Monograph
The Left Behind: Reimagining Britain's Socially Excluded
Morrison J (2022) The Left Behind: Reimagining Britain's Socially Excluded. London: Pluto Press. https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745344621/the-left-behind/
About me
About me
James Morrison is Associate Professor in Journalism at the University of Stirling. He spent over a decade as a staff reporter for regional and national news organisations including the Press Association and the Independent on Sunday, and has worked as a freelance writer for numerous titles ranging from the Guardian, Telegraph Magazine and the Times Educational Supplement to History Today, the Ecologist and Museums Journal. His research interests focus on the interplay between media and political representations of marginalised groups, their lived experiences and public attitudes towards them. In addition to publishing in a number of peer-reviewed journals, his books include Familiar Strangers, Juvenile Panic and the British Press (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), Scroungers: Moral Panics and Media Myths (Zed Books, 2019) and The Left Behind: Reimagining Britain's Socially Excluded (Pluto Press, 2022). Scroungers was praised in The Guardian for making 'many salient and persuasive arguments, most notably regarding the abstract fetishisation of work and the grim reality of work in neoliberal Britain', while Chas Critcher (co-author with the late Stuart Hall of Policing the Crisis) described it as 'a highly original contribution to the sociology of hate' - drawing on 'a forensic analysis of ideological ploys by right-wing politicians, wilfully distorted narratives in traditional media and vitriolic outpourings on social media'. Reviewing The Left Behind, Lancaster University's Tracey Jensen described it as 'a sophisticated interrogation of how the 'left behind' are mythologised, problematised and weaponised by those whose insights rarely stretch beyond regional condescension and recycled tropes'. James is also a member of the Public Affairs Board of the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) and the author of a set textbook for journalism students and trainees: Essential Public Affairs for Journalists (OUP).
Research
James's research interests focus on the interplay between media, political and pop cultural representations of marginalised groups, their lived experiences and public attitudes towards them. He is particularly interested in the ways in which disadvantaged minorities - from working-aged benefit recipients to economic migrants and refugees - are problematised through narratives of othering, stigmatisation and moral panic. His interests also include the ways in which real-time data-driven market intelligence and the evolving dynamics between news audiences, produsers, journalists and sources is transforming the newsgathering practices, cultures, ideologies and identities of news professionals. Much of James's empirical work adopts an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods approach combining analysis of media, political and/or social media discourse with individual interviews, focus groups, authored testimonies/journals and other forms of participatory research.
Outputs (12)
Outputs
Article
Morrison J (2022) 'Left behind' North of the Border? Economic Disadvantage and Intersectional Inequalities in Post-Pandemic Scotland. Scottish Affairs, 31 (4), pp. 393-418. https://doi.org/10.3366/scot.2022.0428
Article
Morrison J (2021) "Scrounger-bashing" as national pastime: the prevalence and ferocity of anti-welfare ideology on niche-interest online forums. Social Semiotics, 31 (3), pp. 383-401. https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2021.1930859
Book Chapter
Morrison J (2021) Pluralist public sphere or elitist closed circle? Elite-driven agendas and contributor ‘chemistry’ as determinants of pundit choice on a flagship BBC politics show. In: Morrison J, Birks J & Berry M (eds.) Routledge Companion to Political Journalism. 1 ed. Routledge Companions. Abingdon: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-Political-Journalism/Morrison-Birks-Berry/p/book/9780367248222#
Book Chapter
Introduction: The New terrain of mediated politics
Morrison J, Birks J & Berry M (2021) Introduction: The New terrain of mediated politics. In: Routledge Companion to Political Journalism. Routledge Companions. Abingdon: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-Political-Journalism/Morrison-Birks-Berry/p/book/9780367248222
Book Chapter
Morrison J (2020) From Community To Commerce? Analytics, audience 'engagement' and how local newspapers are renegotiating news values in the age of pageview-driven journalism. In: Gulyas A & Baines D (eds.) Routledge Companion to Local Media and Journalism. Routledge Media and Cultural Studies Companions. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 312-320. https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-Local-Media-and-Journalism/Gulyas-Baines/p/book/9780815375364?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9fX9koik_gIVlWDmCh0A3Qa2EAAYASAAEgIV7fD_BwE
Article
Morrison J (2019) Re-framing free movement in the countdown to Brexit? Shifting UK press portrayals of EU migrants in the wake of the referendum. British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 21 (3), pp. 594-611. https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148119851385
Monograph
Scroungers: Moral Panics and Media Myths
Morrison J (2019) Scroungers PDF. London: Zed Books (Bloomsbury). https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/scroungers-9781786992130/
Book Chapter
Morrison JG (2018) Online News Audiences as Co-Authors? The Extent and Limits of Collaborative Citizen-Professional Journalism on Newspaper Comment Threads. In: Visnovsky J & Radosinska J (eds.) London: InTech. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.77098
Article
Finishing the "Unfinished" Story: Online newspaper discussion threads as journalistic texts
Morrison J (2017) Finishing the "Unfinished" Story: Online newspaper discussion threads as journalistic texts. Digital Journalism, 5 (2), pp. 213-232. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2016.1165129
Article
Morrison J (2017) Chilling at the grassroots? The impact of the Leveson Inquiry on journalist-source relations and the reporting of the powerful at local level. Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies, 6 (1), pp. 17-35. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajms.6.1.17_1
Monograph
Familiar Strangers, Juvenile Panic and the British Press: The Decline of Social Trust
Morrison J (2016) Familiar Strangers, Juvenile Panic and the British Press: The Decline of Social Trust. London: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137529954