Goldsmiths - University of London

Dr. Natalie Fenton

My research is concerned to address one of the most complex and vital issues of our age - the role the media play in the formation of identities and democracies and why and how people seek to change the world for socially progressive ends.

I begin from the standpoint that we still live in deeply unequal capitalist societies, driven by profit and competition operating on a global scale. We also live in a media dominated world with many different ideas and identities in circulation at any one time. We need to understand the former to appreciate the latter - the relation between individual autonomy, freedom and rational action on the one hand and the social construction of identity and behaviour on the other. To explore these themes and issues I am currently involved in two main strands of research:

• I am Co-Director of the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre. Within this programme I lead a project called 'Spaces of the News'. This project explores the ways in which technological, economic and social change is reconfiguring news journalism and shaping the dynamics of the public sphere and public culture.
• I am Co-Director of the new Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy. In this forum I seek to interrogate the relationship between the media and resistance - either as a dominant social force which through uniformity of representation encourages digression, or as a means of forging other identities and developing alternative political projects. I am particularly interested in notions of new media, networks and new politics; notions of political hope and rethinking our understanding of public culture, public sphere and democracy.

Areas of supervision

I would be interested in supervising students in the following broadly defined areas: the symbolic contestation of the globalization of capital; the political economy of media and cultural industries and the impact of technological changes; alternative media and the differences between mainstream and non-mainstream media organizations and types of cultural production; mediated political resistance; voluntary sector, civil society and the media.

Selected publications

Books

• Natalie Fenton (ed.) (2009) New Media, Old News: Journalism and Democracy in the Digital Age. London: Sage.
• Fran Tonkiss, Andrew Passey, Natalie Fenton and Les Hems (eds.) (2000) Trust and Civil Society, London: Macmillan
• Natalie Fenton, Alan Bryman, David Deacon with Peter Birmingham (1998) Mediating Social Science, London: Sage

Chapters

• Natalie Fenton and Tamara Witschge (2009), ‘Comment is free, facts are sacred: Journalistic ethics in a changing mediascape’ in Graham Miekle and Guy Redden (eds) (2009)  OnLine News and Journalism, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Natalie Fenton (ed.) (2009), New Media, Old News: Journalism and Democracy in the Digital Age. London: Sage.
• Natalie Fenton (2009), ‘Drowning or waving? New media, journalism and democracy’ in N Fenton (ed.) New Media, Old News: Journalism and Democracy in the Digital Age (ed.) (2009) London: Sage.
• Natalie Fenton (2009) ‘NGOs, New Media and the Mainstream News: News from everywhere’ in N Fenton (ed.) New Media, Old News: Journalism and Democracy in the Digital Age, London: Sage
• Natalie Fenton (2009), ‘Re-imagining democracy: new media, young people, participation and politics’ in P. Dahlgren and T. Olson (eds.) Young Citizens, ICT’s and Democracy, Nordicom Press
• Natalie Fenton (2009), ‘New Media, Politics and Resistance’, in J. Downing and M. Pajnik (eds.) Alternative Media and New Public Settings, Ljubljana: The Peace Institute.
• Natalie Fenton (2009), ‘News in the Digital Age’ in Stuart Allen (ed) (2009) The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism Studies, London: Routledge
• Natalie Fenton (2006) 'Contesting Global Capital: New Media and the Role of a Social Imaginary' in Bart Cammaerts and Nico Carpentier (eds) Reclaiming the Media: Communication Rights and Democratic Media Roles, Intellect: Edinburgh. pp. 225-242
• Natalie Fenton (2006) 'Bridging the Mythical Divide: Political Economy and Cultural Studies Approaches to the Analysis of the Media' in Eoin Devereux (ed.) Issues and Key Debate in the Media Studies London: Sage.

Journals

• Natalie Fenton (2009)  ‘My Media Studies: Getting Political in a Global Digital Age’ Television and New Media 10 (1):55-57
• Natalie Fenton (2008) ‘Mediating Hope: New Media, Politics and Resistance’ International Journal of Cultural Studies Vol. 11, No. 2, 230-248.
• Natalie Fenton (2008)  ‘Mediating Solidarity’ Global Media and Communication Vol. 4, No. 1: 37-57 
• John Downey and Natalie Fenton (2007) 'Global Capital, Local Resistance', Current Sociology 55: 5, 651-673.
• Sara-Jane Finlay and Natalie Fenton (2005). "If you've got a vagina and an attitude, that's a deadly combination": Sex and heterosexuality in Body of Evidence, Basic Instinct and Disclosure. Sexualities
• John Downey and Natalie Fenton (2003) 'Constructing a Counter-Public Sphere' New Media and Society, (5)2:185-202
• John Downey and Natalie Fenton (2003) 'Counter public spheres and global modernity' Javnost - The Public, (X) 1: 15-33
• Sara-Jane Finlay and Natalie Fenton (2002). Diaries: A timely reflection. Auto/Biography. 10(1/2): 67-76
• Natalie Fenton, (2000) 'The Problematics of Postmodernism for Feminist Media Studies' Media, Culture and Society 22(6):23-741
• David Deacon, Natalie Fenton and Alan Bryman, (1999) The Natural History of a News Item, Media. Culture and Society 21(1):9-34

Presentations and exhibitions