Here is some of my work about digital media and society, and some of the abstracts to give you an idea of the kind of work I do. I have included links to PDFs of pre-publication drafts where the publisher allows (this is a work in progress).
Books
Crawford, C., Gosling, V. and Light, B. (2011) Online Gaming in Context: The Social and Cultural Significance of Online Games. London, Routledge (Forthcoming).
Journal Papers
Light, B. and K. McGrath (2010). “Ethics and Social Networking Sites: a Disclosive Analysis of Facebook.” Information Technology and People 23(4), 290-311. PDF
Griffiths, M. and Light, B. (2008) Social Networking and Digital Media Convergence: Classification and its Consequences for Appropriation, Information Systems Frontiers 20(4), 447-459.
Light, B. Fletcher, G. and Adam, A. (2008) Gay Men, Gaydar and the Commodification of Difference, Information Technology and People, 21(3), 300-314. PDF
Fletcher, G. and Light, B. (2007) Going Offline: An Exploratory Cultural Artifact Analysis of an Internet Dating Site’s Development Trajectories, International Journal of Information Management, 27(6), 422-431. PDF
Light, B. (2007) Introducing Masculinity Studies to Information Systems Research: the Case of Gaydar, European Journal of Information Systems, 16(5), 658-665. PDF
Conference and Workshop Presentations
Light, B., Crawford, G. and Jones, R. (2011) Re-evaluating the Role of Technology in Social Network Site Usage, Media, Communications and Cultural studies Conference, Salford, UK.
Wattam, E. and Light, B. (2010) Challenging Links Between Social Disadvantage and Digital Exclusion: A Study of Community Reporters and Social Media Engagement in Urban Regeneration Areas, Media, Communications and Cultural studies Conference, London, UK.
Light, B. (2010) Missing cultures across video games: queers, gaymers and the terms of their inclusion,3rd Digital Cultures Workshop, University of Salford, UK.
Light, B. (2009) Gendering Social Media: Shaping Masculinities on Gaydar, Facebook and Beyond. AOIR 10: Internet Critical, Milwaukee, USA.
Light, B. (2009) More Than Just a Combo of Slaps? Representations and Experiences of LGBT Gamers On and Beyond the Screen, WiG/DiGRA Conference, Brunel University, UK.
Wattam, E. and Light, B. (2009) Finding a Voice through Social Media? A Study of Community Reporters and User Generated Empowerment, The Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Annual Meeting, Washington, USA.
Griffiths, M. and Light, B. (2008) Social Networking and Digital Gaming Media Convergence: Consequences for Appropriation in Habbo Hotel, Under the Mask: Perspectives on the Gamer Conference, the Research Institute for Media, Art and Design, University of Bedfordshire.
Light, B. and Wheeler, P. (2008) VIP 2.0? Disability, Technology and Disadvantage in Digital Culture, Symposium: Disability and the Internet: access, mediation, representation, Cultural Disability Studies Network and School of Media, Critical and Creative Arts, Liverpool John Moores Unviersity, UK.
Light, B., McGrath, K. and Griffiths, M. (2008) More Than Just Friends? Facebook, Disclosive Ethics and the Morality of Technology, Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems, Paris.
Light, B. (2008) From Gaydar to Facebook: An Ethnography of the Evolution and Convergence of Social Media, Creating Second Lives Conference, National Institute for Excellence in the Creative Industries, Bangor University.
Light, B., McGrath, K. and Griffiths, M. (2008) Facebook’s Ethics, Symposium: Facebook: a network, a research tool, a world? School of Media, Critical and Creative Arts, Liverpool John Moores Unviersity, UK.
Ferneley, E., Fletcher, G. and Light, B. (2008) Access All Areas? The Evolution of SingStar from the PS2 to PS3 Platform, Association of Internet Research Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Griffiths, M., Light, B. and McGarrie (2008) Antisocial Behaviour Orders: Unanticipated Directions in Social Network Site Development, European Conference on IS, Galway, Ireland.
Fletcher, G. and Light, B. (2008) Tech’s, Drugs and Rock and Roll: Technological Complicity in the Domestication of Gaming, European Association for the Study of Science and Technology/Society for Social Studies of Science Joint Meeting.
Fletcher, G. and Light, B. (2008) Making the Game work? Lessons from Ethnographies of SingStar, CITASA workshop, American Sociological Association, Boston, U.S.A.
Fletcher, G. and B. Light (2007). Gaydar on the Radar: Sexualities, Technologies and Cultures. Paper Presented at The Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Annual Conference Montreal, Canada.
Light, B. (2007) (Social) Construction Workers on the Net: Gaydar and the Shaping of Masculinities, Gender, Work and Organization, Keele, UK.
