Lecturer, Media & Communication, Swansea University
Richard Thomas combines an expertise in journalism and broadcasting with a lifelong love of cricket. As well as teaching media and communication, he is a regular contributor to Wisden Cricket monthly magazine (cricket's "bible").
As a multidisciplinary researcher, Richard is interested in quantifying trends and patterns in the ways that economic, business, financial and political issues are covered by news outputs ranging from TV and radio to online blogging and social media.
One of his main areas of interest is political communication and the coverage of elections. He has published many journal articles and is the co-author of a recent book published by Polity called “Reporting Elections: rethinking the Logic of Campaign Coverage”. He is the co-editor of JournalismKX – an online forum where scholars and journalists discuss how they can collaborate to address the key issues facing the news industry.
He is the Programme Director of the Erasmus Mundus MA in Journalism, Media and Globalisation. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and is the department’s Academic Integrity Officer.
As well as his articles in Wisden Cricket monthly, Richard has also written for magazines covering subjects as diverse as trucking and blues music, and regularly appears on BBC Radio Wales to discuss news, politics and elections.
Areas of Expertise
Political Communications
Election coverage
Economic, Business and Financial journalism
News coverage of poverty, wealth and inequality
Research methods specialist
Freelance feature writing
Jun 11, 2024 04:24 am UTC| Sports
Within a congested sporting summer, we might have already witnessed the most unexpected sporting moment of 2024. In what has been dubbed one of the biggest shocks in cricket history, the ICC Mens T20 World Cup co-hosts USA...
US election: horse-race reporting is media gold but democratic poison
Oct 09, 2020 08:15 am UTC| Politics
The 2020 US presidential election campaign is moving quickly and the news media are valiantly struggling to keep abreast of whats happening. Day in, day out theres a relentless source of material to report. Its hard enough...
How left-wing media sites have changed their coverage of the Labour Party under Keir Starmer
Jul 16, 2020 14:12 pm UTC| Politics
Left-wing alternative media sites such as The Canary, The Skwawkbox, and Novara Media have spent several years providing intense support for the Labour leadership under Jeremy Corbyn. But our analysis shows how they...
Coronavirus: BBC emerges as the UK's clear favourite information source in new audience survey
Jul 03, 2020 07:15 am UTC| Business
News media have been especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic, as good quality information has literally become a matter of life and death. New Ofcom data confirms that we are increasingly reliant on the...