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Papers by John Downey
Southeastern Europe, 2015
We are pleased to see that our edited collection has generated such interest in the wider scholar... more We are pleased to see that our edited collection has generated such interest in the wider scholarly community, and are grateful to all three reviewers for their comments. The decision of the editors of Southeastern Europe journal to host a forum on the topic confirms the timeliness of our intervention and the need for further work in this area. Let us note that the idea for this book was developed in the context of a EU-funded scholarly network 1 that was aimed at increasing the understanding of media landscapes in Central and Eastern Europe, examining the applicability of Western European and North American concepts and theories, and developing novel conceptualisations. Our book was directly tied to these aims-we took an established and increasingly popular 'Western' theory of media systems developed by Hallin and Mancini (2004) as our starting point, thought about whether and how it applied to Central and Eastern European media, how to develop it further to better account for the specificities of media systems in the region, and also how to think in a more sociologically informed way about how to explain media systems thereby broadening out the study of media systems beyond the relationship between media and political systems. From the very start it was clear that we would have to make do with existing resources and data sets, and work within the restraints of time available to our individual contributors. As a result, our main aim was to point out the key contours of a new, better framework for comparative media analysis, and asking our contributors to respond to this framework within the limits of time and data they had available at the time. Systematic new research was, unfortunately, out of question. Likewise, given the geographic focus of the network and expertise, the volume had to be focused on Central and Eastern European media, even though the broader arguments we are developing apply to comparative media research everywhere. With this in mind, let us now turn to the two reviews. We shall start with Anders Todal Jenssen's comments, and then proceed to those provided by Sandra B. Hrvatin and Brankica Petković. In both cases, we shall focus on observations regarding the book in general rather than those related to other individual contributions as the latter are often too specific to be addressed by the editors. Two themes in particular seemed recurrent in the comments-the relationships between different causal factors that affect media systems, and the usefulness of quantitative indicators in comparative media research. The arguments put forward in the comments indicate that we need to restate and clarify our position on each of these. Starting with Jenssen's review, we were of course very pleased to see all the complimentary comments, especially with regard to our argument about the necessity of involving not only political, but also economic, cultural, and more broadly historical and sociological factors
Journalism, 2017
Many accounts of contemporary mediated communication of various kinds emphasise speed, immediacy ... more Many accounts of contemporary mediated communication of various kinds emphasise speed, immediacy and simultaneity as overriding temporal characteristics, and accounts of journalism are no exception. Acceleration in journalistic practice and the associated changes in news content and its communication have a variety of consequences. In the most extreme accounts, this produces ever-shallower news content while the immediacy of its delivery collapses deliberative time for its interpretation. This article attempts to challenge some of the assumptions on which these assertions are based by taking an alternative starting point in analysing news time and temporality: the news audience. We argue that many accounts which emphasise the paralysing effects of fast communication and the acceleration of news in particular fail to acknowledge the complexities of news consumption, instead pessimistically reading off the effects of speed from communications technologies themselves. We go on to consi...
New Media & Society, Jan 1, 2003
JAVNOST-LJUBLJANA-, Jan 1, 2003
In the last thirty years capitalism has gone through a major transition that has seen the intensi... more In the last thirty years capitalism has gone through a major transition that has seen the intensification of globalisation, the rise of neo-liberalism and the New Right, the decline of trust and of social democracy, a process of de-traditionalisation, and the rise of new social movements. These changes have profound implications for the nature and functioning of the public sphere . In this paper we argue that the public sphere has been shaken substantially by these shifts opening up increasing possibilities in the process for counter public spheres to become established and flourish. We trace the development of the concept of the public sphere post 1989 that includes crucial and too often ignored revisions to the original Habermasian thesis. We argue that counter public spheres become established in periods of instability in the dominant public sphere.
