Simon Hewitt

My research focuses on the interstices between media audiences and media industries and examines how this gap is bridged. My most recent work, Word-of-Mouth in Contemporary Hollywood, used Pierre Bourdieu theories of capital to explore the greater levels of audience participation enabled by social media and in doing so, highlights how these practices are changing the audience’s relationship to film industrial dynamics. My current project discusses intermedial labour practices within UK scare attractions, and their links to stage and screen industries, with a specific emphasis on the experiences of aspiring performers.

I am interested in supervising projects that might explore issues surrounding fandom, participatory culture, formal and informal methods of media circulation/consumption, marketing, cultural economics (especially concepts of capital), and emergent technologies.