Dr Michael Higgins

Senior Lecturer

Journalism, Media and Communication

Contact

Personal statement

Michael Higgins has been at the University of Strathclyde since 2007.  He has been subject leader for Journalism and established the School's highly-successful MLitt in Media and Communication.

Michael's PhD students have included recipients of AHRC and Carnegie Trust scholarships, and range across political communications, political engagement on social media, and the representation of politics and gender.

Michael has published six books and more than seventy peer-reviewed journal articles, reviews and book chapters.  He has also appeared as expert analyst on a variety of media, including Al-Jazeera News, and BBC Radio 4's "Broadcasting House" and "Word of Mouth", and sat as judge for national entrants to The Press Awards.

External academic posts include Visiting Professor in Political Communications at Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali in Rome, as well as external examiner on programmes at the Universities of Cardiff, Liverpool, Nottingham and Swansea. 

Michael serves on the editorial boards of Communication Theory, Journal of Language and Politics, as well as the advisory boards for the Bloomsbury International Library of Gender and Popular Culture and LUISS's Centre for Media and Communication Studies "Massimo Baldini". He established the Mediated Populism section of Palgrave Communications and was guest editor from 2018 until 2023.

Michael's own research networks include the international Ross Priory Broadcast Talk Group and the Media and Politics Group of the Political Studies Association, of which he was co-convenor for a number of years.

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Qualifications

BA (Hons)

MLitt

PhD

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Publications

Broadcast talk and journalism
Montgomery Martin, Thornborrow Joanna, Higgins Michael
Journalism (2024)
Needs Musk : Trump takes to the manosphere
Higgins Michael, Smith Angela
U.S. Election Analysis 2024 Media, Voters and the Campaign (2024) (2024)
Toxic masculinity and banal populism
Higgins Michael, Smith Angela
Media, Populism and Hate Speech (2024) (2024)
Emotional authority in presenting the later Covid-19 strategy : the speeches and statements of Scotland's Nicola Sturgeon
Higgins Michael, Smith Angela, McKay Fiona
The Nation in the Time of the Pandemic Media and Political Discourse across Countries during the COVID-19 Crisis (2024) (2024)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-56662-2_9
[Book review] : Unspooled: How the Cassette Tape Made Music Sharable
Higgins Michael
Popular Communication Vol 22, pp. 132-133 (2024)
https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2024.2380659
The personalisation of Scottish politics in a UK General Election
Higgins Michael, Dinger Maike
UK Election Analysis 2024 Media, Voters and the Campaign (2024) (2024)

More publications

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Teaching

- Media and Communications (Programme Leader, Masters programme)

- Journalism, Media and Communication (Undergraduate programme)

- Digital Journalism (Masters programme)

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Research Interests

- Politics and media

- Publicness and identity

- Incivility and offence in media

- Mediated populism

Professional Activities

External examiner on PhD
Examiner
23/9/2024
Donald Trump and the manosphere
Recipient
10/9/2024
Written evidence to UK Parliament, The House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee “The future of news: impartiality, trust and technology”
Recipient
20/2/2024
What does the death of Twitter mean for Scottish politics?
Recipient
3/7/2023
British Journal of Politics and International Relations (Journal)
Peer reviewer
7/2023
The changing landscape of journalism
Speaker
20/6/2023

More professional activities

Projects

Pass the Mic Election Monitoring (for Equal Media and Culture Centre Scotland)
Boyle, Karen (Principal Investigator) Higgins, Michael (Co-investigator) McKay, Fiona (Co-investigator)
07-Jan-2024 - 30-Jan-2024
Kate Adie Archive
Higgins, Michael (Principal Investigator)
01-Jan-2009 - 31-Jan-2011

More projects

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Contact

Dr Michael Higgins
Senior Lecturer
Journalism, Media and Communication

Email: michael.higgins@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 444 8346