Department of Media and Communication

Anders Hansen

Cand.Phil. (Copenhagen), MA (Leicester)   Senior Lecturer Deputy Director, Centre for Mass Communication Research Course Director, MA Mass Communications   Telephone: +44 (0)116 252 3866 Email: ash@le.ac.uk

Career Experience

I have conducted media and communication research for 25 years. I was appointed lecturer in mass communications at the Centre for Mass Communication Research in 1985, having worked previously as a researcher in the department. I was appointed Deputy Director of the Centre for Mass Communication Research in 2006.

Research Interests

My main research interests include science and health communication, media and the environment, news management and journalistic practices, media/new media activism, media roles in relation to education policy and professional status, and the roles of news and other media (including advertising) in representing and influencing political and social issues. I am particularly interested in the discursive and rhetorical aspects of the media’s roles in social, cultural and political change and development.

I have been involved with expert contributions to a range of national and international bodies, including, in the UK: The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, Alcohol Concern, the Economic and Social Research Council, The Arts and Humanities Research Council, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF); and overseas: The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism under the National Institutes of Health (USA), The Strategic Research Council (Denmark) and the Council for Environmental Research (Sweden).

Much of my research has focused on the role of television and other media in relation to alcohol, tobacco, drugs and health-related issues, with research funding from, amongst others, the UK Home Office, the Alcohol Education and Research Council and Alcohol Concern. I conducted one of the first studies of its kind in the UK into the television portrayal of alcohol and drinking; this was followed by a succession of studies on media representations and influence with regard to alcohol, smoking and drugs-awareness. In 2003, I completed a study of television portrayal of alcohol and drinking, which compared the extent of alcohol portrayal on television over a twenty-year period. A current project, which I am co-directing with Professor Barrie Gunter, examines The Representation and Reception of Meaning in Alcohol Advertising, focusing on teenage consumers (funded by the AERC).

My major focus of research has been and continues to be on media roles in the communication, representation and construction of environmental issues, science and health. As part of the ESRC’s programme of research on the Public Understanding of Science, I directed a major study of the production and presentation of science in the British news media. Further studies in the same vein looked at media coverage of genetics/biotechnology and the Human Genome Project. In 1993, I edited the first major publication in Britain to examine the ‘Mass Media and Environmental Issues’, and my research in the 1990s and more recently has focused on environmental correspondents, environmental pressure groups and media coverage of environmental issues. My research on science, environment and health communication has been funded by, amongst others, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Danish Social Science Research Council, the WWF, the Commission of the European Union, the European Science Foundation, and the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation. Recent work has focused on the uses and constructions of ‘nature’ in news coverage of biotechnology and in advertising, including research on cross-cultural differences in concepts of nature as articulated through advertising and other media.

From 2003 to 2007, I have been involved with colleagues at Cambridge University in a major study (funded by the Department for Education and Skills) of the Status of Teachers. My research on this project has focused on the professional practices of education correspondents/editors and on a longitudinal study of the changing media representation of teachers and education.

I am Chair of the IAMCR Working Group on Environmental Issues, Science and Risk Communication - with recent sessions at the IAMCR Conferences in Budapest, Hungary (2001); Barcelona, Spain (2002); Porto Alegre, Brazil (2004); Cairo, Egypt (2006); Paris, France (2007); Stockholm, Sweden (2008), and forthcoming: 21-24 July 2009, Mexico City, Mexico - see the Call for papers here:(http://www.iamcr.org/content/view/441/143/

Selected Publications

Hansen, A., & Machin, D. (2009). Media and Communication Research. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hansen, A. (2009). Environment, Media and Communication. London: Routledge

Hansen, A. (2009). Researching 'teachers in the news': the portrayal of teachers and education issues in the British national and regional press. Education 3-13: International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education

Hansen, A. (Ed.). (2008). Mass Communication Research Methods. 4-volume set in the SAGE Benchmarks in Social Research Methods series. London: Sage http://www.uk.sagepub.com/refbooksProdDesc.nav?prodId=Book230459

Hansen, A., & Machin, D. (2008). Visually branding the environment: climate change as a marketing opportunity. Discourse Studies, 10(6), 777-794.

Hansen, A. (2008). Science, communication and media. In R. Holliman, E. Whitelegg, E. Scanlon, S. Smidt, & J. Thomas (Eds.), Investigating Science Communication in the Information Age: Implications for public engagement and popular media (pp. 105-127). Milton Keynes: Oxford University Press and The Open University.

Hargreaves, L., Cunningham, M., Hansen, A., McIntyre, D., Oliver, C. and Pell, T. (2007) The Status of Teachers and the Teaching Profession in England: Views from Inside and Outside the Profession. Research report RR831A. London: The Department for Education and Skills. Available at: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/RR831A.pdf

Hansen, A., & Gunter, B. (2007). Constructing public and political discourse on alcohol issues: Towards a framework for analysis. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 42(2), 150-157

Hansen, A. (2006) Tampering With Nature: 'Nature' and the 'Natural' in Media Coverage of Genetics and Biotechnology. Media, Culture & Society, 27(6) 811-834.

