My PhD Research

Since 2020 I have been working on my PhD at Exeter University, and completed in February 2024.

You can read a short summary report of my work, including key findings and recommendations, here.

This research focuses on the visual communication of climate change, and attempts to understand how newsroom practices and routines which shape content production.

Broadly, my research answers the question:

How do news organisations communicate climate change visually online, and how is this influenced by a mix of internal newsroom dynamics and external networks of news photography?

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Methods

COP26 Imagery

Content analysis and critical visual discourse analysis of a dataset of news imagery published online in UK mainstream newspapers from the duration of COP26.

Journalists/editors

Multiple interviews with journalists, editors, photo editors, and other media professionals broadly involved in the news-making process.

News-making at Carbon Brief

Participant observation during a placement with Carbon Brief, including both in-person and online ethnographic methods.

Photographers

Interviews with multiple photographers working for leading wire picture agencies including Getty Images, PA, AFP, and Reuters.

Collaboration and Co-production

My research takes a co-productive and ethnographic approach, drawing heavily from the experiences and expertise of media professionals.

My PhD would not be possible without the help and collaboration of digital climate journalism organisation Carbon Brief. This amazing team of journalists and experts hosted me for a funded placement in 2021/2022, which allowed me to undertake deep ethnographic research from within a newsroom, and allowed me to attend COP26 on a media badge to see the process of news-making at international events.

My time with Carbon Brief was a collaboration; while I learnt continually from their expertise, I helped the team produce an analysis of a decade of UK newspaper editorials. This work was published in an excellent multimedia piece on Carbon Brief's website, and is currently under review at Environmental Communication.

I have spoken about my experiences using co-production at conferences, and currently have a paper under review at Area reflecting on this aspect of my research.

Contact me to learn more about my project!