Institute of Communications Studies

Communities and Culture Network+

Rapid advances in digital technologies have converged with research, organisations and everyday experience to dissolve the boundaries between disciplines, institutions and practices. The Digital Economy ‘Communities and Culture’ Network+ (CCNetwork+), led by ICS' Dr Helen Thornham,  engages with transformations, bringing them together with a wider public through direct engagements, innovative methods and digital resources.

Cultural Policy under New Labour

This AHRC-funded research project, commencing January 2012, seeks to explore how cultural policy is shaped. More specifically it asks: What have been the major forces shaping cultural policy during the three Labour administrations of 1997 to 2010? How might we understand the relations between economic, social and cultural goals of cultural policy ‘after neo-liberalism’?

Mapping a Mediated City: The Leeds Media Ecology Project

This project is an attempt to understand how a range of diverse media practices contribute to the production of news within the city of Leeds.

Communicating Copyright in the Digital Age: Comparing Policymakers, Producers and Users

This ESRC-funded project was awarded to a team of ICS researchers and began in June 2011. The research is focused on the different ways in which government policymakers, music producers, and music users discuss copyright.

A Review of Web Design Education in the UK

‘A review of web design education in the UK’ is a collaboration between the Institute of Communications Studies at the University of Leeds and the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)’s Web Education Community Group. The research aims to review the state of undergraduate web design education in the UK and to explore the extent to which web standards and web accessibility, two core aspects of professional web design and front-end development, are embedded in web design curricula.

Expressing Citizenship

This project, which is funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and conducted in collaboration with the Speakers’ Corner Trust, aims to learn about the barriers facing 11-18 year-olds in speaking out in public about issues that concern them.

Strike Stories: Opening the Archive on the Miners' Strike