Communications, Media and Culture
Research
Stirling Media Research Institute
Welcome to the Stirling Media Research Institute. The SMRI is an internationally recognised centre for media research and is the research arm of the Department of Film, Media & Journalism.
Directed by Dr Richard Haynes, the SMRI promotes a vibrant research culture including staff, postgraduate research students, taught postgraduate students, visiting research fellows and collaborative research partners. The Institute has national and international research expertise across the humanities and social sciences and hosts the University’s research cluster in Digital Cultures as well as contributing members of other research clusters across the University.
Members of the Institute are actively involved in a range of international networks and maintain strong links with the media and communications industries, policy makers and other media-related stakeholders.
Our research interests include:
- New media and digital cultures
- Screen analysis and mediated language
- Cultural policy and the creative industries
- Media sport
- Media and cultural identities
- Political communication
- Journalism
- Promotional culture and public relations
- Media history, cultural archives and heritage.
- Film history, theory and analysis
- Celebrity
- Media regulation and policy
- Global cinema
The Institute has a purpose-built research facility for the use of its members and postgraduate research students. We also invite visiting researchers to use the SMRI and collaborate with staff on research projects of mutual interest.
The Institute runs a series of research seminars and workshops including talks by visiting academic researchers, media practitioners and postgraduate students. It also hosts the annual Hetherington Memorial Lecture sponsored by the Scott Trust. This year's lecture was given by Alf Young, former Deputy Editor of the Herald Newspaper.
Journal of Media and Cultural Politics
Head of Department Professor Neil Blain is editor of The International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics (MCP) that is co-hosted by the SMRI (with Dr Katharine Sarikakis, University of Leeds). The journal is committed to analyzing the politics of communications and cultural processes. It addresses cultural politics in their local, international and global dimensions, recognizing equally the importance of issues defined by their specific cultural geography and those which run across cultures and nations.