Brief Biog

Formal Education
Secondary: St. Murdedach’s College, Ballina, Co Mayo.
Undergraduate: B.A. (Hons) Social Science, Polytechnic of Central London.
Postgraduate: Ph.D., University of Reading, School of Planning Studies and Dept. of Human Geography (1986).

Career Summary
My own interests in communication and media matters preceded my work in the university sector. My working career commenced in a print publishing house, where I spend three years as a trainee and journalist. This was followed by posts in two charitable organisations and a one-year post in local government.

University of Reading, Reading, England
1979-1982: I was awarded an ESRC-funded doctoral studentship based in the School of Planning Studies and Dept. of Human Geography, University of Reading, England. My doctoral studies were focused on economic and employment change in the old industrial cities and the role of state planning.

1983: Research Officer on research projects addressing new ICT and ‘high-tech’ industrial development in the ‘M4 Corridor’, to the west of London.

1983-1986, Research Fellowship: In 1983, I devised an international study of the patterns of innovation in ICT supply sectors and related industrial growth processes. This was refined in collaboration with Prof. Peter Hall, and we were successful in obtaining the required funding from the Leverhulme Trust. I was Senior Research Fellow and co-principal investigator on this 30-month project. The main findings were summarised in Hall and Preston (1988) ‘The Carrier Wave’, London and New York: Unwin Hyman.

My doctoral and post-doctoral research led to an interest in the spatial dimension of socio-economic and cultural change, a central concern in communication studies. It also sparked an interest in understanding long-run shifts in major new technical systems, industrial innovation processes and their relationship to broader patterns of socio-economic and spatial change.

PICT Programme, Economic and Social Research Council, London
Research Associate in the central co-ordinating unit of the Programme on Information & Communication Technologies (PICT). Here I was involved in advising the Director (Prof. W.H. Melody) on the selection of the six university-based PICT research centres and in the subsequent co-ordination and management of the research programme.

Innovation Studies Unit, University of East London
In 1988, I was appointed Senior Lecturer in the Innovation Studies Unit, University of East London. Here I was responsible for media and communications studies stream (within an interdisciplinary teaching and research unit).

School of Communications, Dublin City University
Since 1989, I have been based in the School of Communications at Dublin City University.
My main teaching interests include the following:
• The political-economy and regulation of communications and media services;
• The evolving role of information and communication in IR/IPE (International Relations/International Political Economy)
• The socio-cultural implications of technology and changing role of information;
• Communication theory and new/digital media
• Production, regulation and consumption aspects of the digital media services sector and new ICT more broadly.
I also supervise a number of postgraduate research students working in these fields.

Other recent teaching activities include the following: I proposed and led the development of new teaching programmes focused on digital media launched by the DCU School of Communications in 1999. I also contributed to the development of a new Masters programme in International Relations, together with colleagues from the Schools of Communication and Business studies. Here I lead the Modules dealing with the role of communications and information in international relations.

Research Interests
My main research interests centre around:
.1) The political economy of communication, including regulation and economic aspects.
.2) The evolving role of information and communication in IR/IPE (International Relations/International Political Economy)
.3) Empirical and theoretical aspects of the ‘new’ or ‘information economy’ and the changing role of the cultural industries sector.
.4) Innovation processes in digital media and network services.

COMTEC Research Centre
In the early 1990s, I founded the Communication, Technology and Culture (COMTEC) research centre in DCU. COMTEC was founded as an interdisciplinary research unit focused on socio-economic and cultural aspects of new ICTs and the information sector.

Over the past 19 years, COMTEC has pioneered a unique programme of research in the Irish university sector, largely supported by external funds provided on a project-only basis. COMTEC has participated in many multi-country European research projects and has established strong networking links with similar research centres in other European countries.

STeM & SIM Research Centres
In early 2000, I also led an initiative to develop a new interdisciplinary research centre: Society, Technology and Media (STeM). STeM’s agenda was focused on the socio-economic, policy and cultural aspects of digital media and the information economy in Ireland and their relation to developments in the EU and wider international contexts. This new initiative was intended not merely to embrace the increasing interest in social, cultural and policy aspects of digital media/technology on the part of School colleagues. It was also a response to the (potential) development of expanded public research funding opportunities for such work in Ireland for the first time. The archive for the STeM centre may be still accessed here

After the five successful years as director of the STeM centre, in 2005 I decided to step down in order to reduce administrative workloads. In the ensuing discussions amongst colleagues it was decided to reconfigure the centre in order to more fully embrace the work of colleagues engaged in media production and practice. This led to the formation of a new centre SIM (Society, Information and Media), of which I am also a member.
More information on SIM may be found at : http://www.sim.dcu.ie/