An aerial view of Singleton Campus and the bay opposite

Professor Richard Thomas

Professor, Media

Telephone number

+44 (0) 1792 513212

Welsh language proficiency

Basic Welsh Speaker
Office - 103A
First Floor
Digital Technium
Singleton Campus
Available For Postgraduate Supervision

About

Richard is the Head of the Department of Media and Communications. In this role, he oversees the operational delivery of high-quality teaching and with his colleagues, plans strategically for developing this very successful part of the School of Culture and Communication.

A media research methods specialist, he teaches a range of modules that look at the way that the news on various platforms reports the key elements of 21st century life. This mirrors his research, which concerns the quantifying and qualifying of the trends and patterns in the coverage of economics, business, finance, politics and conflict by a range of news outlets ranging from TV and radio to online blogging and social media. One of his central areas of interest is political communication, alt-media and the coverage of elections. He is the co-author of “Reporting Elections: Rethinking the Logic of Campaign Coverage” and has published many other journal articles and book chapters. He has presented his research at a number of other universities and international conferences.

He is the CO-Investigator in a joint Cardiff University/Swansea University project examining Alternative Political Online News. This project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council to the tune of £517,000 and is scheduled to conclude in 2022. He is also engaged in other research commissioned by and working with, media regulators. Accordingly, his work has significant impact on 21st century journalism. He is the co-editor of JournalismKX – an online forum where scholars and journalists discuss how they can collaborate to address the key issues facing the news industry. He is also the editor of The Swansea Mumbler which is the online showcase of activities within the Media and Communications department.

He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and is an external examiner at both University of Leeds and Sheffield Hallam University. He was an external member of a Learning and Teaching review panel that validated the media and communication curriculum at Newcastle University in 2019. In 2020, he was the external board member that approved a new degree programme at Plymouth Marjon University. He has been a panel member on various internal review boards at Swansea.

Areas Of Expertise

  • Journalism
  • Political Communication
  • Election Coverage
  • Alternative Media
  • Research methods
  • Content Analysis
  • Critical Discourse Analysis

Career Highlights

Teaching Interests

Richard’s teaching is concerned with the way that various media cover a range of current issues and concerns.

Research