Well, before I award myself the World’s Worst Blogger award, I have decided to get back on the wagon.
A quick recap. I’ve recently been in London studying at the University of London at the Institute of Education. I went there to find out more about social semiotics and media cultural studies, and I found out more than I could imagine. My primary supervisor was Andrew Burn who has been widely influential in youth media production, especially in understanding youth video production. But, he has also done extensive work in other media, e.g., media literacy in schools, playgrounds and games, video games and youth. I also spent many an enjoyable and informative hour as part of a reading group with Rebekah Willett and Chris Richards, two professors who taught me much about research and theory. Also, I learned much about media cultural studies from David Buckingham and John Potter (and I got a model for my own dissertation from John’s recent thesis–big thanks to him) and about multimodal analysis from Carey Jewitt. Those classes were invaluable.
Also, I was lucky enough to give seminars–one at the University of Sheffield (thanks to Kate Pahl) and at the London Knowledge Lab (thanks to Rebekah). Both have been podcasted: ‘Moving Beyond Video Analysis: Laminates, Perspectives, and Identities’ at U of Sheffield; ‘Identity as an Ethical Issue in Youth Media: Moving toward a New Theoretical Framework’ at the LKL.
I now have hope for completing my dissertation. Many, many thanks to you all.