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The media has a huge impact on what we prioritise culturally and in shaping the prospects for transformational social and environmental change; that’s why we’re working to bring this influence into critical focus.
Building on work that we have done with a range of culturally influential institutions, Common Cause is embarking on a new programme of work that sets out to uncover, and raise awareness of, the dominant values that underpin today’s media and their impact on what we have called ‘the values perception gap’. We hope to support people working across the media to recognise their agency in terms of shaping the cultural values waters we swim in, as well as identifying ways their work could help strengthen intrinsic values and might also help close the ‘values perception gap’. Starting with a programme of research and engagement, we will provide training for media professionals and hope to work with artists and creatives on interventions designed to raise the issues with a wider public.
With a small research team, supported by the South West Doctoral Training Partnership, we are researching the impact of the media on our cultural values. We are particularly interested in the relationship between the media and what we have called ‘the values perception gap’. We hope to publish the research in late summer 2023.
We are working with our researchers and a small network drawn from progressive voices in alternative media spaces and the mainstream media to research instances where barriers to working with intrinsic values have been successfully circumvented and intrinsic values are being elevated within the media.
We are developing a new version of our Values masterclasses specifically designed for people working across the media so that we can support the development of values literacy among journalists, producers, programme developers and other media professionals. If you’d like to find out more, please get in touch.
If you’re interested in learning more about the thinking behind this project, check out this blog written by Ruth Potts and the Perceptions Matter report which was a collaboration between Dr Tom Crompton, Rebecca Sanderson, Dr Mike Prentice, University of Salzburg, Dr Netta Weinstein, Oliver Smith and Professor Tim Kasser, Knox College.
If you work in the media and would be interested in discussing how we might work together we would love to hear from you.
Please contact Ruth or Elsie at rpotts@commoncausefoundation.org or eroderiques@commoncausefoundation.org
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