Dr. Brian Murphy

Chair and Associate Professor

Email:

bmm@niagara.edu

Phone:

716-286-8576

Bio

Dr. Brian Martin Murphy has been a faculty member at Niagara since 1999. A Canadian, Dr. Murphy received his B.A in history from Concordia University, Montreal, and his Masters in Journalism (M.J.) from Carleton University, Ottawa. His Ph.D. in Communication was awarded by the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Communication Studies courses taught by Dr. Murphy include the Art and History of Film, Media Programming and Management, Investigation and Reporting, Media History and Theory and International Communication.

Dr. Murphy came to Niagara University from a 25 year career in the global media industries focusing on social justice. In Britain he worked for eight years as a newspaper reporter, production editor, magazine feature writer/editor, and international affairs investigator winning national awards for newspaper design and research into new communication technologies. He worked for a number of years in Africa as a radio producer and free lance writer published in magazines including New African African Business and Africa Now.

Later he was recruited by Inter Press Service (IPS - the sixth largest world news agency based in Rome). Through 12 years with IPS he worked as a reporter in London, the national bureau chief in Canada, a special correspondent for southern Africa, and Founder and Editorial Director of IPS subsidiary Africa Information Afrique (AIA) based in Harare, Zimbabwe. As a journalist he has, so far, visited, lived in and reported from ten European countries, twelve African nations and two Asian states.

In the USA Dr. Murphy was a co-founder and co-editor of one of the nations first Internet-based social justice news services (PeaceNet Headlines). He managed media research and did script consulting for the educational video documentary production company Media Education Foundation. Along the way Dr. Murphy developed a reporting and analysis specialization in cinema and accrued on-the-job experience as a senior media manager.

On the research side Dr. Murphy has worked as a consultant to government and industry and has been published by academic book companies and journals.  His work includes research on new media technologies for the Canadian Governments Royal Commission on Newspapers, consultant research on new media and journalism for a Canadian government funded task force for non-governmental or private volunteer organizations, and investigation of market options for African magazine products.

His academic work has appeared in journals like Critical Arts: Journal of Cultural Studies, The International Journal of Communication, and the International Journal of African Historical Studies. Book publications include The World Wired Up: Unscrambling the New Communication Puzzle, the chapter A Critical History of the Internet, in the book Critical Perspectives on the Internet, and the chapter titled Propagating Alternative Journalism Through Social Movement Cyberspace: The Appropriation of Computer Networks for Alternative Media Development,” in the book Appropriating Technology: Vernacular Science and Social Power.

Dr. Murphys ongoing research interests include Media/Film History, Alternative and Independent media and journalism, Media Industry Political Economy, and African/International politics and media. He has presented results of his research at academic conferences like those of the Canadian Communication Association, the International Communication Association, the Union for Democratic Communication, the African Studies Association, and the Association for Economic and Social Analysis. He has recently been an invited speaker at conferences including the Alternative News Media Exposition and Press Freedom Conference (San Francisco) and the International Conference on the Ownership and Control of the Media (Athens, Greece).

Dr. Murphy remains active in journalism as an African and Military Affairs analyst for the Internet based international investigative journalists network The Progressive International Media Exchange (PRIME)” and as an advisor to the North American division of Inter Press Service (IPS).

On Campus he is the moderator of the department's newsletter and honor society, Lambda Pi Eta (LPH), and has served on the university Senate and various committees.