Asking for trouble: Media activism, scholarship and the rise of authoritarian democracy

In his inaugural lecture, Professor Justin Schlosberg will talk about the different ways in which scholarship and activism is coming under attack within the UK, drawing on three personal and career-defining experiences in confronting media power. In 2017, as Chair of the Media Reform Coalition, he was singled out by Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox which commissioned a 93-page dossier attempting to discredit his research. Following a comprehensive rebuttal submitted to the Competition and Markets Authority, Murdoch’s attempt to buy out Sky TV was blocked by the government in an unusual and landmark intervention. Then in 2019, Schlosberg found himself embroiled in the antisemitism controversy engulfing Corbyn’s Labour, having co-authored the book Bad News for Labour and published research on media hostility to Corbyn’s leadership that ended up a lead news story on Huffington Post and BBC’s Newsnight. Finally, in 2022 Schlosberg was accused of being ‘pro-Putin’ on a Radio 4 documentary in which he critically discussed the media’s coverage of the Ukraine war, after which the BBC was forced to issue two separate apologies and corrections. Professor Schlosberg will attempt to situate these experiences within the context of an increasingly polarised and repressive environment impacting on journalism, academia and activism, and discuss what we can and should be doing about it

In-person attendees are invited to join us for a drinks reception at the close of the lecture, to the event close at 8:30pm.

Inaugural Lecture: Professor Justin Schlosberg