Professor Roger Dickinson
Emeritus Professor of Sociology
School/Department: Media Communication and Sociology, School of
Telephone: +44 (0)796 688 5160
Email: dik@leicester.ac.uk
Profile
My first academic appointment was at the Open University in 1979 where I was employed as a Research Assistant in the Institute of Educational Technology. I joined the Centre for Mass Communication Research (now part of MCS) in 1982 as a Research Assistant. I was promoted to a Personal Chair in 2018 when I became Professor of Sociology. I have taught on and led modules and programmes in media and communication at undergraduate and postgraduate level since 1983. I have been an external examiner for undergraduate programmes in journalism studies for the Universities of Leeds and the West of England at Bristol and have examined PhDs at the Universities of Cardiff Sheffield and Loughborough.
I have published widely in the fields of the sociology of the media journalism studies and health communication and presented papers on these topics at numerous national and international conferences. I was Visiting Professor at the Department of Political Science (‘Science PO’) University of Grenoble in April 2015 and March 2019. I am a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Research
My most recent research has been on
Sociology of news and journalists
Journalists and the mechanisms of workplace regulation
Journalism as an occupational accomplishment
Use of social media by journalists
My earlier research was on the media and health. I have completed many projects using a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods to study processes of production analyse media content and explore the reception and interpretation of media messages about health illness and related issues. This work has been funded by numerous organisations including:
UK Government Department of Health
Food Standards Agency
Health Education Council
Health Education Authority
Health and Safety Executive
UK Regional and District Health Authorities
Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food
Publications
Books
- Gunter, B. and DICKINSON, R. (eds) (2013) News media in the Arab world. London: Bloomsbury, 200pp.
- DICKINSON, R, Harindranath, R. and Linne, O. (eds) (1998) Approaches to audiences London: Edward Arnold, 318pp (translated into Chinese and re-published in China with a revised and updated introduction in 2006).
Peer-reviewed articles
- DICKINSON, R. (2013) Weber's sociology of the press and journalism: continuities in contemporary sociologies of journalists. Max Weber Studies 13 (2) 197-215
- DICKINSON, R., Matthews, J. and Saltzis, K. (2013) Studying journalists in changing times: understanding news work as socially-situated practice. International Communication Gazette 75 (1):3-18. (70/15/15)
- DICKINSON, R., Gunter, B., Matthews, J. and Cole, J. (2013) The impact of amended controls on the advertising of infant formula in the UK: findings from a before and after study. International Journal of Health Promotion and Education. 51 (1): 11-22. (100)
- Gunter, B., DICKINSON, R., Matthews, J. and Cole, J. (2012) Formula manufacturers' websites: are they really non-compliant advertisements? Health Education 113(1):18-27. (80/20/0/0)
- DICKINSON, R. and Memon, B. (2012) Press clubs, the journalistic field and the practice of journalism in Pakistan. Journalism Studies 13 (4) 616-632. (90/10)
- DICKINSON, R. and Bigi, H. (2009) The Swiss video journalist: issues of agency and autonomy in news production. Journalism: Theory, Practice, Criticism 10 (4) 509-526. (90/10)
- DICKINSON, R. (2008) Studying the Sociology of journalists: the journalistic field and the news world. Sociology Compass 2/5 1383-1399.
- Saltzis, K. and DICKINSON, R. (2008) Inside the changing newsroom: journalists' responses to media convergence. Aslib Proceedings 60 (3) 216-228. (20/80)