Professor Natalie Fenton

Staff details

Position Professor of Media and Communications

Department Media, Communications and Cultural Studies

Email n.fenton (@gold.ac.uk)

Phone +44 (0)20 7919 7620

I teach the following course: Critical Perspectives in Political Communications on the MA Political Communications.

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:

As former Co-Director of the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre, my work focused on the ways in which technological, economic and social change is reconfiguring news journalism and shaping the dynamics of the public sphere and public culture. This research led to my involvement as a founding member of the Media Reform Coalition and as vice-chair of the Board of Directors for the campaign group Hacked Off – both of which campaign for a free, plural and accountable media.

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 progressive politics; notions of political hope and rethinking our understanding of public culture, public sphere and democracy.

Areas of supervision

I am interested in supervising students in the following broadly defined areas: the media and democracy; the political economy of media and cultural industries; media power; media and political resistance; new media and radical politics; voluntary sector, civil society and the media.

Investigating the Echo Chamber, Portland's Deirdre Livingston interviews me about the effects on the world from our everyday lives to democracy.

You can hear me talking about some of the things that interest me here.

You can pre-order my new book Digital Political Radical published by Polity, ISBN: 978-0-7456-5087-6

book cover of Digital Political Radical by Natalie Fenton

Publications

Book

Davis, Aeron; Fenton, Natalie; Freedman, Des (D. J.) and Khiabany, Gholam. 2020. Media, Democracy and Social Change: Reimagining Political Communications. London: Sage. ISBN 9781526456960

Fenton, Natalie; Freedman, Des (D. J.) ; Schlosberg, Justin and Dencik, Lina. 2020. The Media Manifesto. Cambridge: Polity. ISBN 9781509538065

Curran, James P.; Fenton, Natalie and Freedman, Des (D. J.) . 2017. Misunderstanding the Internet, 2nd edition (in Korean). Seoul, South Korea: Culturelook. ISBN 97-11-85521-06-0-94300

Fenton, Natalie. 2016. Digital, Political, Radical. Cambridge: Polity. ISBN 9780745650876

Curran, James P.; Fenton, Natalie and Freedman, Des (D. J.) . 2016. Misunderstanding the Internet 2nd Edition. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781138906228

Curran, James P.; Freedman, Des (D. J.) and Fenton, Natalie. 2014. Hulianwang de Wudu (Misunderstanding the Internet). Beijing: People's University of China Press.

Curran, James P.; Fenton, Natalie and Freedman, Des (D. J.) . 2012. Misunderstanding the Internet. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-57958-2:

Fenton, Natalie; Bryman, Alan; Deacon, David and Birmingham, Peter. 1997. Mediating Social Science. London: SAGE. ISBN 978-0803975774

Corner, John; Richardson, Kay and Fenton, Natalie. 1990. Nuclear Reactions: Form and Response in Public Issue Television. University of Luton Press: Acamedia. ISBN 978-0861962518

Edited Book

Fenton, Natalie, ed. 2009. New Media, Old News: Journalism and Democracy in the Digital Age. London: SAGE. ISBN 978-1847875747

Tonkiss, Fran; Passey, Andrew; Fenton, Natalie and Hems, Les, eds. 2000. Trust and Civil Society. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0333778159

Edited Journal

Calabrese, Andrew and Fenton, Natalie, eds. 2015. A symposium on media, communication and the limits of liberalism, European Journal of Communication, 30(5). 0267-3231

Fenton, Natalie, ed. 2012. Telling Tales: Press, Politics, Power, and the Public Interest, Television and New Media, 13(1).

Fenton, Natalie, ed. 2010. Special Edition: ‘Rupert Murdoch and Empire’, Television and New Media, 13(1). 1527-4764

Book Section

Fenton, Natalie. 2019. The Scandalous Power of the Press: Phone Hacking in the UK. In: Howard Tumber and Silvio Waisbord, eds. Routledge Companion to Media and Scandal. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9780815387596

Fenton, Natalie. 2018. Media Activism: Media Change? In: Graham Meikle, ed. Routledge Companion to Media and Activism. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781138202030

Fenton, Natalie. 2017. Distracted by technologies and captured by the public sphere. In: Leah Lievrouw and Brian Loader, eds. Handbook of Digital Media and Communication. London: Routledge.

