I’m a British writer and researcher with a particular interest in media, education, children and young people. My focus is both contemporary and (increasingly) historical. I live in London, and I have been a Visiting Professor 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 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.

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. You can also get updates if you follow me on Twitter using @ddbuckingham.

Latest blog posts on documentary:

Identity, sexuality and the price of fame: Dalton’s Dream (2023) A new documentary follows the uncertain career of an X Factor star, raising uncomfortable questions about the price of fame. Click here.

A symphony – with music! Revisiting Dziga Vertov’s classic avant-garde documentary Man with a Movie Camera, made in Soviet Russia in 1929. Click here.

Remembering the Troubles: Documentary, History and Truth. Three documentaries about the conflict in Northern Ireland raise some interesting questions about how we represent history. Click here.

Latest essay on cultural history: To Sir With Love How did E.R. Braithwaite’s book and the two successive film versions represent the changing politics of education and ‘race relations’ in the 1950s, the 1960s and the 1990s? 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.