Independent Researcher

Thesis Title: 'The Fourth Estate in the USA and UK: Discourses of truth and power'

About

I recently earned my PhD from the the Institute of Communications Studies at Leeds University in September. I previously studied at the University of Nottingham in Ningbo, China, and San Francisco State University, California, USA.

I have taught journalism, culture, media and communication studies at University of Leeds, University of Sheffield, Leeds Metropolitain University, University of Nottingham, Zhejiang University and Wanli University.

My research interests include poststructuralism, Marxism, news media, comparative media and comparative cultural studies. I have previously published in the International Journal of Baudrillard Studies and the Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, as well as presenting at many conferences, workshops and seminars on Jean Baudrillard, Herman & Chomsky's Propaganda Model, and news media production in the People's Republic of China. I am also associate editor of PLATFORM: Journal of Media and Communcations since Spring 2010.

I currently am part-time lecturer at University of Sheffield's Dept. of Journalism, teaching "Language and Journalism" and "Journalism and Political Communicaiton" (2012) modules.

I am also teaching assistant for "Reporting Politics" and "TV News Feature Production" (2012), at University of Leeds' Institute of Communicaiton Studies, previously having taught "Social Communications: Processes and Effects" (2010 & 2011), and "History of Communications" (2009 & 2011). In the fall of 2011 I was also lecturer for "Media Environment" module at Leeds Met University.

I have also previously been module leader, lecturer and tutor for "British Culture and Media" (2006 & 2007) as well as lecturer and tutor for "Crosscultural Communication" (2006 & 2008) and "British Cinema" (2006 & 2008) at University of Nottingham, Ningbo, PRC.

My PhD project, under the supervision of Dr. Chris Paterson and Dr. Paul A. Talyor, is titled "The Fourth Estate in the USA and England: Discourses of truth and power." It features a discussion of the ideology and epistemology behind the Fourth Estate, using an analysis of two discourses. The first is about Power, or the relationship between government and news media, while the second concerns Truth, that is bias and objectivity in the news media. The theoretical framework underlying compares normative theories of the news media, critical political-economic theories, and the post-Marxist, post-structrualist theories of Jean Baudrillard and Slavoj Zizek. Primary data came from discourse analyses of news events in the USA and England as well as interviews with political-news journalists from London and Washington DC conducted in the Summer of 2010.