Mrs Hannah Thompson-Radford

Senior Lecturer in Sports Communication and Journalism, Media

h.j.thompson-radford@swansea.ac.uk

Office - 113
First Floor
Digital Technium
Singleton Campus

Available For Postgraduate Supervision

Research Links

https://orcid.org/0009-0009-7793-9634

ResearchGate

ResearcherID

About

Hannah Thompson-Radford is a Senior Lecturer in Sports Communication and Journalism. She is both a scholar and a freelance reporter, content creator and commentator on women’s sport, predominantly cricket.

She holds a BA in English and Sport Science, an MA in Global Media and Cultural Industries and an MSc in Social Science Research Methods. Her research interests intersect with sports sociology and media and communication schools with an overall emphasis on gender.

Hannah’s ESRC funded PhD theorises the (in)visibility of women’s sport, and more specifically, she examines how elite female cricketers perceive media (in)visibility as well as their attitudes towards social media. Central to her work are the voices of elite female athletes both past and present, meaning that her research is about, developed in conjunction with, and for the benefit of, women in sport. Hannah has also published on pregnancy and motherhood in sport, focusing, for example, on Serena Williams’ social media use.

External to her research, Hannah is a social media freelancer and has worked on major events such as the Winter Olympics, Cricket World Cup, Billie Jean King Cup, Davis Cup and Formula E events. Additionally, she has covered FA WSL and Championship and has worked as a media officer for Leicester City Women FC and as a media manager for Loughborough Lightning cricket in the former Kia Super League as well as managing and assisting with Lightning netball and rugby franchises.

She currently freelances for BBC Sport on cricket, and her work also regularly features regularly on platforms such as The Cricketer, The Independent, The Official England Cricket match programme and Yahoo Sports. Hannah also commentates on ECB regional women’s cricket competitions for The Blaze and Western Storm livestreams. She has also worked as a content creator in The Hundred working with Trent Rockets.

Areas Of Expertise

Gender, sport and media
Sport communications
Qualitative research methods

Career Highlights

Teaching Interests

Hannah’s teaching is both theoretical and practical predominantly focussing on how sport stakeholders utilise digital media and media relations.

Research

Taught Modules

FY-012 Introduction to Being Human

This module will focus on introducing what it is to be human from a broad humanities and social science perspective. It will offer the opportunity to engage with key ideas, theory and literature within these disciplines. It will therefore prepare students for further academic work in the humanities and social sciences and initiate the development of critical thinking and creative abilities.
MS-114 Delivering and Decoding the News

This is a theory and practice module. This first half is dedicated to the study of journalism and the role it plays in our lives and in wider society. It will explore the normative theories of journalism and contemporary practices so that we can consider what journalism should be, and how it has developed and evolved over time. Once students are familiar with the theoretical underpinning of journalism and what constitutes best practice we will then explore the fundamental elements of news operations to enable students to produce their own journalism texts. This part of the module will focus on the study and practice of news values, the conventions of news writing, news gathering, interviewing and ethical considerations in news reporting. The module starts with a series of lectures and later incorporates workshops for the practical section of the module. Sessions are designed to incorporate discussions and evaluation of current news events and their coverage.
MS-116 Pitch Invasion: Sport and its Impact on Society

This is an introductory sports module exploring the impacts of sport on culture and society. It will examine how sport has had an influence on the development and growth of mass media from 20th century press and broadcast through to 21st century digital and social media; political or soft power use of sport; sports fandom; and the cultural impact of sport on issues associated with race, gender and sexuality. By introducing students to key debates around sport they will develop a deeper understanding of how contemporary sport fits into wider society
MS-233 Investigating Text, Process and Audiences

Investigation is central to both the academic and practical approaches to journalism and communication. For example, journalists need to mine sources, data-sets and human experiences in order to create their stories. On the other hand, to make meaningful contributions to scholarship, students need to be able to synthesize key findings from a wide body of journalistic output by applying rigorous research methods. This module recognises that investigation has to take place as an academic, journalist and original content creator. Moreover, any graduate entry job in any realm will involve an element of data mining, investigation, objective analysis and the development of reasonable and justifiable conclusions. These two (academic and practical) approaches have considerable synergy since both necessitate interpersonal skills that are particularly useful when interviewing sources of academic or journalistic narratives. Furthermore, basic numeracy skills enable data-sets to be interpreted to develop scholarly understanding as well as materials that are central to the aims of storytelling. With a very strong emphasis on developing generic employability skills, this module offers students the opportunity to develop theoretical and practical knowledge, not only to support their third year project but to provide a cutting edge within the media sector job market.
MS-310 Dissertation Preparation

This module introduces the practice of dissertation writing and research approaches for the study of media forms. texts and systems and their contribution to social life. It begins to explore the breadth of media studies through attention to the ways in which media matter. In what ways, and how significant are the media in the formation of individual identities and in the practices of everyday life? In the more public world, to what extent are media key to providing knowledge and enabling the debate necessary to the practices of democracy? The course enables students to build on their own experiences of media as consumers and users. But it also encourages critical attention to how the field of media studies has historically been forged: through argument and contestation between different academic approaches and disciplines.
MS-311 Dissertation

This dissertation enables students to engage in long term, in-depth research on a topic of their choice subject to the approval of the Department.
MS-M15 Sports Communication - Journalism and Promotion

This module offers a comprehensive guide to to the practices, techniques and skills used in the sports communication industry. It will allow students to focus on current critical themes and debates in sports journalism and promotion, and through theoretical analysis and the application of theory in practice, will provide students with the opportunity to develop a digital, multi-media portfolio of written work. Students will in turn learn the theories and practices that can be used to develop and promote a personal sports communicator's brand to the relevant industry sectors. The module will appeal to students new to journalism and promotional practice, but who are ambitious to deepen their understanding of best practices that could allow them to engage with the emerging and fast-changing sports communication mediascape.
MS-M19 All to play for: Inside Sporting Integrity

The aim of this module is to provide students with the ability to critically evaluate sport from an ethical perspective. They will be presented with a range of key ethical issues in the area of sport from both a historical and contemporary perspective. Student will examine the emergence and development of sport from amateur to professional, gamesmanship, doping, gambling, politics, and many more contemporary issues. The key thread running throughout the module will be the power of the media to shape the debates around sporting integrity and how sporting authorities respond.

Mrs Hannah Thompson-Radford

Email address

Twitter Account

Research Links

About

Areas Of Expertise

Career Highlights

Taught Modules

FY-012 Introduction to Being Human

MS-114 Delivering and Decoding the News

MS-116 Pitch Invasion: Sport and its Impact on Society

MS-233 Investigating Text, Process and Audiences

MS-310 Dissertation Preparation

MS-311 Dissertation

MS-M15 Sports Communication - Journalism and Promotion

MS-M19 All to play for: Inside Sporting Integrity