Professor Martin Scott
Small Group Project 2015-16
The Future of IRIN
With Kate Wright & Mel Bunce
Consideration of the influence of foundation funding on international news is, at the moment, limited to theoretical critique or brief critical discussions of anecdotal examples. As Browne (2010:890) puts it, ‘there has not, as yet, been any comprehensive content analysis of the work produced by foundation-funded journalists and it would be unfair to jump to critical conclusions via anecdote’. Feldman’s (2007:445) conclusion that, ‘the funded left has moved towards the mainstream as it has increased its dependence on foundations’, for example, is no more than an assertion drawn from data showing a general increase in foundation funding for media organisations over time. Existing studies are also focussed almost exclusively on the influence of US foundations on US media.
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Cohort
Biography
His publications include Capturing News, Capturing Democracy (2024), Humanitarian Journalists (2022), Media and Development (2014) and From Entertainment to Citizenship (2014), and he is the co-author of the Index on International Media Freedom Support (IMFS).
He has won multiple awards for his research including MeCCSA's Monograph of the Year award (2025), the Wolfgang Donsbach Outstanding Journal Article of the Year Award (2020) and UEA's Outstanding Impact in Policy and Practice award (2019). He holds a PhD and MA in Media and Development Studies from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. His current research examines advocacy for media freedom and the media's influence on aid.
Biographical details correct as of 21.05.26