knowhowpodcast

Confined to our homes in lockdown, we have never needed to be better informed about how a global pandemic is affecting our lives. As a result, one unexpected group have found themselves classified as key workers alongside health care staff and supermarket workers: journalists.

In today's episode, we’re looking at the role of journalists in reporting crises such as coronavirus and whether criticisms of the media are justified. Paul Bradshaw leads the MA courses in Journalism at Birmingham City University. He was so concerned about social media conversations about what journalists should be doing that he wrote a blog that was widely circulated. We began by asking why it was important to do so…

Since the spread of COVID-19 around the world, life as we know it has changed utterly. Most major countries have faced some kind of lockdown, with shops and businesses closed.

For some people, used to the kind of lifestyle interacting with people, it has been a real adjustment. And for one group it has been more difficult than most, even if we are all in it together…

Success for celebrities is often dependent on their ability to be both aspirational and approachable, but lockdown has exposed the gulf between them and us. So how can celebrities operate in these extraordinary times?

In today's episode, we talk to Dr Ben Falk, author of Celebrity Journalism: How to Make it Your Career and the biographer of Robert Downey Junior and Brian Cox for his perspective.

What role should impartiality play in journalism in a world where anyone can broadcast? Was there a confusion between due impartiality and balance? Can any journalist really be impartial?

This special edition of The Knowhow is a recording of the Hugh Cudlipp lecture at City, University of London where ITV’s political editor Robert Peston talks about the role of impartiality in news.

In today’s episode, we talk to medical historian Mark Honigsbaum about pandemics through the ages, from the medieval Black Death to the 20th century’s Spanish flu; from Ebola to SARS. How do we report on such viruses – and what is our fascination with Patient Zero, and ‘superspreaders’? Join us as we talk to Mark about why we ended up panicking over swine flu, but largely forgot the far more deadly outbreak of influenza in 1918, and what role the media has played in forming our views on this.

In today’s episode, we present highlights of a debate at City, University of London where senior broadcasters from the BBC, Channel 4 along with other media figures considered how well the public was served by the reporting on the challenging issue of the UK's exit from the European Union.

Selena was one of the first Tejano music stars to go mainstream. Twenty-five years after her death, why is there still a lack of Latinx representation in US media?

Nathian Rodriguez of San Diego State University introduces a class on Selena to teach students about her legacy and why representation matters.

As this year’s general election campaign draws to a close, is it true you can’t turn on a television programme without hearing from a politician eager to secure your vote? On the surface it looks like our leaders are being held to account like never before. The major party leaders have had to answer questions about their plans for the economy, the health service and most of all Brexit.

But at times it has seemed that what voters want to know about is not just what policies that politicians are offering – but their own personal integrity, even if they try to dodge that question. So what role does television have to play then in helping voters to understand what is at stake in this election?

In today’s episode we talk to Dorothy Byrne, head of news and current affairs at Channel 4 News.

Communism, cold war and caviar. The way Russia is portrayed in the mainstream media relies heavily on these familiar stories and old tropes. With the recent news about a suppressed Parliamentary report into Russian interference conjures up regular narratives of spying and skulduggery. But how well do we understand Russia?

In today’s episode we talk to Professor Monica Attard, head of journalism at University of Technology, Sydney. She served as a correspondent for Russia for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in both the 1990s and 2000s, covering stories such as the collapse of Soviet communism, the coup against Gorbachev, the Beslan school siege and the Chechen war.

In today’s episode sponsored by the 2019 ESRC Festival of Social Science we’re fortunate to talk to two guests who have a key insight into reporting refugees. They are both refugees who are also journalists.

We live in an age where free speech, according to some, is increasingly at odds with political correctness. Whether it’s Donald Trump telling four American congresswomen to “go back” to the countries “from which they came”, or Boris Johnson’s description of burqa wearers as “letter boxes”, some politicians appear more interested in inflaming public feeling than in moderating their language. But what’s wrong with political correctness and does it need defending?

In today’s episode we are joined by a panel of expert witnesses for a vigorous debate on the history of political correctness and the so-called ‘free speech crisis’.