I am an Associate Professor in Media Audiences and Participatory Cultures, and also hold roles as the Creative Industries Research & Innovation Group Co-Lead and Co-Chair of the Faculty of Business & Creative Industries Ethics Committee.

My research specialisms include media audiences and fan behaviour and engagement; transmedia; and place and space (particularly the experience economy, themed and immersive experiences, and media tourism). I recently guest edited an issue of Critical Studies in Television focusing on the 40th anniversary of EastEnders in 2025. I am currently working on an co-edited collection titled Pikachu’s Transmedia Adventures: The Continuing Adaptability of the Pokemon Franchise, and engaged in ongoing research into the experience economy, media tourism, and themed and immersive entertainment.

I have published six books; two monographs, Theme Park Fandom: Spatial Transmedia, Materiality & Participatory Cultures (2020, Amsterdam University Press) and Post-Object Fandom: Television, Identity & Self-Narrative (2015, Bloomsbury) and the edited collections Animation Key Films/Filmmakers: The Nightmare Before Christmas (2025, Bloomsbury), A Fan Studies Primer: Method, Ethics Research (2021, University of Iowa Press), Everybody Hurts: Transitions, Endings & Resurrections in Fan Cultures (2018, University of Iowa Press) and Torchwood Declassified (2013, I.B. Tauris).

I am currently Module Leader for:

• Media, Culture & Creative Industries in Wales
• Rethinking Media Theory 
• Digital & Social Media 
• Researching Media, Culture & Communication 
• Media, Gender & Global Diversity
• Transmedia & Convergence Culture
• Major Research Project

I also teach on:

• CK2S12 Media Audiences & Fandom

I welcome PhD applications from potential PhD students in the areas of media audiences and fandom; media tourism; media experiences; the experience economy; theme parks; Disney Studies; television studies; celebrity studies; digital and social media.

Current and Previous Students

PhD:

FanGRRRLs: How the Commercial Exploitation of Female Fans Impacts Their Place and Perception in the Music Industry (2025-) – Danielle Hewitt (Director of Studies)

TV Storytelling’s Role in Communicating a Compassionate Response to Instances of Emotional Vulnerability in Self and Others, With Positive Implications for Enhancing Belonging and Connectedness (2024 -) – Rachel Davies (Supervisor)

‘Cheap, Quick, and Dirty’: Authorship in the B-Movie Circuit (2024-) – Malu Barroso (Supervisor)

Fandom and Play: Auto-Ethnographic Research into Fan Subcultures (2022-) – Ada Jeffery (Director of Studies)

Cultural Intermediaries and the Presence of Welsh National Identities in Public Celebrity Images (2012-2018) – Alex Brady (Director of Studies)

Beyond the M25: BBC Television Drama in Wales and Scotland (2009-2014) – Nina Jones (Supervisor)

Investing a Studio with Meaning: The Construction of Fictional Space in British Television Drama and the Police Series of 1955-82 (2010-2015) – Ben Lamb (Supervisor)

Masters by Research in Media, Communication and Cultural Studies:

Analyzing the Emerging Trends in the Representation of Women in Visual Communication Design: A Comparative Study Between the UK and Bangladesh (2025-) - Rumana Islam Rupa (Supervisor)

The Force Reawakens: 'The Transmedia Sub-universe' of Internally Produced and Externally Licenced Storytelling in the Disney Era of Star Wars (2016-2019) – Charlie Andrews (Director of Studies)

The Rise of the Cybercelebrity: Understanding Celebrity Production and the Construction of Authenticity on YouTube Using YouTube Gamer MiniLadd (2016-2018) – Katherine Edwardes (Director of Studies)

The Treasured Memories of Childhood and Television: Intergenerational Memory, the Home and Children's Remake Television (2014-2017) – Laura Jones (Supervisor)

Wales, UFOs and the Public's Perceptions of Alien Phenomena: Re-visiting the Dyfed Triangle of 1977 (2013-2015) – Emyr Davies (Supervisor)

Adventures in Time and Facebook: Evolution of Online Doctor Who fandom (2012-2013) – Amy Genders (Supervisor)

The Branding of the Consumer Relationship: How the Online Brand Community is Animated by its Fans (2010-12) – Emma Leslie (Supervisor)