Prof Ben Light
School of Health & Society
Current positions
Professor
Biography
My research concerns people’s everyday experiences of digital media with a focus on (non)consumption, gender and sexuality, digital methods, and digital media engagement for arts, culture, health and wellbeing. I am author (with Susanna Paasonen and Kylie Jarrett) of NSFW: Sex and Humor in Social Meida (2019 MIT Press) and Disconnecting with Social Networking Sites (Palgrave 2014). I have published widely in journals such as New Media and Society, First Monday, Information Communication and Society, Cultural Sociology, Information Technology and People, Convergence and Continuum. I am an Associate Editor for New Media and Society and Social Media and Society.
Organisations I have worked with include: Health Education England, the Northern Care Alliance, the LGBT Foundation, the Albert Kennedy Trust (AKT), the State Library of Queensland, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Imperial War Museums, Brook Advisory, the NHS Cancer Screening Programme, and Cooperatives UK.
As well as working at the University of Salford (1999-2014; 2016 to present), I have held positions at the University of Manchester and Queensland University of Technology. I have also worked outside Higher Education, for the NHS, the NHS Executive and Yorkshire Mesmac.
Areas of Research
Online Dating and Hooking Up, Gender, Sexuality, Digital Methods, Internet Studies, Social Media.
Areas of Supervision
Social Media
Digital Society
Digital Media
Digital Methods
Gender
Sexuality
Hookup Apps
Online Dating
Internet Studies
Qualifications
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Technological Appropriation
2003 -
Information Management
1997 -
Consumer Studies (1st Class Honours)
1996
Publications
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NSFW: sex, humor, and risk in social media
Paasonen, S., Jarrett, K., & Light, B. (2019). NSFW: sex, humor, and risk in social media. Boston, MA: MIT Press
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The walkthrough method : an approach to the study of apps
Light, B., Burgess, J., & Duguay, S. (2018). The walkthrough method : an approach to the study of apps. New Media and Society, 20(3), 881-900. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444816675438
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Disconnecting with social networking sites
Light, B. (2014). Disconnecting with social networking sites. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137022479