Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Pornography: structures, agency and performance
WORK NOTES: with Rebecca Sullivan
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY: Australian
http://www.uts.edu.au/staff/alan.mckee * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_McKee
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born December 13, 1970.
EDUCATION:University of Glasgow, Ph.D., 1996.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Educator, administrator, and writer. Worked at Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA, Australia, and the University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia; University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia, associate professor of creative industries, associate dean in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
MEMBER:Cultural Studies Association of Australasia (former president).
WRITINGS
Girlfriend Guide to Life, coeditor. Contributor of academic articles to journals, including International Journal of Sexual Health; Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning; Porn Studies; Archives of Sexual Behavior; Australian Journal of Communication; Journal of Sex Research; Social Semiotics; and Australian Screen Comedy. Wrote scripts for Australian television series The Sideshow.
SIDELIGHTS
Alan McKee is associate professor of creative industries at the University of Technology Sydney and associate dean in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. He researches and writes about human sexuality, pornography, entertainment, and healthy sexual development. He was president of the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia and is coeditor of the magazine Girlfriend Guide to Life. McKee studied film and television in earning a Ph.D. from the University of Glasgow in 1996. He has published academic articles on the objectification of women, indigenous Australians and media, reality television, race, and queer issues for various journals, including the Australian Journal of Communication, Journal of Sex Research, and Social Semiotics.
McKee published The Public Sphere: An Introduction in 2005, in which he explores contemporary media culture to discover how people communicate with each other in public. He describes the concept of public sphere and debate space, then discusses the many forms of technology used to communicate, such as mobile phones, online message boards, web-based newspapers, electronic animated gift-cards, blogs, MP3 music, and digital video conferencing. McKee contends that with so many public spaces, there is the potential loss of a rational, informed, and unified space where people can reliably converse.
Writing in Traffic, Sufern Hoe called the book “a judicious study on the impact of this paradigm shift upon public debate and opinion in Western societies.” Hoe remarked: “McKee’s utilisation of common and clichéd texts does enable the reader to recognise and identify easily with the material, thus bestowing his book with user-friendliness and accessibility. McKee is also to be commended for his lucid and incisive summaries on the existing political debates and philosophical scholarship on the public sphere.”
In 2007, McKee edited Beautiful Things in Popular Culture, a collection of essays that explore the aesthetic criteria that consumers use to decide what aspects of popular culture are good and bad. Connoisseurs of popular culture use such diverse popular icons and issues as Batman, Xena: Warrior Princess, Kylie Minogue, motorbikes, crime fiction, shoes, and Internet pornography to discuss how consumers make decisions about high versus mass culture, and how they view broader issues about society.
McKee and cowriter John Hartley, a professor at Queensland University of Technology, published The Indigenous Public Sphere: The Reporting and Reception of Aboriginal Issues in the Australian Media in 2000. The authors examine the reporting of Aboriginal affairs in the media, implications for the study of journalism, ethnicity in national politics, and the ways in which nation, media, ethnicity, and storytelling influence each other. Conducting a three-year investigation of media coverage of Aboriginal and Islander issues in Australian media, such as newspapers, magazines, radio, and television, the authors reveal that Aboriginal people are overrepresented in the media, but coverage is compromised by indigenous people’s unresolved national status. Focusing on Australia, but also considering native populations in the United States, Canada, Siberia, and Scandinavia, the book offers advice on best practices in establishing ethno-national dialogue within nation-state polities.
McKee partnered with Rebecca Sullivan, professor at the University of Calgary, to publish the 2015 volume Pornography: Structures, Agency and Performance. An overview of pornography today, the book discusses what pornography is, who it is made for, production issues, the various sexualities portrayed, the view of pornography in the framework of consent and self-determination, and its use in academic study. The authors also discuss radical antiporn activists, feminist pornography, and queer porn, and they present some of the voices of people in the industry. They explain that pornography is neither good nor bad, but reflects the gender hierarchy that exists in society in general. Writing in Choice, Y. Kiuchi commented that the authors “characterize and define pornography but also discuss the implications of pornography and changes they wish to see.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Choice, April, 2016, Y. Kiuchi, review of Pornography: Structures, Agency and Performance, p. 1203.
Reference & Research Book News, February, 2007, review of Beautiful Things in Popular Culture.
Traffic [Parkville], number 7, 2005, Sufern Hoe, review of The Public Sphere: An Introduction, p. 160.
ONLINE
University of Technology Sydney Web site, http://www.uts.edu.au/ (April 1, 2017), author profile.
