Participant Info

First Name
Rachel
Last Name
Matthews
Country
United Kingdom
State
Affiliation
Coventry University
Website URL
http://www.coventry.ac.uk/research/research-directories/researchers/dr-rachel-matthews/
Keywords
English provincial press, local newspapers, journalism, 18th century, 19th century, 20th century, oral history.
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

I have an academic and professional interest in the past, present and future of the legacy regional newspaper industry. I am a qualified journalist who moved to research and teaching 15 years ago. I now draw on an historicisation of the local newspaper to broaden our understanding of this significant media form. My monograph, The History of the Provincial Press in England, was published in May 2017. I have received multiple funding awards to support my research. My current research focusses in two areas: firstly, looking at emerging forms of journalism practice for news workers in the legacy newspaper industry; the second is investigating the meaning of community and how it is operationalised by  local news practitioners.

Recent Publications

September 2021. Reappraising Local and Community News in the UK. Media, Practice and Policy. Eds with Dave Harte. Routledge,

March 2021. Provincial Newspapers – Lessons from History. Special Issue of Media History, Vol 27. Issue 2, ed with Guy Hodgson.

March 2021. Journal article. ‘Never Failed? The local reporting of the Blitzes in Coventry and Liverpool in 1940 and 1941’. Media History, Vol 27. Issue 2.

July 2020: ‘The Provincial Press’, chapter in three-volume Edinburgh University Press, History of Newspapers and Periodicals in Britain and Ireland 1650-2011. Conboy, M and Bingham, A (eds) EUP.

April 2020: ‘Historicising the Afterlife, local newspapers in the United Kingdom and the Art of Prognosis’ chapter in Guylas, A and Baines, D (Eds) Routledge Companion to Local Media and Journalism, Routledge.

2017: ‘The socio-local newspaper: creating a sustainable future for the legacy provincial news industry. chapter in What is Sustainable Journalism? Integrating the Environmental, Social and Economic Challenges of Journalism., Peter Lang, New York, edited by Peter Berglez, Ulrika Olausson and Mart Orts.

2017: Monograph The Provincial Press in England, Bloomsbury, London and New York.

2017: Journal article. ‘The ideological challenge for the regional press; reappraising the community value of local newspapers’, The Journal of Applied Journalism and Media Studies. Vol 6, No 1, pp37-56.

Media Coverage
Country Focus
United Kingdom
Expertise by Geography
England
Expertise by Chronology
18th century, 19th century, 20th century
Expertise by Topic
Book History