Biography

William Merrin is a Senior Lecturer in Media Studies in the department of Political and Cultural Studies. His research and teaching focus on media and cultural theory, contemporary developments in digital media and the history and philosophy of technology. He is especially interested in the work of Jean Baudrillard, McLuhan and the Toronto School, contemporary digital theory, developments in digital media and the challenge traditional media studies faces from these developments, and the history and archaeology of digital culture and technologies. 

William Merrin is also known as the creator of the concept of 'Media Studies 2.0', developing the blog of the same name in November 2006 to follow developments in digital media and critically reflect upon the state and future of media studies. 

 In his essay on 'Media Studies 2.0' he argues that media studies is an academic discipline that first emerged in the early-mid 20th century, at the same time as the rise of modern mass media - the modern newspaper industry, cinema, radio and television. Media studies was an academic response to the broadcast-era: it was a historical product and reflection of one historical model of media. The contemporary passage to a post-broadcast era and digital ecology, therefore, requires a transformation of traditional media studies and an upgrading of its broadcast-era concerns, categories and concepts. Merrin concludes that we need to create a media studies for the 21st century reflecting the realities and concerns of the contemporary media era, instead of a backward-looking discipline uninterested in and unable to follow or understand its own student's media experiences and worlds. We need a Media Studies 2.0.  

As part of his interest in the history of media and technology William also collects pre-cinema objects and entertainments and modern media forms. He has a collection of magic lanterns (such as the toy Ernst Plank lantern below), stereoscopes, daguerreotypes and ambrotypes, televisions and radios which he uses in his teaching. 

Supervisory Interests

William Merrin is able to offer postgraduate supervision in the following areas:

• Media and Cultural theory, including the work of Jean Baudrillard, McLuhanism and 'medium theory', digital media theory and the philosophy of technology.

• ‘Media Studies 2.0’ and the digital revolution, including contemporary issues in digital technology and digital culture and practices

• The history of digital culture and computing theory

• Media ecology, media archaeology and the history of technology.

Publications

Books

Merrin, W. and Hoskins, A. (forthcoming) Media Ecology/Archaeology, London: Routledge.

Clarke, D., Doel, M., Merrin, W., Smith, R. (eds.) (2008) Jean Baudrillard: Fatal Theories, London: Routledge.

Merrin, W. (2005) Baudrillard and the Media: A Critical Introduction, Cambridge: Polity Press. 224 pp.

Keynote Speaker: ‘MyWar: Citizen Militarism and Social-Networked Conflict’ for the ‘Digital Media and Security Scoping Workshop/Symposium’, University of Warwick, 21-22^nd May 2009.

Keynote Speaker, ‘The Challenge of New Media’, One-day Symposium on Media Studies 2.0 and Digital Media, 12^th December 2008, Bristol University.

Invited Chair: ‘How digital media impacts upon art, design and media education’ discussion session at ‘Knowledge: ADM-HEA Annual Forum, 2008 (Art, Design and Media subject area, Higher Education Academy), 1^st May, The Lowry, Manchester.

Keynote Speaker: ‘The Demoralisation of the West: Baudrillard and International Relations’, at Newcastle University, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology Symposium, ‘Baudrillard and International Politics’, 28^th November 2007.

Keynote Speaker: ‘The BBC’s War on Error: Baudrillard and TV Fakery’, one-day symposium on Television and Fakery, Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds, 8^th November 2007. 

Keynote speaker: ‘Floral Tributes, Binge-Drinking and the Ikea Riot Considered as an Up-Hill Bicycle Race’, at University of Birmingham, Department of Sociology, One-day symposium on Jean Baudrillard, May 2007.

Conference and Seminar Papers

'We Are Legion: The Networked Multitude and Citizen Insurgency', Adam Smith Research Foundation/Global Security Roundtable Lecture, University of Glasgow, 21st February 2012

‘Open-Sourcing Knowledge: Towards a University 2.0’, ‘Open Media’ Seminar Series, Coventry School of Art and Design, Coventry University, 1^st November 2011.