LC control no.: n 2007078763
Descriptive conventions:
rda
Personal name heading:
McKee, Alan (Aspro Alan)
Variant(s): McKee, Aspro Alan
Special note: Formerly on undifferentiated name record no2001044840
Found in: Hartley, John. The indigenous public sphere, 2000: t.p.
(Alan McKee)
Pub. supplied biog. info. for Beautiful things in popular
culture (Alan McKee; associate professor of creative
industries, Queensland University of Technology)
Queensland University of Technology, Creative Industries
Faculty, profiles (Aspro Alan Mckee; associate
professor, film and television)
FUN!, 2016: ECIP t.p. (Alan McKee, University of
Technology, Sydney, Australia) data view (b. 12/13/1970)
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Professor Alan McKee
Biography
Professor Alan McKee is an expert on entertainment and healthy sexual development. He has been awarded an ARC Discovery grant to bring together contradictory research data on pornography produced by different academic disciplines. He also holds an ARC Linkage with True (previously known as Family Planning Queensland) to investigate the use of vulgar comedy to reach young men with information about healthy sexual development, and he was co-editor of the Girlfriend Guide to Life. He has published on healthy sexual development, the effects of pornography on young people, and entertainment education for healthy sexuality in journals including the Archives of Sexual Behavior, the International Journal of Sexual Health, the Journal of Sex Research and Sex Education. He is Associate Dean (Research and Development) in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at UTS
Alan McKee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alan McKee
Academic background
Alma mater University of Glasgow
Thesis title Making race mean: the limits of interpretation in the case of Australian Aboriginality in films and television programs
Thesis year 1996
Academic work
Institutions University of Technology Sydney
Alan McKee is an Australian university professor and researcher of sexualised media.[1]
He has served as the president of the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia and sits on the editorial boards of the academic journals Continuum,[2] M/C Journal,[3] and the magazine Girlfriend Guide to Life.[4]
Contents
1 Education
2 Career
3 Bibliography
4 References
Education
He originally studied film and television, graduating with a PhD from the University of Glasgow in 1996.[5]
Career
After emigrating to Australia McKee worked at Edith Cowan University and the University of Queensland before moving to the Queensland University of Technology, where he is currently a professor in the Creative Industries Faculty.[6] He has published six academic books and over sixty refereed journal articles and book chapters. These have covered topics such as children and media, indigenous Australians and media, television in Australia, reality tv, soap opera, violence and media, youth and media, Americanisation, and gay and queer representation in the media.
He is best known for his research on pornography. He was the Chief Investigator of 'Understanding pornography in Australia', the first comprehensive examination of the production and consumption of pornography in Australia. This project presented a wide ranging view of the adult-content industry and its consumers.[7] This research proved controversial for taking an evidence-led approach to understanding sexually explicit media. For example, the project surveyed over 1,000 consumers of pornography and discovered that, for the vast majority, the effects of exposure to sexually explicit material were felt to be positive.[8][9]
He has also worked in media production, including the television series Big Brother Australia, where he served as media expert in the first season; and script writing for the Australian television series The Sideshow, featuring Paul McDermott (comedian)
Bibliography
Books
McKee, Alan; Hartley, John (2000). The indigenous public sphere: the reporting and reception of aboriginal issues in the Australian media. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198159995.
McKee, Alan (2003). Textual analysis a beginner's guide. London Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications. ISBN 9780761949930.
McKee, Alan (2001). Australian television: a genealogy of great moments. South Melbourne, Victoria: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195512250.
McKee, Alan (2004). The public sphere: an introduction. Cambridge New York, New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521549905.
McKee, Alan (2007). Beautiful things in popular culture. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 9781405131919.
McKee, Alan; Lumby, Catharine; Albury, Katherine (2008). The porn report. Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Publishing. ISBN 9780522853407.
Journal articles
McKee, Alan (January 1996). "Men and how to love them". Social Semiotics. Taylor and Francis. 6 (2): 273–284. doi:10.1080/10350339609384477.
An extended review of: Horrocks, Roger (1995). Male myths and icons: masculinity in popular culture. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9780312126230.
McKee, Alan (January 1996). "'Superboong! ... ': The ambivalence of comedy and differing histories of race". Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, special issue: Australian Screen Comedy. Taylor and Francis. 10 (2): 44–59. doi:10.1080/10304319609365739.
McKee, Alan (April 1997). "Fairy tales: How we stopped being 'lesbian and gay' and became 'queer'". Social Semiotics. Taylor and Francis. 7 (1): 21–36. doi:10.1080/10350339709360367.
