LLB Law with Politics, Queen’s University, Belfast, 2007

MSSc Criminology (with Distinction), Queen’s University, Belfast, 2008

Faith’s undergraduate research project, Children’s Rights in a Media Culture, involved media content analysis and qualitative interviews with children’s sector research and policy officers. The project was awarded the Northern Ireland Law Society Prize. Her postgraduate dissertation, A Critical Analysis of the Media Representation of Women Offenders and Women Prisoners in Northern Ireland, also involved media content analysis and primary research with media professionals including crime journalists, editors, documentary producers, television and radio presenters, key workers in the human rights sector. 

Project

A Critical Analysis of the Media Representation of Children and Young People ‘in Conflict with the Law’ in Northern Ireland

The focus of her PhD is the media representation of children and young people in Northern Ireland. It will analyse print and broadcast media coverage and content. Through qualitative interviews it will assess the significance of media representation on children and young people and on children’s sector organisations. Primary research will also be conducted with editors and journalists. Given the centrality of the debate about ‘demonisation’ the research will analyse negative media coverage in the construction of a popular discourse and political debate regarding the criminalisation, regulation and disciplining of children and young people in Northern Ireland. It will draw on comparative analyses, particularly in England and Wales, in the aftermath of the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act. Faith’s PhD research is being funded by the Department for Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland.

Contact email: egordon05@qub.ac.uk