Dr. Phil Taylor is Professor of International Communications at the University of Leeds. His various research interests include government-media relations, public and cultural diplomacy, the use of propaganda and psychological operations in warfare, and world radio and television communications.
In 1978 Taylor joined the School of History at the University of Leeds as a Lecturer in International History and Politics. In 1982-83, he was Visiting Professor of Political Science & History at Vanderbilt University in the USA. He was made a Senior Lecturer in International History in 1988 and a Reader in International Communications in 1992. He secured his Chair in International Communications - the first of its kind in the UK - in 1998.
In between, in 1990, he was seconded to the newly created Institute of Communications Studies where he served as its first Deputy Director until 1998, when he became its Director, serving until 2002. He is currently the Research Director of ICS. He is also Associate Editor of both the 'The Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television' and 'The Journal of Information Warfare' and serves on the international editorial board for the new journals, 'Global Media and Communication' and 'Media, War and Conflict'.
Professor Taylor graduated with a first class honours degree in History from the University of Leeds in 1975 and secured his doctorate, also from Leeds, three years later in 1978. His PhD was an examination of the very first Whitehall press department - the Foreign Office News Department - between 1914 and 1939. The thesis was supervised by David N Dilks, and externally examined by the late W N Medlicott.
Taylor has published 11 books, including 'War and the Media: Propaganda and Persuasion in the Gulf War' (2nd edition 1997); 'Munitions of the Mind: a history of propaganda from the ancient world to the present day' (3rd edition 2003); 'Global Communications, International Affairs and the Media since 1945' (1997) and 'British Propaganda in the 20th Century: Selling Democracy' (1999).