McKee, Alan (August 1999). "Resistance in hopeles': assimilating queer theory". Social Semiotics. Taylor and Francis. 9 (2): 235–249. doi:10.1080/10350339909360434.
McKee, Alan (November 2005). "The objectification of women in mainstream pornographic videos in Australia". The Journal of Sex Research. Taylor and Francis. 42 (4): 277–290. doi:10.1080/00224490509552283.
McKee, Alan (2007). "The positive and negative effects of pornography as attributed by consumers". Australian Journal of Communication. Australia and New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA) via Queensland University of Technology. 34 (1): 87–104. Pdf.
McKee, Alan (February 2007). "The relationship between attitudes towards women, consumption of pornography, and other demographic variables in a survey of 1,023 consumers of pornography". International Journal of Sexual Health. Taylor and Francis. 19 (1): 31–45. doi:10.1300/J514v19n01_05.
McKee, Alan (November 2012). "The importance of entertainment for sexuality education". Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning. Taylor and Francis. 12 (5): 499–509. doi:10.1080/14681811.2011.627727.
McKee, Alan (January 2014). "Humanities and social scientific research methods in porn studies". Porn Studies. Taylor and Francis. 1 (1–2): 53–63. doi:10.1080/23268743.2013.859465.
McKee, Alan (January 2015). "Methodological issues in defining aggression for content analyses of sexually explicit material". Archives of Sexual Behavior. Springer. 44 (1): 81–87. doi:10.1007/s10508-013-0253-3.
Sullivan, Rebecca. Pornography: structures, agency and performance
Y. Kiuchi
53.8 (Apr. 2016): p1203.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Sullivan, Rebecca. Pornography: structures, agency and performance, by Rebecca Sullivan and Alan McKee. Polity, 2015. 219p bibl index ISBN 9780745651934 cloth, $64.95; ISBN 9780745651941 pbk, $22.95; ISBN 9780745694849 ebook, $18.99
(cc) 53-3563
HQ471
2015-6156 MARC
Pornography is one of the most, if not the most, controversial topics in the present media-heavy society. In this introductory work, Sullivan (English, Univ. of Calgary) and McKee (faculty administration, Univ. of Technology, Sydney, Australia) not only characterize and define pornography but also discuss the implications of pornography and changes they wish to see in connection with pornography. Arguing that pornography is neither positive nor negative, the authors make a realistic claim that no matter how hard opponents of pornography try to eradicate it, pornography will continue to exist. They contend that pornography is similar to any other entertainment in that it simply reflects the gender hierarchy and power dynamics that exist in the larger society. Using this premise, the authors examine pornography as a global industry; pornography and online technology; and pornography and violence, sexual citizenship, and sexual politics. Although they understand that there are problems with pornography as presently understood, they conclude that "we must strive to make [pornography] better. To do that, we need to listen to those whose lives are most at stake." Summing Up: ** Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above.--Y. Kiuchi, Michigan State University
Kiuchi, Y.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Kiuchi, Y. "Sullivan, Rebecca. Pornography: structures, agency and performance." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Apr. 2016, p. 1203. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA449661694&it=r&asid=bfe9c1a72d10b80ae4ae364dbd7df731. Accessed 27 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A449661694
Beautiful things in popular culture
22.1 (Feb. 2007):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2007 Ringgold, Inc.
http://www.ringgold.com/
9781405131902
Beautiful things in popular culture.
Ed. by Alan McKee.
Blackwell Publishing
2007
231 pages
$59.95
Hardcover
CB430
Scholars and other pop culture analysts explore such consumer icons as superheroes in comics, shoes, crime fiction, "post-gay" websites, and a villain in the Xena: Warrior Princess TV show that they highly rate. The most unusual of the 13 essays treats why a 1943 propaganda film about a massacred village can be considered beautiful. McKee (creative industries, Queensland U. of Technology) situates these attractions in the context of critical debates over high vs. mass culture aesthetics. The few b&w photos include self-styled pop princess Kylie Minogue, and the beautifully styled Ducati 916 motorbike.
([c]20072005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Beautiful things in popular culture." Reference & Research Book News, Feb. 2007. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA159046951&it=r&asid=0c09d5675229878b002568486fd69c19. Accessed 27 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A159046951
The circulation of ideas
Sufern Hoe
.7 (July 2005): p160.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2005 University of Melbourne Postgraduate Association
http://www.gsa.unimelb.edu.au/traffic/index.shtml
The Public Sphere: An Introduction Alan McKee, Cambridge University Press, 2005.
