about me

I am Professor of Digital Media, and Associate Head of School – Research and Innovation in the University of Salford’s school of Media, Music and Performance.  I am also a member of the Communication, Cultural and Media Studies Research Centre and I sit on the University’s Digital Cluster Executive. You can also find versions of me on Facebook and Gaydar – you’ll need to look hard to find the latter! I joined the University of Salford in 1999 after working at the University of Manchester. Before working in higher education, I undertook several administrative roles within the UK’s National Health Service and even spent some time as a Health Promotion worker with MESMAC, a sexual health organisation. I’m interested in how people get different kinds of technologies to work for them on an everyday basis. I started out looking at this in the 1990s, generally in the workplace. However, since then I have found that developments outside work have tended to hold my attention more. I still do research about people and work, but given the way life is being played out in many (but not all) parts of the world I think there’s more to do beyond this. My current research agenda centres on analysing the development and use of social media such as those that support romantic relationships – internet dating (specifically Gaydar), those that are more focussed upon platonic relationships (such as Facebook), and Digital Gaming artefacts. My current Projects Include:

• Facebook’s ethics (with Kathy McGrath and Marie Griffiths)
• Gaydar and it’s links with mainstream social networking technologies
• Graffitti fellowships on YouTube (with Marie Griffiths)
• SingStar domestication practices on and beyond the screen (with Gordon Fletcher)

PhD students I am currently working alongside are:

• Zeeshan Amin – A study of PlayStation Portable (PSP) Device Appropriation
• Rhianne Jones – Social Networking
• Abudullah Mohammed – Challenges between Blogsphere and Traditional Newsprint
• Eileen Whattam – An Investigation into Social Media and community empowerment
• Anil Dania – Social Networking in India
• Ryan McGarrie – Cooperative Social Networking
• John Effah – Dot.com Domestication in Ghana
• Atefeh Bazzaordeh – Web 2.0 Public/Private Considerations and Work
• Cristina Vascilica – Digital Media and Sexual Health Education