Fenton, Natalie and Freedman, Des (D. J.) . 2014. The Politics and Possibilities of Media Reform: Lessons from the UK. In: Toby Miller, ed. The Routledge Companion to Global Popular Culture. London & NY: Routledge, pp. 458-470. ISBN 978-0415641470

Fenton, Natalie. 2012. The Internet and Social Networking. In: James P. Curran; Natalie Fenton and Des (D. J.) Freedman, eds. Misunderstanding the Internet. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, pp. 123-148. ISBN 978-0-415-57956-8

Fenton, Natalie. 2012. De-democratizing the News? New Media and the Structural Practices of Journalism. In: Eugenia Siapera and Andreas Veglis, eds. The Handbook of Global Online Journalism. London: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 119-134. ISBN 978-1444338553

Fenton, Natalie. 2011. Multiplicity, autonomy and the mediated politics of new social movements. In: L Dahlberg and S Phelan, eds. Discourse Theory and Media Politics. London: Palgrave, pp. 178-200. ISBN 978-1137305947

Fenton, Natalie and Witschge, Tamara. 2010. 'Comment is free, facts are sacred': Journalistic ethics in a changing mediascape. In: G Meikle and G Redden, eds. News online : transformations and continuities. London: Palgrave, pp. 148-164. ISBN 9780230233454

Fenton, Natalie. 2010. NGOs, New Media and the Mainstream News: News from Everywhere. In: Natalie Fenton, ed. New Media, Old News: Journalism and Democracy in the Digital Age. London: Sage, pp. 153-169. ISBN 9781847875747

Fenton, Natalie. 2009. Drowning or waving? New media, journalism and democracy. In: Natalie Fenton, ed. New Media, Old News: Journalism and Democracy in the Digital Age. London: SAGE, pp. 3-16. ISBN 978-1847875747

Fenton, Natalie. 2009. ‘Re-imagining democracy: new media, young people, participation and politics’ in P. Dahlgren and T. Olson (2009 - Nov), Young Citizens, ICT’s and Democracy. In: , ed. Young Citizens, ICT’s and Democracy. Sweden: Nordicom Press, pp. 19-35. ISBN ?

Fenton, Natalie. 2009. News in the Digital Age. In: S Allan, ed. Routledge Companion to News and Journalism Studies. London: Routledge, pp. 557-568. ISBN 978-0-415-66953-5

Fenton, Natalie. 2009. New Media, Politics and Resistance. In: John D H Downing and Mojca Painik, eds. Alternative Media and New Public Settings. Ljubljana: The Peace Institute.

Fenton, Natalie. 2009. ‘New Media, Politics and Resistance’, in J. Downing and M. Pajnik (2009) (eds.) :. In: J Downing and M Pajnik, eds. Alternative Media and New Public Settings,. Ljubljana: The Peace Institute., pp. 61-81.

Fenton, Natalie. 2007. Bridging the Mythical Divide: Political Economy and Cultural Studies Approaches to the Analysis of the Media. In: Eoin Devereux, ed. Media Studies: Key Issues and Debates. London: SAGE, pp. 7-31. ISBN 978-1412929837

Fenton, Natalie. 2006. Contesting Global Capital, New Media, Solidarity, and the role of Social Imaginary. In: Bart Cammaerts and Nico Carpentier, eds. Reclaiming the Media: Communication Rights and Democratic Media Roles. Bristol: Intellect, pp. 225-242. ISBN 9781841501635

Article

Fenton, Natalie. 2018. Regulation is Freedom: phone hacking, press regulation and the Leveson Inquiry – the story so far. Communications Law, 23(3), ISSN 1746-7616