Abstracts
Fletcher, G. and Light, B. (2008) Tech’s, Drugs and Rock and Roll: Technological Complicity in the Domestication of Gaming, European Association for the Study of Science and Technology/Society for Social Studies of Science Joint Meeting, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Although a stereotypical view of digital games is that they are isolating technologies, contemporary gaming research shows that gamers are actually incredibly social beings who see collaboration and socialisation as a necessary and integral part of game play. In recent years, digital games have increasingly become a way of mediating social activity involving several members of a household (and beyond) in much the same way as earlier board games like Monopoly. However, it has recently been suggested that there is little in the way of understanding the gaming experience which goes beyond the playing of the game itself (Crawford and Rutter 2007). Tied to this, we believe is somewhat of an implicit attachment to the design fallacy whereby game developers are positioned as determining the possibilities for the enactment of such technologies a-priori. In this paper, our starting point is to conceptualise games as configurational technologies that require further interventions post production to make them work. Through multiple intersecting ethnographies of Singstar, a game for the PlayStation console which references Karaoke, we attend to processes of domestication. In particular, we pay attention to role of the genre of ‘the technology’ as complicit in its domestication. In this case, the particular genre of the game references back to Karaoke and the things associated with this activity. An implication of this is that even though the developers have disembedded particular technologies associated with Karaoke, such as the consumption of alcohol, the connotation of such relationships is so strong that these are reembedded by users as they domesticate the game. Furthermore, we consider how one particular group of technologies (alcohol and recreational drugs) further shapes the possibilities of domestication activity because of their complicit nature. Thus, although we know that existing technologies might continue to be important in domesticating configurational technologies and that such technologies display variety in malleability – through the concept of technological complicity we are able to identify why this might be the case.
Griffiths, M. and Light, B. (2008) Social Networking and Digital Media Convergence: Classification and its Consequences for Appropriation, Information Systems Frontiers, 20(4), 447-459. Within the field of Information Systems, a good proportion of research is concerned with the work organisation and this has, to some extent, restricted the kind of application areas given consideration. Yet, it is clear that information and communication technology deployments beyond the work organisation are acquiring increased importance in our lives. With this in mind, we offer a field study of the appropriation of an online play space known as Habbo Hotel. Habbo Hotel, as a site of media convergence, incorporates social networking and digital gaming functionality. Our research highlights the ethical problems such a dual classification of technology may bring. We focus upon a particular set of activities undertaken within and facilitated by the space – scamming. Scammers dupe members with respect to their ‘Furni’, virtual objects that have online and offline economic value. Through our analysis we show that sometimes, online activities are bracketed off from those defined as offline and that this can be related to how the technology is classified by members – as a social networking site and/or a digital game. In turn, this may affect members’ beliefs about rights and wrongs. We conclude that given increasing media convergence, the way forward is to continue the project of educating people regarding the difficulties of determining rights and wrongs, and how rights and wrongs may be acted out with respect to new technologies of play online and offline.
Fletcher, G. and Light, B. (2007) Going Offline: An Exploratory Cultural Artifact Analysis of an Internet Dating Site’s Development Trajectories, International Journal of Information Management, 27(6), 422-431. In this study, we develop a theorisation of an internet dating site as a cultural artifact. The site, Gaydar, is targeted at gay men. We argue that contemporary received representations of their sexuality figure heavily in the site’s focus by providing a cultural logic for the apparent ad hoc development trajectories of its varied commercial and non-commercial services. More specifically, we suggest that the growing sets of services related to the website are heavily enmeshed within current social practices and meanings. These practices and meanings are, in turn, shaped by the interactions and preferences of a variety of diverse groups involved in what is routinely seen within the mainstream literature as a singularly specific sexuality and cultural project. Thus, we attend to two areas—the influence of the various social engagements associated with Gaydar together with the further extension of its trajectory ‘beyond the web’. Through the case of Gaydar, we contribute a study that recognises the need for attention to sexuality in information systems research and one which illustrates sexuality as a pivotal aspect of culture. We also draw from anthropology to theorise ICTs as cultural artifacts and provide insights into the contemporary phenomena of ICT enabled social networking.
Light, B. (2007) Introducing Masculinity Studies to Information Systems Research: the Case of Gaydar, European Journal of Information Systems, 16(5), 658-665. I believe that studies of men’s gendered experiences of information systems are needed. In order to support this claim, I introduce the area of Masculinity Studies to Information Systems research and, using this, present an exploratory analysis of an internet dating website for gay men – Gaydar. The information system, which forms part of the Gaydar community, is shown to shape, and be shaped by the members as they accept and challenge aspects of it as related to their identities. In doing this, I show how the intertwined processes of information systems development and use contribute to the creation of diverse interpretations of masculinity within a group of men. In sum, my analysis highlights different kinds of men and different versions of masculinity that can sometimes be associated with different experiences of information systems. The implications of this work centre on the need to expand our knowledge of men’s gendered experiences with information systems, to reflect upon processes of technology facilitated categorisation and to consider the influences that contribute to the roll out of particular software features along with the underlying rationales for market segmentation in the software and software based services industries.
