Tim Gawley

Call for Papers

Social Sciences Special Issue: Exploring Representations of Occupational Health and Safety Through Media.

Guest Editor, Tim Gawley

This Special Issue invites submissions that theoretically and empirically advance our understanding of how OHS is represented through media. We welcome theoretical perspectives such as media framing, risk communication, the social amplification of risk framework (SARF), computational social media analysis, audience reception, social constructionist, and other critical lenses. Quantitative (e.g., survey research/data analysis) and qualitative methodological approaches (e.g., interviews, content analysis, discourse/framing analysis, and multimodal visual methods) are encouraged. 

Deadline for manuscript submissions 31 December 2026

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My interdisciplinary career spans teaching and research in sociology, educational administration, organizational leadership, and health. My research primarily focuses on the intersection of health, work, and media, guided by a combination of critical and pragmatic concerns for the lived experiences of workers and the social production of workplace injury and illness.

My current research examines media representations of workplace injuries and fatalities in Canadian society. I have conducted quantitative and qualitative analyses of how newspaper reports on workplace injury align—or fail to align—with official government statistics. My recent work analyzes how print news media frames incidents involving work-related vehicles and how these frames compare and contrast with statistical realities. Additionally, I have examined how films and television—including big-budget features, ‘reality’ television, and documentaries—frame industrial disasters and worker health. I explore how these depictions influence public recognition of occupational health and safety (OHS) as a social issue and how they can inform public mobilization. My recently published work analyzes films such as Deepwater Horizon and Only the Brave, and documentaries such as American Factory and Blood on the Mountain, as vehicles for OHS messaging. My teaching interests include undergraduate research skills and competency development, social science research methods, and program evaluation.

Dixon, Shane M., and Tim Gawley. (2023). Screening workplace disaster: The case of ‘Only the Brave’ (2017). In J-C LeCoze and T. Reiman (Eds). Visualising Safety, an Exploration. Drawings, Pictures, Images, Videos and Movies. Springer Briefs in Safety Management.  (pp. 101-110).  Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33786-4_12

Gawley, Tim and Dixon, Shane M. (2021). Trading health for work: Recognizing occupational safety and worker health in the film, American Factory. New solutions: A journal of environmental and occupational health, 31(1): 89-95. https://doi.org/10.1177/1048291120980728

Gawley, T. and Dixon, S.M. (2020). “Covered in coal”: An examination of occupational health, safety, illness and injury in Blood on the Mountain.  New solutions: A journal of environmental and occupational health, 30(1), 169-174. https://doi.org/10.1177/1048291120907306

Gawley, T. (2018).  Using solicited written qualitative diaries to develop conceptual understandings of sleep: Methodological reviews and insights from the accounts of university lives. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 17, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406918794255

Dixon, S.M and Gawley, T. (2017).  “Crude exploration: Portraying industrial disaster in Deepwater Horizon, a film directed by Peter Berg, 2016”. New Solutions: A journal of environmental and occupational health, 27(2), 264–272. https://doi.org/10.1177/1048291117712546

Gawley, T., & Dixon, S. (2016) “One side of the story: Examining newspaper coverage of workplace injury and fatality in Ontario, 2007-2012”. Work: A journal of prevention, assessment & rehabilitation. 53(1): 205-18. https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-152140

HS402: Health Studies Practicum

HS401: Current Developments in the Health Professions

HS325: Qualitative Methods in Health Research

HS324: Biostatistics

HS321: Health Program Evaluation

HS211: Occupational Health and Safety