Tuesday 12 July 2011

Muslims in the European Mediascape Survey – can you help?

By Siobhan Holohan

Can you help with this research project?

The 'Muslims in the European Mediascape' Research Project funded by The Institute for Strategic Dialogue in partnership with the Vodafone Foundation Germany and the British Council aims to explore the complexity of media production and consumption in an ever-more diverse Europe. The research is being led by two teams based in the UK (Dr Siobhan Holohan, Keele University and Dr Elizabeth Poole, Staffordshire University) and Germany (Professor Andreas Zick and Dr Jörg Heeren, Bielefeld University), and aims to identify relationships between social cohesion and trends in the use and production of media in view of key variables, including socio-economic background, education, gender, ethnicity, religion, generation, personal and private inter-cultural relationships, and age in the UK and Germany.

Having completed the first stage of the research – in-depth interviews with media producers from mainstream and ‘Muslim’ media organisations – we are now looking for participants for stage two which aims to identify the choices people make when it comes to the media they consume, and what impact those choices might have on inter-cultural social relations in the UK and Germany. The first part of this research is being conducted via a short online survey which can be found at http://www.unipark.de/uc/muslim-media-research. This version of the survey is specific to UK media consumers. However, we are looking for people from all cultural / ethnic / religious backgrounds and from as many walks of life as possible to participate in the survey. All views are valid. The survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete and is anonymous. From this start we hope to build a picture of media consumption and attitudes toward inter-cultural relationships which can be furthered by qualitative media consumer focus groups at a later stage.

If you would like further information about this survey or the project as a whole please contact Dr Siobhan Holohan, s.holohan@keele.ac.uk or Dr Elizabeth Poole, e.poole@staffs.ac.uk.

Graduate Teaching Assistantships / PhD opportunities at Keele

Applications are invited for this year's Humanities and Social Sciences Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTAs). GTAs are three-year prestigious awards aimed at attracting PhD students of the highest calibre.
The successful applicant will join one of the well established research groups in the Research Institute for the Humanities or the Research Institute for Social Sciences. Applications are invited across the following research areas:

Research Institute for the Humanities
www.keele.ac.uk/rihums/

Research Institute for Social Sciences
www.keele.ac.uk/risocsci/

The successful applicant will join a doctoral programme with opportunities for further specialist research training and become a member of a vibrant postgraduate community in the Research Institute.
The GTA is awarded with a teaching component allowing students to gain professional experience in a relevant Humanities and Social Sciences subject area. Successful applicants should have already completed, or be about to complete, a Master's degree in a related disciplinary area, should demonstrate aptitude as academic tutors and should be able to demonstrate a strong interest in research.

Up to £2,052 per annum, plus £11,538 stipend and Home/EU fee waiver.

Deadline for applications: 5pm Friday 15th July.

Further information is available here 
Informal inquiries may be addressed to Helen Farrell, PGR Administrator: h.farrell@ilpj.keele.ac.uk or 01782 733641.