The Beano, the UK’s longest-running children’s comic, is often celebrated as ‘subversive’. But what does such a claim really mean?
Category Archives: representation
Airbrushing the Street: re-telling the story of how we got to Sesame Street
A new documentary glosses over some awkward questions about the origins of America’s most celebrated children’s television show.
Disinfecting Disney? Tackling the history of representation
The Disney Corporation is putting advisory messages about racial stereotyping on some of its historical films and TV shows. How should we deal with problematic representations from the past?
Decolonising the curriculum… again?
The call to ‘decolonise the curriculum’ isn’t new. But why does it seem that so little progress been made?
Deepfake: the end of representation?
New software can be used to falsify moving images and create a new kind of ‘fake news’ on video. What are the implications for media literacy?
Teaching social media 3: representation
A critical media education approach: using the concept of representation to teach about social media.
Introducing ‘Growing Up Modern’
Announcing my new writing project Growing Up Modern: Childhood, Youth and Popular Culture Since 1945.
Screening teaching
How are teachers and teaching represented in the media? Some observations provoked by Mark Readman’s book ‘Teaching and Learning on Screen’, reviewed here.
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Self, self, self: representing the self in the age of social media
How should we understand the rise of the ‘selfie’? Is this just a manifestation of mass narcissism, or do these new forms of self-representation provide other social and cultural possibilities?
Radicalisation, social media and young people
There is growing concern about the role of social media in ‘radicalising’ your people. But the government’s response to this phenomenon is contradictory and likely to prove ineffective. Here’s why we need a more thoughtful approach.