Hansen, A. (2003). The portrayal of alcohol and alcohol consumption in television news and drama programmes. London: Alcohol Concern. Available at http://www.alcoholconcern.org.uk/servlets/doc/682  

Hansen, A. (2002). El rol del mitjans en la sensibilització pública en relació amb els problemes ambientals. In J. Díaz Pont (Ed.), Educació ambiental i mitjans de comunicació: David contra Goliat? (pp. 16-42). Barcelona: Graó.

Hansen, A. (2002). Discourses of nature in advertising. Communications, 27, 499-511.

Hansen, A. (2002). Alcohol and the mass media. In A. Macara, E. Appleby, & A. Jenkins (Eds.), 100% Proof: Research for Action on Alcohol (pp. 89-91). London: Alcohol Concern.

Hansen, A. (2002). Environmental controversy, media and public opinion. Communicator, 37(1), 3-11.

Hansen, A. (2000). Claimsmaking and Framing in British Newspaper Coverage of the Brent Spar Controversy. In S. Allan, B. Adam, & C. Carter (Eds.), Environmental Risks and the Media (pp. 55-72). London: Routledge.

Hansen, A., Cottle, S., Negrine, R., & Newbold, C. (1998). Mass communication research methods. London: Macmillan

Durant, J., Hansen, A., & Bauer, M. (1996). Public understanding of the new genetics. In M. Marteau & J. Richards (Eds.), The troubled helix (pp. 235-248). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hansen, A. (1995). Viewers' interpretation of television images of alcohol. In S. E. Martin (Ed.), The effects of the mass media on the use and abuse of alcohol, (pp. 151-156). Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health.

Hansen, A. (1995). Using information technology to analyze newspaper content. In R. M. Lee (Ed.), Information technology for the social scientist, (pp. 147-168). London: UCL Press.

Hansen, A. (1994). Journalistic practices and science reporting in the British press. Public Understanding of Science, 3(2), 111-134.

Hansen, A. (Ed.). (1993). The Mass Media and Environmental Issues. Leicester: Leicester University Press.

Hansen, A., & Dickinson, R. (1992). Science coverage in the British mass media: Media output and source input. Communications, 17(3), 365-377.

Hansen, A. (1991). The media and the social construction of the environment. Media, Culture & Society, 13(4), 443-458.

Linné, O., & Hansen, A. (1990). News coverage of the environment: a comparative study of journalistic practices and television presentation in Danmarks Radio and the BBC. Copenhagen: Danmarks Radio Forlaget.

Teaching and Supervision

I have supervised 13 research students through to successful completion of their PhDs. Recent and current research students include:

• Ivan Thomas: The changing Landscape of Broadcasting in Sierra Leone: Past, present and Future. PhD awarded 2007.
• Margaret Amoakohene: Political communication in an emerging democracy: a comparative analysis of media coverage of two presidential administrations in the fourth republic of Ghana. PhD awarded 2006.
• Pan Nilphan: Online communities and social networks: an ethnographic study of a Thai fan community. PhD awarded 2006.
• Abdulmonam Al-Hasani: Influences on media content: domestic news production processes at four Omani print news organisations. PhD awarded 2003.
• Elisabeth Douglas: Nation, Nationality and Media in Nigeria.
• Harvey Igben: Media and Political Mobilization in Nigeria
• Charles Stewart: Electronic Discourse in Computer Mediated Communications: Usenet newsgroups and radical media use.
• Jaideep Mukherjee: Contested constructions of national identity.
• Ryan Pin-Hung Cheng: Taiwanese Film and the Taiwanese Film Industry 1989-2004.
• Afolasade Adeoye: The role of culture in the representation of women in advertising: a comparative study of British and Nigerian advertising.

I am director of the Department’s MA in Mass Communications, and was acting director of the MA in Globalization and Communication during 2005. I supervise MA and BSc dissertation students, and I teach or contribute to the following postgraduate and undergraduate modules:

• MS7004: Research Methods and Management I (PG)
• MS7005: Research Methods and Management II (PG)
• MS7027: News Management, Communication and Social Problems (PG)
• MS7301: Analysing Media Outputs (PG)
• MS1003: Media in International Context (UG – year 1)
• MS2002: Analysing Communication Processes (UG – year 2)
• MS3003: Science, Environment and Risk Communication (UG – year 3)

Professional Activities

I am Chair and convener of the Working Group on Environmental Issues, Science and Risk Communication under the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR).

In 2005, I was appointed Chairman of the International Advisory Group advising the Danish Strategic Research Council.

I have served as external examiner of PhD theses at universities both nationally and internationally, including: London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE); City University; University College Cardiff; University of Copenhagen; Imperial College London; University College London (UCL); University of Edinburgh.

External examiner for the MSc in Science Communication, Imperial College, London, 2001-2005.

I regularly referee manuscripts for a wide range of publishers (Sage, Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan, Thomson Wadsworth, Open University Press, Blackwell, UCL Press, Cambridge University Press) and academic journals