Fenton, Natalie and Freedman, Des (D. J.) . 2018. Democracia fake, más notícias. Comunicação & Educação, 23(1), pp. 107-126. ISSN 2316-9125

Fenton, Natalie. 2018. Fake Democracy: The Limits of Public Sphere Theory. Javnost - The Public, ISSN 1318-3222

Fenton, Natalie and Freedman, Des (D. J.) . 2017. Fake Democracy: Bad News. Socialist Register, 54(2018), pp. 130-150. ISSN 0081-0606

Fenton, Natalie. 2015. Left Out? Digital Media, Radical Politics and Social Change. Information, Communication & Society, 19(3), pp. 346-361. ISSN 1369-118X

Fenton, Natalie and Titley, Gavan. 2015. Mourning and Longing: Media Studies learning to let go of liberal democracy’. European Journal of Communication, 30(5), pp. 554-570. ISSN 0267-3231

Fenton, Natalie. 2015. Post-democracy, Press, Politics and Power. Political Quarterly,

Fenton, Natalie. 2014. Defending Whose Democracy? Media Freedom and Media Power. Nordicom Review, 35, pp. 31-43.

Fenton, Natalie. 2013. News Journalism, New Media, Democracy and the Public Interest. Medienjournal, 3, pp. 19-38.

Fenton, Natalie. 2012. Telling Tales: Press, Politics, Power and the Public Interest. Television and New Media, 13(1), pp. 3-6. ISSN 1527-4764

Fenton, Natalie. 2011. Cosmopolitanism as Conformity and Contestation: the mainstream press and radical politics. Journalism Studies, 14(2), pp. 172-186. ISSN 1461-670X

Fenton, Natalie. 2011. Deregulation or democracy? New media, news, neoliberalism and the public interest. Contiuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, 25(1), pp. 63-72. ISSN 1030-4312

Fenton, Natalie. 2011. Deregulation or democracy? New media, news, neoliberalism and the public interest. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 25(1), pp. 16-22. ISSN 1030-4312

Barassi, Veronica and Fenton, Natalie. 2011. Alternative Media and Social Networking Sites: the Politics of Individuation and Political Participation. Communication Review, 14(3), pp. 179-196. ISSN 1071-4421

Fenton, Natalie. 2011. Regulating for democracy: current issues in news and journalism. Continuum: The Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, 25(1), pp. 63-72. ISSN 1030-4312

Fenton, Natalie. 2009. My Media Studies: Getting Political in a Global Digital Age. Television and New Media, 10(1), pp. 55-57. ISSN 1527-4764

Fenton, Natalie. 2008. Mediating Solidarity. Global Media and Communication, 4(1), pp. 37-57. ISSN 1742-7665

Fenton, Natalie. 2008. Mediating Hope: New Media, Politics and Resistance. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 11(2), pp. 230-248. ISSN 1367-8779

Fenton, Natalie and Downey, J.. 2007. Global Capital Local Resistance? Trade Unions National Newspapers and the Symbolic Contestation of Offshoring in the UK. Current Sociology, 55(5), pp. 651-673. ISSN 00113921

Fenton, Natalie and Downey, John. 2003. New Media, Counter Publicity and the Public Sphere. New Media & Society, 5(2), pp. 185-202. ISSN 14614448

Fenton, Natalie and Downey, J.. 2003. Counter Public Spheres and Global Modernity. Javnost - The Public, 10(1), pp. 15-32. ISSN 13183222

Conference or Workshop Item

Barassi, Veronica and Fenton, Natalie. 2010. 'Alternative Media and Social Networking Sites: The Politics of Individuation and Political Participation'. In: Community and Communication Section at the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). Braga, Portugal.

Report

Freedman, Des (D. J.) ; Fenton, Natalie; Metykova, Monika and Schlosberg, Justin. 2010. Meeting the News Needs of Local Communities. Project Report. Commissioned by Media Trust.

Freedman, Des (D. J.) ; Witschge, Tamara and Fenton, Natalie. 2010. Protecting the News: Civil Society and the Media. Project Report. Carnegie UK.

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