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Staff Profile

Dr David Baines

Senior Lecturer

Background

Introduction

I lecture in journalism and have worked for many years on daily newspapers.

The primary focus of my research is on journalism, localities and communities; changing journalism roles and practices; the structure, regulation and political economy of the local and regional press.

I am a founder member (with Prof Agnes Gulyas of Canterbury Christchurch University and Dr Rachel Matthews of Coventry University) of the Media, Communications and Cultural Studies Association - MECCSA - Network on Local and Community Media.

Evidence I presented to the Caircross Review into the Sustainability of High Quality Journalism in the UK featured in the final report and recommendations (2019). I represent the MECCSA Network on Local and Community Media on the advisory panel for the IMPRESS Taskforce of Independent Publishers which seeks to strengthen public interest journalism in the UK and build on the work of the Cairncross Review.   

As secretary of the UK and Ireland's Association for Journalism Education and its representative on the council of the triennial World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC), I help to lead the development of journalism education during a period of rapid transformations in the field, and global debates on its future. The primary focus of my research in journalism education centres on cross-border collaborations and cross-cultural understanding. I was rapporteur for the WJEC syndicate on Digital Global Collaboration (Paris, 2019). 

Qualifications

PhD Newcastle University

MA Mass Communications, Leicester University

Ba(Hons) English and Philosophy, Newcastle University

Cert Ed (HE), Sunderland University

CELTA, Newcastle College

Previous Positions

Board member: Institute for Communication Ethics

Daily newspaper journalist: Trinity Mirror; Thomson Regional Newspapers; Westminster Press.

Visiting Lecturer in Journalism: Sunderland University

Chair: NCTJ North East Area Advisory Committee

Memberships

Chair: National Union of Journalists' Professional Taining Committee

Secretary: Association for Journalism Education

Member: Editorial board, Journalism Education

Trustee: Headliners - a charity empowering young people to gain a voice and hearing on matters of concern to them and their communities 

Trustee: We Are Our Media - a community media project on Tyneside

Fellow: Higher Education Academy

Member: Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society

Languages

German (Intermediate)

Research

Research Interests

The primary focus of my research is on the journalism of localities and communities; changing journalism roles and practices; the structure, regulation and political economy of the local and regional press.

I am a founder member (with Prof Agnes Gulyas of Canterbury Christchurch University and Dr Rachel Matthews of Coventry University) of the Media, Communications and Cultural Studies Association - MECCSA - Network on Local and Community Media. 

I am exploring the roles that collaborative forms of journalism are developing within communities and developing understandings that are emerging about the value of those processes - independently from the products, the texts - of journalism.      

Current Work

I am co-editor with Prof Agnes Gulyas of The Routledge Companion to Local Media and Journalism (March 2020 in press). The companion provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of local media and journalism from a range of perspectives, continents and cultures. It identifies and analyses key issues and trends; explores dominant conceptual debates and consolidates this important, but often overlooked area of journalism studies.

I am also exploring, through the work in Northern Ireland of the charity Headliners, how enabling children and young people to adopt what Mark Deize has called the "critical-reflexive skillset, toolkit and outlook of a journalist"  to question taken-for-granted divisions can help to erode social, political and cultural barriers in post-conflict contexts. This study is generating new understandings relating to the value of journalistic processes, as well as journalistic outputs, in the field of ;preace journalsm.

This work is informed in part by the conceptualisation of 'community' as processes and practices, instances of micro-socialities, by scholars such as Valerie Walkerdine and David Studdert.     

Societal Relevance

My research on local media and journakism has informed the Caircross Review into the Sustainability of High Quality Journalism in the UK and my submission featured in the panel's final report and recommendations (2019). My work continues to contribute to the development of sustainability in high quality journalism through the Taskforce of Independent Publishers, established by media regulator IMPRESS,  in which I partociate as a representative of the MECCSA Network. The purpose of the Taskforce is to strengthen public interest-journalism in the UK and build on the recommendations of the Cairncross Review.

Understandings emerging from my study of the Headliners project in Northern Ireland are informing a three-year  project under development by the charity in North East England, which is being funded by the Heritage Lottery. Children and young people from home, migrant and transient communities will work collaboratively to tell the stories of people from their region to explore and demonstrate the richly textured diversity of its communities. The stories and images they produce are to feature on Tyne and Wear's mass transport system, Metro, a network which connects spaces and places which are often demarcated by social and cultural dividing lines and barriers relating to class and ethnicity. If the project is successful  it will provide a model to apply 'journalism as process' to assist in the erosion of those social, cultural, ethinic and political barriers which emerge in many communities and in many contexts.  


Teaching

 Undergraduate Teaching

COM3073 Research Dissertation: Researching Media Communication and Culture
COM3001 Magazine Publishing

Postgraduate Teaching

COM8069 Multi-Media Journalism: Principles and Practice
COM8059 Media and Law
COM8061 Professional Sub-editing and Design
COM8163 News and journalism (contributor)
COM8299 Research Dissertation for MA Media and Journalism
COM8199 Research Dissertation for MA Media and Public Relations

Publications