Darren Kelsey

Newcastle University, School of Arts and Cultures, Faculty Member

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Dr Darren Kelsey is Deputy Head of Media, Culture, Heritage at Newcastle University. His research has focused on journalism, media, discourse, politics, mythology, ideology and power, through which he has developed a discourse-mythological approach (DMA) in critical discourse studies. Darren’s publications have focused on a range of topics including: war, propaganda, mythology and terrorism; moral storytelling during the London riots; mythological news coverage of bankers after the financial crisis; hero mythology in the discourse and rhetoric of Nigel Farage; and journalism education after the Leveson Inquiry. Darren’s research interests in power and digital media have examined surveillance cultures on social media; developing and applying critical frameworks of discourse, ideology, context, and surveillance theory to analyse digital media technologies. Darren is the founding editor of Journalism and Discourse Studies and a co-convenor of the Newcastle Critical Discourse Group. He is author of the following monograph: Kelsey, D. (2015) Media, Myth and Terrorism: A discourse-mythological analysis of the ‘Blitz Spirit’ in British Newspaper Responses to the July 7th Bombings. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Address: Media and Cultural Studies
School of Arts and Cultures
Room 2.81
Armstrong Building
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU

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Papers by Darren Kelsey

Pound for pound champions: the myth of the Blitz spirit in British newspaper discourses of the City and economy after the 7 July bombings

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This paper analyses the myth of the Blitz spirit in British newspaper discourses of the City and ... more This paper analyses the myth of the Blitz spirit in British newspaper discourses of the City and economy after the London bombings on 7 July 2005. The Blitz spirit is a popular story of Britain during the Second World War, uniting together with defiance and resilience to overcome the threat of invasion from Nazi Germany. Through Barthes’ model of myth,

Journalism education after Leveson: Ethics start where regulation ends

Ethical Space, 2013

Financial crisis and austerity: interdisciplinary concerns in critical discourse studies

We begin our introduction to this special issue by considering the interdisciplinary collaboratio... more We begin our introduction to this special issue by considering
the interdisciplinary collaborations behind this project before
reviewing previous research on political rhetoric, financial
reporting and media coverage of austerity in transnational
contexts. We consider aspects of moral storytelling that have
arisen through the contextual complexities of societies in financial crisis and other moral tales of austerity in political rhetoric. Whilst much of the literature and debates covered here are concerned with UK economic policy and related British social contexts, we will expand to include examples from other countries that reflect similar concerns on the ideological operations of austerity and financial discourse. Finally, some critical theoretical approaches to ideology and political economy are discussed in relation to the socio-economic areas covered in this special issue. The multiple discursive contexts of austerity that are covered here demonstrate the breadth of social concerns and conflicts that have developed in societies and institutions following the recent global economic crisis.

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Interdisciplinary collaboration and interaction: Opportunities for Journalism and Discourse Studies

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Discourse, affect and surveillance: gender conflict in the omniopticon

This article proposes an interdisciplinary framework designed to analyse discourse, affect and su... more This article proposes an interdisciplinary framework designed to analyse discourse, affect and surveillance. By revisiting the "omniopticon" (the many watching the many) and proposing “civeillance” as an affective dynamic of surveillance culture, it considers communicative mechanisms that reflect the interchangeable functions and normalisations of surveillance technologies in personal and public spaces. When 17-year-old Austin Haughwout was using his drone to film aerial shots of Hammonasset Beach in Connecticut, 23-year-old Andrea Mears accused him of photographing people on the beach. Mears physically attacked Haughwout, called the police and accused him of assault. During the attack, Haughwout used his phone to record the incident without Mears’ knowledge. The video was used by the police who arrested Mears for assault. The recording then featured in news stories online, where Mears was subjected to sexist abuse. The following analysis shows how affective practices and embodied meaning-making are personally, socially and technologically embedded within discursive processes of representation. Contrary to non-representational theories of affect, this framework sees affective-discursive practice as a multimodal complex of communicative components. Dialogical mechanisms of discourse and contextual complexities function through physical practices and cultural conducts, which are ideologically influenced by social relations and power structures. Discourse both affects, and is affected by, the feelings, emotions, minds, ideologies and interactive experiences that we have in personal spaces and social contexts.

Keywords: Discourse; affect; surveillance; gender; ideology; omniopticon; civeillance; drones

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Discipline and resistance on social media: Discourse, power and context in the Paul Chambers 'Twitter Joke Trial'

by Lucy Bennett and Darren Kelsey

This paper analyses discourse, power and context on social media. Through a theoretical discussio... more This paper analyses discourse, power and context on social media. Through a theoretical discussion of the 'Twitter Joke Trial', we highlight the growing importance of understanding 'individual communicative nuance' (ICN) and complex power relations in the production and interpretation of online texts. But ICN is not the only problematic practice of online communications; there are other social and environmental factors that impact upon the production, consumption and interpretation of social media. Whilst adopting previous understandings of discourse, context and social practice we refine and apply models of panoptic and synoptic power that are applicable to the communicative complexities of the social media. These dimensions of power, we argue, are unfixed and shift according to the contextual environments in which they are produced and consumed. Hence, we show that critical discourse studies (CDS) can incorporate theoretical frameworks that provide the investigative and analytical approaches necessary for exploring power relations in digital media technologies. By developing this theoretical approach we propose the concept of synoptic resistance, which mobilizes oppositional power against authoritative surveillance. Whilst we do not deny that broader social structures maintain top-down power, we argue that 'omnioptic' media environments complicate these power relations in the 'countercurrents' they provide against authority.