‘Media Studies 2.0 and 21^st Century Digital Pedagogy’, University of Winchester, School of Media and Film, 27^th May 2011.

‘After the Audience: The Birth of User Studies’, at University of Nottingham School of Modern Languages and Cultures seminar series, 26^th January 2010.

‘This is the Time. And this is the Memory of the Time: The Digital Archaeology of 7/7’, for the ‘Conflicts of Memory: Mediating and Commemorating the 2005 London Bombings’, University of Nottingham, 4-5^th December 2010.

‘‘MyWar: Citizen Militarism and Social-Networked Conflict’, given at Department of Political and Cultural Studies seminar series, November 2009.

‘“Say What You See” and “Ask the Audience”?: Time to Upgrade Media Studies’, at Lincoln University, Department of Media Studies seminar series, 22^nd October 2008.

‘The Demoralisation of the West: Baudrillard and International Relations’, at British International Studies Association (BISA) annual conference, Cambridge, UK, 19^th December 2007.

‘Media Studies 2.0’, at London Metropolitan University, Department of Art, Media and Design, seminar series, 30^th May 2007.

‘Floral Tributes, Binge-Drinking and the Ikea Riot Considered as an Up-Hill Bicycle Race’, at Engaging Baudrillard, international conference, University of Wales, Swansea, 4-6^th September 2006.

‘Floral Tributes, Binge-Drinking and the Ikea Riot Considered as an Up-Hill Bicycle Race’, given at: Swansea University Centre For Urban Theory seminar series (January 2007); Cardiff University Critical Theory seminar series (March 2007) and Newcastle University, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology departmental seminar (May 2007).

‘‘‘Speculation to the Death”: Jean Baudrillard’s Theoretical Violence’. University of Wales, Swansea (UK), Dept. of English seminar series, 23^rd February 2005.

‘Skylights Onto Infinity: The World in a Stereoscope’. Leeds Metropolitan University (UK), School of Cultural Studies seminar programme, 12^th March 2003.

‘You’ve Been Maimed: Hyperreality and the Global Event’. University of York (UK), Department of Sociology seminar programme 15^th February, 2003.

‘Skylights Onto Infinity: Towards a Cultural History of the Stereoscope’ at Visual Delights II conference, University of Sheffield, July 12^th-14^th, 2002.

‘Buckle Your Seat Belt Dorothy…’ The End of Cinema and the Rediscovery of Virtual Reality’. 2001: The Present of Cinema Studies. A Series of Strategic Interdisciplinary Readings in Film. University of Southampton, Department of English, Film Studies Seminar Series, 6^th June 2001.

‘Angelic or Terminal Man? The Fate of the Human in McLuhan and Virilio’. 3rd International Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference. University of Birmingham, 23^rd June, 2000. (Session on Paul Virilio, chaired by John Armitage).

‘To Play With Phantoms: Jean Baudrillard and the Evil Demon of the Simulacrum’. Seminar Series in Visual Anthropology. The University of Manchester (UK), Department of Anthropology, 26^th October 1998. Also given as a guest lecture on their Anthropology Degree course, 9^th December, 1998.

‘Crash, Bang, Whallop, What a Picture! The Death of Diana and the Media’. Seventh One-Day Symposium on the Social Aspects of Death, Dying and Bereavement. The Open University (UK), 27^th November, 1997.

Editorial Board Membership

2004- present, International Journal of Baudrillard Studies

2007-present, Media, War and Conflict (Sage)

Conferences Held

Co-organiser of the major multi-disciplinary, international conference, 'Engaging Baudrillard', held at Swansea University, 4-6th September 2006. Keynote speakers included Prof. Mike Gane, Prof. Douglas Kellner and Prof. Mark Poster. Jean Baudrillard provided an original essay, 'On Disappearance', for the conference.

Blog

Media Studies 2.0, at: http://mediastudies2point0.blogspot.com