Research and innovation

School celebrates success at REF 2021

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Our research

We collaborate with academic institutions, the public sector and media industries in the UK and across the world. We examine the relations between media, communication and society, and explore the impact of these interactions.

The School of Media and Communication received excellent scores in the REF 2021 exercise. 88% of the submitted research outputs were judged to be ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. This underlines the vitality of our research culture and our commitment to supporting and developing staff and postgraduate research.  

We also contribute to the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute Sadler Seminar Series.

To get the latest School news, including our research, direct to your inbox, send your name and email address to mediamass@leeds.ac.uk.

Research Groups

Research in the School of Media and Communication is clustered around several research groups.

The Digital Cultures research group is interested in how digital media and technologies can act as disruptive - and potentially transformative - forces in society.

More on Digital Cultures

The Global Communication research group is united by a critical focus on how communication processes instantiate power relations that cut across the local, regional and the transnational.

More on Global Communication

The Journalism research group brings together researchers with a broad interest in journalism. They are specialists in either journalism practice or research, although most have experience in both.

More on Journalism

This research group brings together researchers with an interest in empirical and theoretical works that engage with research on media production, policy and regulation.

More on Media Industries and Cultural Production

The Political Communication research group provides a forum for researchers to discuss and investigate how power and political ideas are represented in a diversity of communication contexts.

More on Political Communication

The Visual Media and Communication research group explores the dominant role of the visual in communication and media culture - raising questions about the role of the visual in everyday life.

More on Visual Media and Communication

The Gender and Media research group brings together colleagues and postgraduate researchers engaged in debates about how gender functions within and through media and communication.

More on Gender and Media

The Practice research group is interested in how practice-led research can produce innovative answers and creative outcomes to a range of media and communication questions.

More on Practice

News and events

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Protesters call for journalists to tell the truth

Join the School’s researchers and a panel of local journalists and experts to hear about the main findings from the report and for a discussion on the implications for the future of local journalism

More on UK Journalists in the 2020s: Regional launch of major new report on the state of journalism in the UK
Entrance to the School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds

The School of Media and Communication is delighted to invite you to a Guest Lecture by Professor Diane Negra, University College Dublin

More on I’m Sorry You Feel That Way: Affect, Authority and Antagonism in the Cultures of Customer Service
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Screening of a documentary about the relationship between photography, memory and the political violence and forced disappearances perpetrated by Argentina’s last military dictatorship

More on Screening of (Dis)Appear (UK, 2023) and Q&A with director.
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In search for ambivalence in contemporary media culture

More on 2025 Jay Blumler Lecture with Guest Speaker Professor Shani Orgad