Political Communication, Jul 2013
Political sex scandals are largely absent in some democracies but proliferate in others. However,... more Political sex scandals are largely absent in some democracies but proliferate in others. However, there have so far been few if any comprehensive attempts to document the actual number of sex scandals that have occurred and to explain their presence (and, indeed, absence), and the one study that has (Barker's 1994 study) ended in the early 1990s and had numerous problems in relation to defining and documenting such scandals. Based on extensive research, this article documents the number of sex scandals in eight advanced industrial democracies and tries to explain their occurrence using Charles Ragin's fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis. The article has three goals: to determine the number of sex scandals in different democracies, explain why this might be, and demonstrate the utility of fuzzy set qualitative case analysis for smalland medium-N comparative research.
typologies designed to account for the diversity of media systems around the world have been a re... more typologies designed to account for the diversity of media systems around the world have been a recurring element of communication research for well over half a century. yet, in common with comparative endeavours in other areas of social scientific inquiry, the analysis of media systems has long been plagued by simplistic, teleological and ethnocentric understandings of social change. the four-fold typology of press models proposed by Fred siebert, theodore peterson and wilbur schramm in 1956 -which distinguished between the authoritarian, libertarian, social responsibility, and soviet communist concepts of the presswas designed from the normative perspective of classical liberalism, and ranked the four types of the press on an evolutionary scale culminating in the press model promoted in the West. The analytical framework used was too narrow to capture the varied social and political theories underpinning media policies around the world, and left little scope for acknowledging the unequal distribution of economic, political and communicative power on a global scale (Christians et al. 2009: viii). In this sense, the title of the book -Four Theories of the Press -was a misnomer: instead of offering four theories of the press, it offered 'one theory with four examples' (Nerone 1995: 18).
Political Communication, 2013
ABSTRACT Political sex scandals are largely absent in some democracies but proliferate in others.... more ABSTRACT Political sex scandals are largely absent in some democracies but proliferate in others. However, there have so far been few if any comprehensive attempts to document the actual number of sex scandals that have occurred and to explain their presence (and, indeed, absence), and the one study that has (Barker's 1994 study) ended in the early 1990s and had numerous problems in relation to defining and documenting such scandals. Based on extensive research, this article documents the number of sex scandals in eight advanced industrial democracies and tries to explain their occurrence using Charles Ragin's fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis. The article has three goals: to determine the number of sex scandals in different democracies, explain why this might be, and demonstrate the utility of fuzzy set qualitative case analysis for small- and medium-N comparative research.
JAVNOST-LJUBLJANA-, 2003
1 IAMCR Barcelona 2002 Counter Public Spheres and Global Modernity Natalie Fenton and John Down... more 1 IAMCR Barcelona 2002 Counter Public Spheres and Global Modernity Natalie Fenton and John Downey ... This interpretation of the trajectory of the public sphere owed a great deal to Adorno and Horkheimer's work on the culture industries and the prognosis of a move ...
War and the Media: Reporting Conflict 24, Jun 2, 2003
The last decade has seen a sustained debate on the future of war, prompted by two major shifts in... more The last decade has seen a sustained debate on the future of war, prompted by two major shifts in the military operating environmentthe collapse of the Soviet Empire and the growth and convergence of digital information and communications technologies. The end of the Cold War, coupled with the proliferation of regional conflicts in the Balkans and the Horn of Africa, has focused attention on the changing landscape of armed conflict and produced a series of attempts to discern what is distinctive about contemporary patterns of warfare. ...
European Journal of Communication, 2010
... Report Authors: David Deacon, Dominic Wring, Michael Billig, John Downey, Peter Golding and S... more ... Report Authors: David Deacon, Dominic Wring, Michael Billig, John Downey, Peter Golding and Scott Davidson Coding Team: Ben Oldfield, Emma Vine, Emily Keightley and Scott Davidson August 2005 Page 3. Communication Research Centre 2 ...
