Meet the Media, Culture and Communication tutors
All of our lecturers are active researchers, and we believe strongly in the close integration of research and teaching.
Some of the modules we offer are directly informed by ongoing research in the field of media, culture and communication. We use our research to understand the changing landscape of contemporary communication, cultural and professional practice and previous forms of media and cultural experience and to draw upon this in our teaching and assessment design.
Dr Steve Spittle
Programme Leader
Steve runs the programme and can be contacted to discuss the running of particular modules or the programme as a whole. Steve sits on the University Academic Board and is the APSS Faculty Representative for the University’s programme and module amendment panel. His research and teaching interests include: Lifestyle, consumer culture, media and discourse analysis, culture and identity, advertising, screen culture, and media and cultural theory.
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Dr Rachel Broady
Rachel’s background is in professional journalism: she has written for national, regional and local newspapers, magazines, and online publications. She still continues to produce journalism but now focuses on analysing the industry and its practices. Her special research interest is in the representations of poverty in the news media. Rachel’s doctorate from LJMU was on the political unconscious in journalistic responses to poverty and protest. Rachel is the Year Tutor for Level 5.
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Dr Stella Gaynor
Stella is a Senior Lecturer in Media, Culture, Communication at Liverpool John Moores University in the School of Humanities and Social Science. Her PhD thesis was on the new economies of horror on US television. Stella’s research interests include: horror, American serial television, social and digital media and television industries. She is the EMCS Dissertation Coordinator.
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Dr Nedim Hassan
Ned’s background is in popular music studies, with a doctorate from the Institute of Popular Music, University of Liverpool. He is particularly interested in researching the roles of music, media and culture in everyday life. Ned's current research focuses upon local rock and metal music scenes on Merseyside and on scenes that appear to be 'hidden' from established historical narratives about Liverpool's music history. He is the programme leader for the MA Mass Communications.
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Dr Paddy Hoey
Paddy Hoey is a senior lecturer in media and his research interests include: activist media, mediated politics, the public sphere and the internet, social media, Northern Irish politics and Irish republican activism. Before working in higher education, he was a journalist on local and regional newspapers, including the Liverpool Daily Post & the Liverpool Echo, and has been a presenter & contributor to the radio stations City Talk FM & BBC Radio Merseyside. He is the joint Year Tutor for Level 4 (with Jo).
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Dr Clare Horrocks
Clare’s research interests include nineteenth-century journalism and periodicals, especially Punch magazine, travel and tourism studies, and digital humanities. She is the Media employability lead and the MCC Admissions Tutor. Clare is the Year Tutor for Level 6.
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Dr Bee Hughes
Bee (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher. Their research explores embodied experiences of gender, how cultural norms are constructed, and how they can be challenged. Bee has published on topics including illustration theory, the visual cultures of menstruation, contemporary art practice, online medical advice, and the experiences of LGBTQ+ students. Bee is Assessment Officer for MCC.
Dr Joanne Knowles
Jo has research interests in popular narrative and culture from the nineteenth century to the present day, including gender and popular fiction, particularly girls’ and women’s magazines, TV and seasonal broadcasting, Victorian popular fiction, and persuasive social media communications. She is the Media Dissertation Coordinator and MCC Research Coordinator. Jo is the joint Year Tutor for Level 4 (with Paddy).