influence, media history and media theory. He was a member of the Annenberg Press Commission, USA and is currently the UK representative on the European Commission committee promoting research on broadcasting in central and Eastern Europe. He has given numerous public lectures and keynote addresses to conferences, most recently in Beijing, Brasilia, Dublin, London, Philadelphia and Tokyo.

Areas of supervision

In 2007 his research student, Carolina Matos, gained her PhD on Brazilian media and politics. In 2006, two of his research students gained doctorates: Bong-Soo Lee, with a dissertation on the Korean press and the late 1990s economic crisis in Korea, and Maurice Walsh on foreign correspondents and the Irish War of Independence. In 2004, three of James Curran's research students gained PhDs, with dissertations on respectively cross-media promotion (Jonathan Hardy), Maltese media and society (Carmen Sammut) and the Hong Kong press and political change (Carol Lai). These dissertations have been published as books: Carol Lai, Media in Hong Kong, Routledge, 2007; Carmen Sammut, Media and Maltese Society, Lexington, 2007; Carolina Matos, Journalism and Political Democracy in Brazil, Lexington, 2008 (and in Portuguese, 2009); Maurice Walsh, The News from Ireland, I. B. Tauris, 2008; Jonathan Hardy, Comparing Western Media Systems, Routledge, 2008 (the last in heavily adapted form).

Selected publications

James Curran and Jean Seaton, Power Without Responsibility, 7th edition, Routledge, 2010.

‘Technology Foretold’ in N. Fenton (ed) New Media, Old News, Sage, 2010, pp. 19-34.

James Curran and Tamara Witschge, ‘Liberal Dreams and the Internet’ in N. Fenton (ed) New Media, Old News, Sage, 2010, pp.102-118.

‘Crime, Foreigners and Hard News: A Cross-National Comparison of Reporting and Public Perception’, Journalism, 11(1), 2010, 1-17.

‘Reinterpreting Internet History’ in Y. Jewkes and M. Yar (eds.) Handbook of Internet Crime, Willan, 2010, pp. 17-37.

‘La Reinvention on de le Roue: Critique of “Cultural Studies” ‘ in D. Wolton (ed) Les Sciences de L’Information et La Communication, CRNS Editions, 2009, pp. 93-114.

James Curran, Shanto Iyengar, Anker Brink Lund and Inka Salovaara-Moring, 'Media System, Public Knowledge and Democracy: A Comparative Study', European Journal of Communication, 24 (1), 2009, pp. 5-26.

'Narratives of Media History Revisited' in M. Bailey (ed) Narrating Media History, Routledge, 2009, pp. 1-21.

‘New Trends and Critical Theories in British Media Studies’ (in Japanese) in T. Tsuganesawa, E. Takeichi and T. Watanabe (eds.) Media Kenkyuu to Jaanarizuma 21 Seiki no Kashuku, Minerva Press, Tokyo, 2009, pp. 52-99.

'Communication and History' in Barbie Zelizer (ed) Explorations in Communication and History, Routledge, 2008, pp. 46-60.

'The New Revisionism in Mass Communication Research: A Reappraisal' reprinted in Anders Hansen (ed) Mass Communication Research Methods, Sage, 2009.

'Capitalism and Control of the Press' and 'Rethinking Media and Democracy' in Yuezhi Zhao and Jin Cao (eds.) The Political Economy of Communication, Fudan University Press, Shanghai, 2008, pp. 296-321 and 344-376.

'Mediations of Democracy' [in Norwegian] in B. Gentikon and E. Skogseth (eds.) Medier og Deokratiki, Spartacus, Oslo, 2008, pp. 68-97.

'Media Diversity and Democracy' in T. Gardam and D. Levy (eds.) The Price of Plurality, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism/Ofcom, Oxford, 2008, pp. 103-9.

Media to Kenryoku [Media and Power, in Japanese], Tokyo: Ronshosha, 2007.

'Media, Entertainment and Democracy', Doshisha Journal of Media and Communication Research, 4, 2007, pp 425-438.

'Teoria midiatica e cultural na era do liberalismo de mercado' [Media and cultural theory in the age of market liberalism] in Joao Filho and Micael Herschmann (eds), Novos Rumos da Cultura da Midia, Mauad, Rio de Janeiro, 2007, pp.15-45.

'Reinterpreting the democratic roles of the media', Brazilian Journalism Research, 3 (1), 2007, pp 31-54.

Dazhong Mejia yu Shehui [Mass Media and Society, 3rd edition] (edited with Michael Gurevitch), Huaxia Press, Beijing, 2006.

Meiti yu Quanli [Media and Power, in Chinese], Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 2006.

'Media history: the neglected grandparent of media studies' in K. Leung, J. Kenny and P. Lee (eds) Global Trends in Communication Education and Research (Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2006), pp. 17-35.

'Dimocratia kai mesa mazikis epikininias', [Democracy and the mass media], Zitimata Epikinonias, Vol. 2, 2005, 19-38.

Culture Wars: The Media and the British Left (with Ivor Gaber and Julian Petley) (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005)

Mass Media and Society (edited with Michael Gurevitch), 4th edition (London: Arnold, 2005)

Media and Cultural Theory (edited with David Morley) (London: Routledge, 2005).

'Media and cultural theory in the age of market liberalism' in James Curran and David Morley (eds.) Media and Cultural Theory (London: Routledge, 2005, pp. 129-148 ).

'Mediations of democracy' in James Curran and Michael Gurevitch (eds.), Mass Media and Society, 4th edition (London: Arnold, 2005) pp. 122-149.

Medios de Communicacion y Poder [Media and Power, in Spanish], Hacer, Barcelona, 2005.

Mesa Epikenonias k Exousia [Media and Power, in Greek], Kastaniotis, Athens, 2005.

Midia wa Gwon-Ryuk [Media and Power, in Korean), Communicationbooks, Seoul, 2005.

'What Democracy requires of the media' in Geneva Overholser and Kathleen Jamieson (eds.), The Press: Institutions of American Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2005) pp. 120-140.

(with Jean Seaton), Ying Guo Xin Wen Shi [Power Without Responsibility, 6th edition, in Chinese], Tsinghua University Press, Beijing, 2005.

'The rise of the Westminster school' in Andrew Calabrese and Colin Sparks (eds.), Toward A Political Economy of Culture (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003), pp. 13-40.

Power Without Responsibility (with Jean Seaton), 6th edition (London: Routledge, 2003).

Contesting Media Power: Alternative Media in a Networked World (edited with Nick Couldry) (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003).

'Global journalism: a case study of the internet' in Nick Couldry and James Curran (eds.) Contesting Media Power: Alternative Media in a Networked World (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003), pp. 227-242.

'The paradox of media power' (with Nick Couldry) in N. Couldry and J. Curran (eds.) Contesting Media Power: Alternative Media in a Networked World (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003), pp. 3-16.

Media and Power (London: Routledge, 2002).

'Media and the making of British society, c. 1700-2000', Media History, 8 (2), 2002, pp. 135-154.

'Mediageschiedenis en ideologie' in Jo Bardoel et al (eds.) Journalistieke Cultuur in Nederland (University of Amsterdam Press, 2002), pp. 464-488.