This research team includes renowned researchers recognised by their peers internationally as important to the development of cultural and sociological analysis of media sport.

Professor Garry Whannel has co-authored The Trojan Horse: The Growth of Commercial Sponsorship (2013) Understanding the Olympics (2011) and a new edition of Understanding Sport (2012)

Professor Jon Silverman's research into media transitional justice in Sierra Leone and Liberia received British Academy funding. His research dates from a field trip to Sierra Leone in 2007 to examine the media and post-conflict justice ahead of the Hague trial of former warlord, Charles Taylor. (BBC 2012) Professor Silverman’s work has helped to build bridges between civil society grouping, lawyers, academics and activists.

Professor Ivor Gaber was designer and first editor of the Nigerian Election News Report (NENR) during the 2011 Nigerian general election. News stories emailed by a nationwide team of journalists, trained by Gaber, emailed news stories to NENR, and these were then edited and uploaded, including mobile phone access, so that journalists in remote areas had unprecedented access to breaking election news that was uncensored and immediate.

A full report of the project was delivered at the 2012 conference of the UK’s African Studies Association.

Professor Ivor Gaber’s Changing television news agendas was a joint project with the University of Westminster, funded through the Leverhulme Foundation.

Professor Noha Mellor is a specialist in Arab Media and has published monographs and scholarly articles about Arab media and culture. Her research has informed policymakers and public debate in the UK and internationally including contributing to the Foreign Policy Centre, and the Euro- Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Culture, Euromed and media.

She also contributed to evaluations of Middle East projects funded by DANIDA.