Journal of Mass Communication & Journalism

Helen Thornham

Helen Thornham
Institute of Communications Studies
University of Leeds, UK

Biography

Dr. Helen Thornham is a Research Fellow at Leeds University and has published widely on the social and cultural transformations of digital technologies. She has been PI on a number of projects investigating young people’s use of digital technologies including an AHRC project entitled ‘Still Alone Together?’ that worked with the BBC Future, Media and Technology team. Here, she investigated interface, design, interactive and ideological issues pertaining to the construction and success of offline and online digital communities. Previous research has investigated the flows and values of community in relation to adult gamers, and more recently she has been PI on a project investigating the constructions of communities through digital technologies by young people. These projects routinely raise questions around conceptions, practices and imaginings of community and culture in the digital age, as well as how such conceptions may be envisaged and supported in the future. Future projects with the BBC include constructions and productions of heritage and history in the age of the digital archive, and the implications of multi platform adoption for civic and ethical responsibilities for the BBC. She teaches on the New Media degree at the University of Leeds.

Research Interest

My main research interests are around gender and (new) media; narrative theories and mediation of technology; transformative use and appropriation of (new) media; feminist film theory and feminist new media theory.