Professor Dominic Wring

BA (Nottingham), PhD (Cambridge)

  • PGT Programme Leader (ESRC DTP) (Communication and Media)
  • Professor of Political Communication

Research groups and centres

Publications

Since joining the University in 1997 Dominic has been primarily engaged in exploring the relationships between the media, communication and politics. He co-founded and then convened the UK Political Studies Association's Media Politics Group for a decade and subsequently served as Chair of the International Political Science Association’s Research Committee for Political Communication. He also helped launch the Journal of Political Marketing, serving as its first European Editor and on its editorial board as well as those of the Journal of Public Affairs and the Central European Journal of Communication. His work has been translated into French, Italian, Romanian and Spanish. Currently He is lead editor of the Political Communication series of books, a volume of which has appeared after every British General Election since 1979. He served as an expert witness during the UK Competition Commission inquiry into BSkyB’s controversial acquisition of ITV shares.

Dominic has been involved in successive CRCC studies into how legacy news media cover politics and, more particularly, UK campaigns. He has been involved in extensive content analyses of British General Elections that first started two decades ago and, most recently, have included the momentous 2016 ‘Brexit’ Referendum together with the 2017 and 2019 campaigns.  An important dimension to this work, co-authored with David Deacon, has been to track and understand the changing patterns of press partisanship.  The stark (and literally) black and white declarations that typified the ‘Tory press’ during the Thatcher era have way to a so-called ‘Tony press’ whose endorsements were characteristically more qualified in their support of Blair (rather than his party).  Recent elections have seen something of a return to the kind of partisanship witnessed in the 1980s, and the project is continuing to examine how contemporary print editorialising compares with that from previous periods. 

Dominic's interest in the electoral process derives from earlier work on campaigning.  His monograph The Politics of Marketing of the Labour Party placed the so-called ‘New’ party’s approach in historical context by demonstrating how its embrace of professional techniques and expertise was - contrary to a received wisdom promoted by Philip Gould, Peter Mandelson and others - more a case of evolution than revolution. The book was well received:  ‘excellent study’ (Ivor Gaber, Journalism); ‘scrupulously well-researched, well-written and clearly argued…  demolishes a number of myths’ (Eric Shaw, Public Administration); 'a superb book. It whets the appetite — at least it did mine — leaving me wanting to know more about the Labour Party in the past... all good books leave you hungry. This one certainly does' (David Coates, British Politics).

Dominic's teaching explores the print, broadcast and advertising media. Introductory modules consider the development and influence of newspapers, radio and television. The unit Promotional Culture critically analyses the growth and importance of advertising, public relations and market research and these processes’ social, political and economic significance. A postgraduate option Marketing Politics reviews how, when and why election campaigns have developed since the advent of mass democracy at the turn of the Twentieth Century. Particular attention is given to the continuities and changes in strategies, techniques and the use of experts such as so-called ‘spin-doctors’ in the United States, Britain and elsewhere. 

He has extensive experience of supervising and examining PhD students and has also served as a guest lecturer and external examiner for universities in the UK, Europe and further afield.

Recent postgraduate research students

  • Nadilla Jamil (2018) "Selling Race and God during the GE13: A Discourse-Historical Analysis of Editorials and Columns in Mainstream Malay and English-language newspapers during the 13th General Election in Malaysia". Co-supervised by John Richardson and Michael Skey.
  • Emily Harmer (2013) "Representations of Women as Voters and Politicians: a Historical Survey". Co-supervised by Liesbet van Zoonen. Economic and Social Research Council sponsored. Dr Harmer is now Lecturer in Media at the University of Liverpool.
  • Nour Shreim (2012) "War in Gaza: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of News Reporting and Reception". Co-supervised by John Richardson. University Scholarship funded. Dr Shreim now works in broadcasting specialising on Middle Eastern related issues.
  • Deena Dajani (2010) "A Nascent Arab Public Sphere?". Co-supervised by John Downey. University Overseas Research Scholarship and bursary grant. Dr Dajani became a Research Associate in Politics and IR with Open University and currently works at the LSE on the Resilient Communities, Resilient Cities? Programme.
  • George Tzogopoulous (2009) "Reporting Neo-conservatism". Greek Government sponsored. Dr Tzogopoulous is the author of two books US Foreign Policy in the European Media: Framing the Rise and Fall of Neoconservatism (IB Tauris) and The Greek Crisis in the Media: Stereotyping in the International Press (Ashgate) and is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre international de Formation Européenne and a frequent commentator on Greek, European and Chinese affairs. 
  • Scott Davidson (2008) "Ageing, citizenship and the media", Economic and Social Research Council sponsored. Dr Davidson is now a Lecturer in Media and Public Relations at the University of Leicester.