Professor Ben Light

This person does not currently hold a position at QUT.
Biography
I joined QUT as Professor of Digital Media Studies in 2013. I was previously Associate Dean – Research and Innovation for the College of Arts and Social Sciences and Professor of Digital Media, in the University of Salford’s School of Arts and Media in the UK. Prior to Salford, I worked at the University of Manchester, UK. Before working in higher education, I undertook several administrative roles within the UK’s National Health Service and also spent some time as a Health Promotion worker with MESMAC, a sexual health organisation. I’m interested in how people get different kinds of digital media to work for them on an everyday basis. My latest book, Disconnecting with Social Networking Sites, was published with Palgrave Macmillan in 2014. In 2011, (with Garry Crawford and Victoria Gosling) Online Gaming in Context: The Social and Cultural Significance of Online Games, was published by Routledge. I have also published work in journals such as New Media and Society, Cultural Sociology, Information Technology and People and Continuum: the Journal of Media and Cultural Studies. I am a Senior Editor of the Journal of Information Technology, an Associate Editor for New Media and Society, Social Media and Society and the Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds. In 2012 I was the Organizing Chair for the Association of Internet Researchers Annual Conference, and part of the organising team for a co-produced BBC Games Academy event. Since 2008 I have co-organised a series of events around digital culture – see www.digcult.org My personal website can be found at www.benlight.mePersonal details
Keywords
Digital Media, Social Media, Social Networking Sites, Gender, Sexuality, Science and Technology Studies
Discipline
Communication and Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Sociology
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008
Qualifications
- PhD (University of Salford)
Professional memberships and associations
- Member: Association of Internet Researchers
- Assessor: Australian Research Council
- College Member: UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (including specialist panels for Strategic, Knowledge Exchange and International)
- College Member: UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
- Peer Reviewer: Australia Excellence in Research Assessment 2015
Selected publications
- Light B, (2014) Disconnecting with social networking sites, Palgrave Macmillan.
- Crawford G, Gosling V, Bagnall G, Light B, (2014) An orchestral audience: classical music and continued patterns of distinction, Cultural Sociology, 8 (4), pp. 483-500.
- Crawford G, Gosling V, Bagnall G, Light B, (2014) Is there an app for that? A case study of the potentials and limitations of the participatory turn and networked publics for classical music audience engagement, Information, Communication and Society, 17 (9), pp. 1072-1085.
- Light B, Cassidy E, (2014) Strategies for the suspension and prevention of connection: Rendering disconnection as socioeconomic lubricant with Facebook, New Media and Society, 16 (7), pp. 1169-1184.
- Light B, Griffiths M, Lincoln S, (2012) 'Connect and create': Young people, YouTube and Graffiti communities, Continuum, 26 (3), pp. 343-355.
- Crawford G, Gosling V, Light B, (2011) Online Gaming in Context: The Social and Cultural Significance of Online Games, Routledge.
- Light B, McGrath K, (2010) Ethics and social networking sites: a disclosive analysis of Facebook, Information Technology and People, 23 (4), pp. 290-311.
- Light B, Fletcher G, Adam A, (2008) Gay men, Gaydar and the commodification of difference, Information Technology and People, 21 (3), pp. 300-314.
- Fletcher G, Light B, (2007) Going offline: An exploratory cultural artifact analysis of an internet dating site's development trajectories, International Journal of Information Management, 27 (6), pp. 422-431.
- Light B, (2007) Introducing masculinity studies to information systems research: the case of Gaydar, European Journal of Information Systems, 16 (5), pp. 658-665.
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Ben, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Research projects
- Title
- Designing, Implementing and Evaluating a Youth Mobile Help-seeking Tool-kit
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- 78380607
- Start year
- 2016
- Keywords
- Title
- Developing an innovative entertainment-evaluation model to evaluate the efficacy of digital comedy in engaging young men with sexual health knowledge
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- 78268153
- Start year
- 2015
- Keywords
- Media And Gender; Healthy Sexual Development; Digital Communication