David Gauntlett

David Gauntlett (born 15 March 1971) is a British sociologist and media theorist. His earlier work concerned contemporary media audiences, and has moved towards a focus on the everyday making and sharing of digital media and social media, and the role of such media in self-identity and self-expression.

Career

Gauntlett graduated from the University of York in Sociology in 1992.^[1] He then took his PhD and then taught at the University of Leeds from 1993 to 2002, then was appointed Professor of Media and Audiences at Bournemouth University. In 2006 he joined the School of Media, Arts and Design at University of Westminster as Professor of Media and Communications.

He is Co-Director of the Communications and Media Research Institute, ranked #1 for Media and Communications research in the Research Assessment Exercise held most recently in 2008.

Gauntlett's critique of media 'effects' studies sparked controversy in 1995,^[2][3] and since then he has published a number of books and research on the role of popular media in people's lives.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]} In particular he has focused on the way in which digital media is changing the experience of media in general.^{[10][11][12][13]}

Since the late 1990s he has produced the website Theory.org.uk.^[14]

In Reading Media Theory, Barlow & Mills state: "David Gauntlett is a prominent, public academic, who has spent his career engaging in research activities which have deliberately involved the public, and have crossed the traditional divide between the academic community and the outside world."^[15]

In 2007, he was shortlisted for the 'Young Academic Author of the Year' award in the Times Higher awards.^[16] Richard Toye, of Exeter University, won the award.

New creative research methods

This approach asks participants to make something as part of the research process.^[17] Gauntlett's work of this kind began with Video Critical (1997),^[18] in which children were asked to make videos about the environment, and then in a number of projects which are discussed in Creative Explorations (2007).^[19] As well as studies in which participants have been invited to make video, diaries, collage, and drawings, Gauntlett has explored the use of Lego Serious Play as a tool in sociology and social research.^[20] This approach makes use of metaphor and invites participants to build metaphorical models of their identities. The process of making something, and then reflecting upon it, is claimed to give a more nuanced insight into participants' feelings or experiences.^[19][21]

This work has been supported by awards from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.^[22][23]

Media Studies 2.0

In 2007, Gauntlett published online the article Media Studies 2.0, which created some discussion amongst media studies educators.^{[10][24][25][26][27][28][29]} The article argues that the traditional form of media studies teaching and research fails to recognise the changing media landscape in which the categories of 'audiences' and 'producers' blur together, and in which new research methods and approaches are needed. Andy Ruddock has written that Gauntlett's "ironic polemic" includes "much to value", and acknowledges that the argument "is more strategy than creed", but argues that audiences still exist, and experience mass media specifically as audience, and so it would be premature to dispose of the notion of 'audience' altogether.^[26] In other areas there has been less acceptance; Andy Medhurst at Sussex University wrote of Media Studies 2.0, 'Isn't it odd that whenever someone purportedly identifies a new paradigm, they see themselves as already a leading practitioner of it?'

Making is Connecting

In 2008 Gauntlett proposed 'the Make and Connect Agenda', an attempt to rethink audience studies in the context of media users as producers as well as consumers of media material.^[30] This argues that there is a shift from a 'sit-back-and-be-told culture' to a 'making-and-doing culture', and that harnessing creativity in both Web 2.0 and in other everyday creative activities will play a role in tackling environmental problems.^[30]

These ideas are developed further in 'Making is Connecting: The social meaning of creativity, from DIY and knitting to YouTube and Web 2.0' (Polity, 2011).^[31]

References

External links

• David Gauntlett - Main page with information about books and projects
• Making is Connecting - site about Making is Connecting project, with extracts, video, etc.
• Interview with David Gauntlett - Interview from 2010 book Mashup Cultures