Martin Scott

Media freedom; International journalism; Foundation-funded journalism; Representations of Africa; Celebrity humanitarianism; Audiences of distant suffering.

I am an Associate Professor in Media and Global Development. My research and teaching focusses on the intersection of media studies and development studies. I am currently researching media’s influence on humanitarian aid, international media freedom initiatives, international journalism and media capture. I have previously published research on foundation-funded news, representations of Africa, celebrities and development, audiences of distant suffering and the political roles of popular culture. I have also authored and co-authored books on Humanitarian Journalists (2022), Media and Development (2014) and From Entertainment to Citizenship (2014). Most of my publications are available, open access, below.

I am a co-director of MA in Media and Global Development and BA in Media and International Development. I convene and teach on the modules: Media, Communication and Social Change, Media, Democracy and Social Change and Media, Communication and Development.  

Through my research, I have collaborated with UNESCO, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), The New Humanitarian and Voice of America. 

I am currently co-supervising five PhD students: Kayonaaz Kalyanwala (Digital media and environmental justice), Sofia Miranda (Mediated discourses of capitalism in Chile), Zhe Xu (Mediated cosmopolitanism and distant suffering in China), Kang Yan (Chinese literary journalism) and Jorge Ruiz Zevallos (Indigenous filmmaking in Peru).

Before joining the University of East Anglia (UEA) as a lecturer in 2009, I worked as a secondary school teacher. I have taught in secondary schools in the UK, Kenya and in the British Overseas Territory of St. Helena.