A link to my article 'The Jeremy Kyle Show: Middle Class Territory' at FlowTV: a critical forum on television and media culture published by the Department of Radio, Television, and Film at the University of Texas at Austin. Flow’s mission is to provide a space where the public can discuss the changing landscape of contemporary media.

A link to my article 'Embarrassing Bodies: Public Sphere or Spectacle' at FlowTV: a critical forum on television and media culture published by the Department of Radio, Television, and Film at the University of Texas at Austin. Flow’s mission is to provide a space where the public can discuss the changing landscape of contemporary media.

A link to my article 'More than just ‘Lip Service‘?- Stereotypes in lesbian focused drama' at FlowTV: a critical forum on television and media culture published by the Department of Radio, Television, and Film at the University of Texas at Austin. Flow’s mission is to provide a space where the public can discuss the changing landscape of contemporary media.

A link to my article 'Playing the Straight Field:Pre-Watershed UK TV and Gay Intimacy' at FlowTV: a critical forum on television and media culture published by the Department of Radio, Television, and Film at the University of Texas at Austin. Flow’s mission is to provide a space where the public can discuss the changing landscape of contemporary media.

The L Word: Fan Pleasure or Fan Pain? from Interactive Cultures on Vimeo.

Here is a link to my research presentation on The L Word: Fan Pleasure or Fan Pain? This research was also presented at the PCA/ACA National Conference 2010 which took place in St. Louis. The L Word was a seminal lesbian drama series. On its conclusion many of the 2 million+ viewers were disappointed by the open ending. My work on the audience’s reactions through an ethnography of a popular online forum raises considerations for media producers in a continually fragmenting market.

So, many may be wondering the purpose of this blog and website. It’s been something planned for a long time – initially to map my journey through the PhD process and the development of academic research.  But this blog site also has another purpose, and that is to raise questions and ideas about Media and Cultural Theory and ideas around identity in my specialist areas. These ideas may be general notations about cultural identity or those which are quite specifically academic but I hope they are useful in engaging debate and discussion. 

I also hope my mapping of the PhD journey so far, and in the future also aids undergraduates and fellow doctoral students alike.  It’s a painful process but I’m determined to get to the end of it! 

I hope that this blog will have a mixture of postings, which will enable discussion and debate, not only amongst my own students (who I hope might read on one of those evenings where there is nothing better to do!) but fellow scholars, friends and such like.

Initial thanks go to Jon Hickman, whose own blog is linked from here – for his patience in helping me set up the site and blog. Thankfully knowing colleagues like Jon saves me precious time and money, although it’s probably quite a hardship for him. For more information about Jon and fellow research staff in the Interactive Cultures research centre at Birmingham School of Media, click here.