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Defining the 'sick society': Discourses of class and morality in British right- wing newspapers during the 2011 England riots

Between 6 and 10 August 2011, acts of violence and civil disobedience occurred in 66 locations ac... more Between 6 and 10 August 2011, acts of violence and civil disobedience occurred in 66 locations across London and other cities in England. Initial responses from politicians and the press sought to explain why the riots were happening and what responses were necessary. This paper shows how the depoliticised actions of rioters were redefined as a politicised problem, symbolic of a sick society that could be cured by Conservative social policy. This paper explores the nuanced discursive and paradoxical mechanisms of right-wing newspapers. I argue that ideological consistencies operating beyond the foreground and immediacy of individual texts override the appearance of discursive contradiction across longitudinal contexts.

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The myth of the city trickster: storytelling, bankers and ideology in the Mail Online

Abstract: This paper is concerned with mythology and ideology in media coverage of the financial ... more Abstract: This paper is concerned with mythology and ideology in media coverage of the financial crisis. I argue that the Mail Online’s ‘critical’ discourse of bankers is a mythological construction of the trickster, which causes ideological and discursive dilemmas for the Mail as a right wing news source. Some stories featuring the banker as trickster suppressed discussions of systemic failings in the financial system. However, other instances mobilised systemic questions and concerns about global trading and the free market. By conducting a Critical Discourse Analysis of Mail Online news stories I show that the Mail’s criticism of bankers does not reflect an ideological compromise or opposition to the systemic design and ideals of free market capitalism. Rather, paradoxical mechanisms occur when the Mail represents bankers as the immoral individuals (tricksters) who take advantage of the system: whilst these criticisms call for some form of punishment or legislation to control the problem, there is reluctance to compromise free market values or legitimise state regulation of the banking sector. The complex characteristics of trickster figures in the stories analysed demonstrate current dilemmas and anxieties about the power and practices of financial institutions. Whether bankers are the genius providers of wealth or the reckless destroyers of economies, their ridicule highlights a sensitive balance of values and interests in journalistic storytelling. As Radin argued, “If we laugh at [the trickster], he grins at us. What happens to him happens to us” (1955:169). If it is true that we need the expertise of bankers to recover in the global market then this provides another dilemma for publics, politicians and storytellers to consider.

keywords: mythology; ideology; bankers; trickster; critical discourse analysis

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Hero Mythology and Right-Wing Populism: A discourse-mythological case study of Nigel Farage in the Mail Online

This paper is concerned with mythology as a discursive practice of journalistic storytelling. By... more This paper is concerned with mythology as a discursive practice of journalistic storytelling. By adopting a discourse-mythological approach (DMA) I analyse Mail Online articles about UKIP leader, Nigel Farage. Archetypal traits of mythological Heroism in the Mail Online are constructed through the ideological mechanisms of populist discourse; through Farage’s image as a man of the people who distinguishes himself from the political establishment. It is through the Hero myth that we see a distinct trait of this archetypal convention: the Hero’s journey. Farage is constructed as a man on a mission, fighting against the odds, overcoming trials and tribulations in his efforts to win the UK’s democratic power back from the EU. Mythological conventions function to suppress ideological, historical and contextual complexities that contradict Farage’s image as a man of the people. By exploring archetypal traits of the Hero myth in Farage’s rhetoric and the Mail’s reporting, this analysis shows how discursive constructions of mythology have functioned to support and promote the ideological agenda and political objectives of UKIP.

KEYWORDS discourse; European Union; Farage; ideology; mythology; populism; UKIP;

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Books by Darren Kelsey

Media, Myth and Terrorism: A discourse-mythological analysis of the ‘Blitz Spirit’ in British Newspaper Responses to the July 7th Bombings

Media, Myth and Terrorism provides a rigorous case study of Blitz mythology in British newspaper ... more Media, Myth and Terrorism provides a rigorous case study of Blitz mythology in British newspaper responses to the July 7th bombings. Considering how the press, politicians and members of the public were caught up in popular accounts of Britain’s past, Kelsey explores the ideological battleground that took place in the weeks following the bombings as the myth of the Blitz was invoked. By providing conceptual discussions of myth, discourse, and ideology, Kelsey proposes a discourse-mythological framework designed for analysing discursive constructions of mythology. In doing so, this research considers multiple recontextualisations of the Blitz myth when popular memories of 1940 recurred in 2005. Kelsey encourages readers to understand the politics of remembering by showing how popular yet inaccurate stories from the past have a significant impact on our perceptions of the present. Heroism, trauma, economics, Royalty, rituals, human rights, foreign policy, immigration and multiculturalism are just some of the topics covered across a vast landscape of stories embracing a myth from the past in order to understand the present.

Keywords: mythology; discourse; language; ideology; memory; war; terrorism; blitz; propaganda; journalism; media; second world war;