I’m a British writer and researcher with a particular interest in media, education, children and young people. My focus is both contemporary and historical. I live in London, and I have worked at various universities in the UK and overseas. You can find out more about my work here.

There are three main things on this site. There’s an occasional blog on media education, cultural history and related issues: the posts are tagged so you can search with keywords. There’s a substantial collection of longer pieces with a historical focus, Growing Up Modern: Childhood, Youth and Popular Culture Since 1945; and a newer collection on the Cultural History of Britain in the 1950s and 1960s. There are also some shorter, more general essays (and a few videos) on similar topics. This stuff is not intended primarily for academic readers, but for students and for the general reader. Just click on the tabs above to find out more.

My latest book, entitled The End of Information: Media, Knowledge and Education in a Post-Truth Age, will be published by Polity Press in early 2026. It’s now available on pre-order from the usual suspects, and from the publisher. You can find many of my academic papers on my Academia website here and on Researchgate here. If you would like to receive updates when new blogs are posted, you can subscribe using the box on the blog page, or you can go to my LinkedIn profile here. 

Latest blog posts: Media bans and ‘media literacy’: a dissenting view. Problems with the social media ban, and with the government’s limited perspective on ‘media literacy’. Click here. 

The ban on ‘digital childhood’. What’s the rationale behind Australia’s ban on under-16s using social media platforms, and how effective is it likely to be? An interview with Professor Michael Dezuanni. Click here. 

Teaching Adolescence: the antidote to ‘toxic masculinity’? The Netflix series Adolescence is being used in schools to teach about the problems of ‘toxic masculinity’ and the dangers of the ‘manosphere’. What are the potential problems of this approach? Click here. 

Latest article: Rumours of our demise… English, Media Studies and the struggle for survival. Some pre-election thoughts on the decline in English and Media Studies. Click here.

Latest essay on cultural history: Art and youth work in post-war Britain: ‘Journey into a Fog’. A forgotten best-seller from the mid-1950s sheds interesting light on youth culture and the potential of creative youth work. Click here. 

Latest interviews: I have been doing a lot of written and spoken interviews these days. Several of these are posted in the ‘essays and videos’ section (tab above). Some recent examples: A short interview on media education, for the Brazilian organisation CESC: click here. Some reflections on children’s media cultures for the French journal Transatlantica: click here.  Some further thoughts on media education in the digital age, for the new Italian journal Sociologia della Communicazione: click here. And an interview for the Hong Kong journal Communication and Society (in Chinese and English) on the same topic: click here.