Southeastern Europe, 2015
We are pleased to see that our edited collection has generated such interest in the wider scholar... more We are pleased to see that our edited collection has generated such interest in the wider scholarly community, and are grateful to all three reviewers for their comments. The decision of the editors of Southeastern Europe journal to host a forum on the topic confirms the timeliness of our intervention and the need for further work in this area. Let us note that the idea for this book was developed in the context of a EU-funded scholarly network 1 that was aimed at increasing the understanding of media landscapes in Central and Eastern Europe, examining the applicability of Western European and North American concepts and theories, and developing novel conceptualisations. Our book was directly tied to these aims-we took an established and increasingly popular 'Western' theory of media systems developed by Hallin and Mancini (2004) as our starting point, thought about whether and how it applied to Central and Eastern European media, how to develop it further to better account for the specificities of media systems in the region, and also how to think in a more sociologically informed way about how to explain media systems thereby broadening out the study of media systems beyond the relationship between media and political systems. From the very start it was clear that we would have to make do with existing resources and data sets, and work within the restraints of time available to our individual contributors. As a result, our main aim was to point out the key contours of a new, better framework for comparative media analysis, and asking our contributors to respond to this framework within the limits of time and data they had available at the time. Systematic new research was, unfortunately, out of question. Likewise, given the geographic focus of the network and expertise, the volume had to be focused on Central and Eastern European media, even though the broader arguments we are developing apply to comparative media research everywhere. With this in mind, let us now turn to the two reviews. We shall start with Anders Todal Jenssen's comments, and then proceed to those provided by Sandra B. Hrvatin and Brankica Petković. In both cases, we shall focus on observations regarding the book in general rather than those related to other individual contributions as the latter are often too specific to be addressed by the editors. Two themes in particular seemed recurrent in the comments-the relationships between different causal factors that affect media systems, and the usefulness of quantitative indicators in comparative media research. The arguments put forward in the comments indicate that we need to restate and clarify our position on each of these. Starting with Jenssen's review, we were of course very pleased to see all the complimentary comments, especially with regard to our argument about the necessity of involving not only political, but also economic, cultural, and more broadly historical and sociological factors
Journalism, 2017
Many accounts of contemporary mediated communication of various kinds emphasise speed, immediacy ... more Many accounts of contemporary mediated communication of various kinds emphasise speed, immediacy and simultaneity as overriding temporal characteristics, and accounts of journalism are no exception. Acceleration in journalistic practice and the associated changes in news content and its communication have a variety of consequences. In the most extreme accounts, this produces ever-shallower news content while the immediacy of its delivery collapses deliberative time for its interpretation. This article attempts to challenge some of the assumptions on which these assertions are based by taking an alternative starting point in analysing news time and temporality: the news audience. We argue that many accounts which emphasise the paralysing effects of fast communication and the acceleration of news in particular fail to acknowledge the complexities of news consumption, instead pessimistically reading off the effects of speed from communications technologies themselves. We go on to consi...
New Media & Society, Jan 1, 2003
JAVNOST-LJUBLJANA-, Jan 1, 2003
In the last thirty years capitalism has gone through a major transition that has seen the intensi... more In the last thirty years capitalism has gone through a major transition that has seen the intensification of globalisation, the rise of neo-liberalism and the New Right, the decline of trust and of social democracy, a process of de-traditionalisation, and the rise of new social movements. These changes have profound implications for the nature and functioning of the public sphere . In this paper we argue that the public sphere has been shaken substantially by these shifts opening up increasing possibilities in the process for counter public spheres to become established and flourish. We trace the development of the concept of the public sphere post 1989 that includes crucial and too often ignored revisions to the original Habermasian thesis. We argue that counter public spheres become established in periods of instability in the dominant public sphere.
Political Communication, Jul 2013
Political sex scandals are largely absent in some democracies but proliferate in others. However,... more Political sex scandals are largely absent in some democracies but proliferate in others. However, there have so far been few if any comprehensive attempts to document the actual number of sex scandals that have occurred and to explain their presence (and, indeed, absence), and the one study that has (Barker's 1994 study) ended in the early 1990s and had numerous problems in relation to defining and documenting such scandals. Based on extensive research, this article documents the number of sex scandals in eight advanced industrial democracies and tries to explain their occurrence using Charles Ragin's fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis. The article has three goals: to determine the number of sex scandals in different democracies, explain why this might be, and demonstrate the utility of fuzzy set qualitative case analysis for smalland medium-N comparative research.
