Greg Philo died on 23rd May, but his obituary by Mike Berry was not published in the Guardian until 11th July (but online on 8th July). He was not a film studies person but his influence within media studies was pivotal for many of us and had an impact on broadcasters even if they pretended otherwise. Philo was born in Kent but studied Sociology at the University of Bradford and eventually got a job at the University of Glasgow where he was one of the founders of the Glasgow University Media Group (GMUG) and eventually Professor of communication and social change. For four decades from 1980, Greg Philo led the research of the Glasgow University Media Group. He was perhaps the name most associated with the various research activities and, crucially the books published that disseminated the research findings. Most of the books, published by Pluto Press, had the title ‘Bad News’ and they set out to explain how the UK broadcast media over-represented some views and ideas at the expense of others and misrepresented stories through ‘bad news’.

The basis for the ‘Bad News’ reports was ‘content research’ – the simple but laborious process of counting the number of times aspects of particular news stories were mentioned and how they were represented. The first book in 1976 and a second volume in 1978 drew on the results of a 1975 project which collected all the news bulletins on BBC1, BBC2 and ITV over a period of five months. The books created outrage amongst broadcast TV managers. I was in my first years of teaching in 1976 and like many others I was very taken with this approach. It seems bizarre now but nobody had previously made much comment about TV News. GMUG showed that, during industrial disputes, TV reports would interview managers in offices, often book-lined and calm environments, whereas strike leaders and trade union officials were usually interviewed on picket lines or at the factory gates with all the noise and bustle and potential conflict around them. Examples of this contrast were easily found and understanding of built-in bias caused by lack of journalist training became apparent. Although attacked fiercely by broadcast TV managers on publication this work would eventually influence future journalism training. There have been many more ‘Bad News’ findings over the years and all can be checked out in the material available from this GMUG website.

One of the most important publications in recent years have been those concerned to demonstrate the ‘disinformation’ from Israeli authorities and the approach to reporting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by the British media. The first book Bad News from Israel was published in 2004. It confirms what many of us have always believed but it does so with strong research findings. Here is the description of the findings taken from the GMUG website, in the section: ‘War and Conflict’:

There is a preponderance of official ‘Israeli perspectives’, particularly on BBC 1, where Israelis were interviewed or reported over twice as much as Palestinians. On top of this, US politicians who support Israel were very strongly featured. They appeared more than politicians from any other country and twice as much as those from Britain.

You can download a short excerpt from the findings direct from the page linked above. This was one of several ‘Bad News’ reports on Israel-Palestine, including research into the presentation of ‘evidence’ about anti-semitism in the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn.

I remember meeting at least two members of the original GMUG but not Greg Philo. I wanted to mark Philo’s important achievements and I urge you to read his colleague Mike Berry’s obituary.