The Glasgow Media Group (also known as the Glasgow University Media Group or GUMG), is a group of researchers formed at the University of Glasgow in 1974, which pioneered the analysis of television news in a series of studies. Operating under the GUMG banner, academics like its founders Brian Winston, Greg Philo and John Eldridge have consistently argued that television news is biased in favour of powerful forces in society over issues like Israel/ Palestine, Northern Ireland and refugees.
In 1982 Really Bad News reached number five on the Glasgow Evening Times best sellers list and other GUMG titles have remained popular on social science courses at universities.
In 1985, BBC Two made an eponymous programme based on War and Peace News as part of their BBC2 Open Space series but before broadcast it removed certain aspects of the programme, including minutes leaked from their own editorial meetings. As a result, the GUMG secured a screen-card reading CENSORED and another suggesting that viewers write and complain to the BBC's Director General. The resulting publicity led to the editor of ITN, David Nicholas, attacking the book and to the Observer describing the GUMG as ‘academic hit men stalking television’s newscasters’.
Bad News, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1976.
More Bad News Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980.
Glasgow University Media Group Really Bad News, Writers and Readers, 1982.
Greg Philo Seeing and Believing, Routledge, 1990
John Eldridge (Ed.) Getting the Message: News, Truth and Power (Routledge, 1993)
John Eldridge (Ed.) News Content, Language and Visuals: Glasgow University Media Reader (Communication and Society) (Paperback), Routledge, 1995.
Greg Philo (Ed.) Industry, Economy, War and Politics: Glasgow University Media Reader: 2 (Communication and Society) (Paperback), Routledge, 1995.
John Eldridge, J.Kitzinger and K.Williams) The Mass Media and Power in Modern Britain (Oxford University Press,1997)
David Miller, Jenny Kitzinger, Peter Beharrel and Kevin Williams The Circuit of Mass Communication: Media Strategies, Representation and Audience Reception in the AIDS Crisis, Sage, 1998.
Greg Philo Message Received (Paperback), Longman, 1999.
Greg Philo and David Miller Market Killing: What the free market does and what social scientists can do about it (Paperback), Longman, 2000.
Reporting Child Deaths by Glasgow Media Group (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), 1 February 2001) Paperback
Greg Philo and Mike Berry Bad News From Israel, Pluto, 2004.
Greg Philo and Mike Berry; More Bad News from Israel, Pluto 2011
Greg Philo, Emma Briant and Pauline Donald; Bad News for Refugees, Pluto, 2013.