typologies designed to account for the diversity of media systems around the world have been a re... more typologies designed to account for the diversity of media systems around the world have been a recurring element of communication research for well over half a century. yet, in common with comparative endeavours in other areas of social scientific inquiry, the analysis of media systems has long been plagued by simplistic, teleological and ethnocentric understandings of social change. the four-fold typology of press models proposed by Fred siebert, theodore peterson and wilbur schramm in 1956 -which distinguished between the authoritarian, libertarian, social responsibility, and soviet communist concepts of the presswas designed from the normative perspective of classical liberalism, and ranked the four types of the press on an evolutionary scale culminating in the press model promoted in the West. The analytical framework used was too narrow to capture the varied social and political theories underpinning media policies around the world, and left little scope for acknowledging the unequal distribution of economic, political and communicative power on a global scale (Christians et al. 2009: viii). In this sense, the title of the book -Four Theories of the Press -was a misnomer: instead of offering four theories of the press, it offered 'one theory with four examples' (Nerone 1995: 18).
Political Communication, 2013
ABSTRACT Political sex scandals are largely absent in some democracies but proliferate in others.... more ABSTRACT Political sex scandals are largely absent in some democracies but proliferate in others. However, there have so far been few if any comprehensive attempts to document the actual number of sex scandals that have occurred and to explain their presence (and, indeed, absence), and the one study that has (Barker's 1994 study) ended in the early 1990s and had numerous problems in relation to defining and documenting such scandals. Based on extensive research, this article documents the number of sex scandals in eight advanced industrial democracies and tries to explain their occurrence using Charles Ragin's fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis. The article has three goals: to determine the number of sex scandals in different democracies, explain why this might be, and demonstrate the utility of fuzzy set qualitative case analysis for small- and medium-N comparative research.
JAVNOST-LJUBLJANA-, 2003
1 IAMCR Barcelona 2002 Counter Public Spheres and Global Modernity Natalie Fenton and John Down... more 1 IAMCR Barcelona 2002 Counter Public Spheres and Global Modernity Natalie Fenton and John Downey ... This interpretation of the trajectory of the public sphere owed a great deal to Adorno and Horkheimer's work on the culture industries and the prognosis of a move ...
War and the Media: Reporting Conflict 24, Jun 2, 2003
The last decade has seen a sustained debate on the future of war, prompted by two major shifts in... more The last decade has seen a sustained debate on the future of war, prompted by two major shifts in the military operating environmentthe collapse of the Soviet Empire and the growth and convergence of digital information and communications technologies. The end of the Cold War, coupled with the proliferation of regional conflicts in the Balkans and the Horn of Africa, has focused attention on the changing landscape of armed conflict and produced a series of attempts to discern what is distinctive about contemporary patterns of warfare. ...
European Journal of Communication, 2010
... Report Authors: David Deacon, Dominic Wring, Michael Billig, John Downey, Peter Golding and S... more ... Report Authors: David Deacon, Dominic Wring, Michael Billig, John Downey, Peter Golding and Scott Davidson Coding Team: Ben Oldfield, Emma Vine, Emily Keightley and Scott Davidson August 2005 Page 3. Communication Research Centre 2 ...
First Monday, 2022
This paper examines how the deep Web, i.e., Web sites that are not indexed and thus are not acces... more This paper examines how the deep Web, i.e., Web sites that are not indexed and thus are not accessible through Web search engines, was described and represented in British newspapers. Through an extensive content analysis conducted on 833 articles about the deep Web published between 2001 and 2017 by six British newspapers, we demonstrate that these technologies were predominantly associated with crime, crypto markets and immoral content, while positive uses of this technology, such as protecting privacy and freedom of speech, were largely disregarded. The consistent association by the British press between the deep Web and criminal and antisocial behaviors is exemplary of a recent "apocalyptic turn" in the imaginary of the Web, whereby Web-related technologies are perceived and portrayed in more negative ways within the public sphere. We argue that the use of such negative concepts, definitions and associations engender distrust about uses of the deep Web, propagating user stereotypes that reflect what we argue to be an overall criminalization of privacy.