The advent of late-twentieth-century capitalism and the ever-progressive enhancement of information and communication technologies (ICTs) have led to a vast constellation of industrial, financial, technological and institutional innovations and developments. From mobile phones to online message boards, web-based newspapers to electronic animated gift-cards, blogs to mp3 music, reality television to digital video conferencing, ICTs and the media have become a pervasive yet naturalised presence in our everyday lives, inevitably affecting the ways in which we communicate and exchange information.
Alan McKee's The Public Sphere: An Introduction is an account of this paradigm shift into a society in which there has been a phenomenal proliferation of the forms of communication available. This has led to concerns over the potential loss of a rational, informed and unified space where everyone will be able to converse about the issues that affect us all. As a judicious study on the impact of this paradigm shift upon public debate and opinion in Western societies--namely the US, UK and Australia--McKee's book is a timely critical contribution.
To frame the issues and discussions concerning the current state of public debate, McKee employs the concept of the public sphere. He defines the public sphere as a metaphorical conception, which can be utilised to think about the ways in which information and ideas circulate. Like most literature on the public sphere, McKee includes a genuflection to the work of Jurgen Habermas, a recognised key theorist of the field. In particular, McKee is keen to trace the developments and debates that have taken place since the publication of Habermas's The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere in 1962. According to McKee, the current public sphere is a site of contention and controversy. He classifies the conflicting debates into two camps: a 'modern' point of view and a 'postmodern' perspective. The 'modern' camp is motivated by Enlightenment values such as equality, justice, freedom and comfort. They are united in their belief that consumer capitalism has led to a degradation of the public sphere. Meanwhile, those who work within a 'postmodern' paradigm advocate the need for different public spheres and spaces so as to facilitate the recognition and acceptance of cultural differences.
McKee also identifies five fundamental themes which both 'modern' and 'postmodern' writers are concerned with. The five main chapters of his book are aptly structured around these concerns: trivialisation, commercialisation, spectacle, fragmentation and apathy. These five chapters effectively draw upon contemporary media texts to clarify philosophical and political arguments, thereby navigating the reader through an insightful journey into past and present discussions on public communication, and the impact of the current state of the mass media on these debates.
Chapter One addresses the content of the public sphere through an analysis of women's magazines and their discussion of issues such as relationships, bodily beauty and domestic management. These issues have been criticised as infiltrating the public sphere with trivial and traditionally feminine matters. While this trivialisation of the public sphere is opposed and censured by the 'modern' camp, the 'postmodern' writers are striving for recognition of the importance of identity politics. Chapter Two furthers this 'postmodern' claim for identity politics through an examination of the rise of reality television programs such as Big Brother and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Both the rise and popularity of reality television have irked 'modern' thinkers, who criticise the material as vulgar, trashy and sensationalised hogwash that has led to a 'dumbing-down' of society. Conversely, 'postmodern' thinkers advocate this commercialisation of the public sphere. To them, this commercialisation enables access through its focus on the everyday lifestyles and cultures of 'ordinary' people from a variety of social classes, races, genders and sexualities.
Chapter Three shifts the focus from content to the formats and presentation of ideas in the public sphere. 'Modern' thinkers argue against the permeation of flashy, showy spectacle into the public sphere, claiming a loss of critical, logical and rational debate. The 'postmodern' camp, on the other hand, defends the worth of spectacle in public communication, basing their contention on a need to respect and accept cultural difference and the existence of different forms of communication by different social groups. Chapter Four continues this advocacy for recognising cultural difference through a study on the fragmentation of a supposedly unified public sphere. From a 'modern' perspective, the increasing availability of choice and growing visibility of multiple public spheres such as the Queer public sphere are working against democracy and its values of universality, unity and uniformity. However, for the 'postmodern' camp, this disintegration of a coherent and homogenous public sphere (again) encourages diversity and enables an equality of access, especially for minority and disadvantaged groups.
Finally, Chapter Five looks at the effects of the changing nature of public sphere on political participation. According to McKee, 'modern' thinkers have been disillusioned by the emergence of an apathetic population distracted by trivia and spectacle. However, the existence of Internet sites by youth groups such as Adbusters dispute this claim of apathy by demonstrating the emergence of a new 'postmodern' form of (cultural) politics, culture jamming, which attempts to affect and change public opinion by playing with existing culture through techniques such as irony and parody.
McKee is a clear supporter of the 'postmodern' camp, repeatedly high-lighting the need for the recognition of cultural difference and its incorporation into the public sphere. However, he concludes by stressing the value and legitimacy of both camps, pinning down the divide to attitudinal differences over subjective issues such as what should be deemed as important societal issues, what counts as real politics, and which are the best forms of public communication. While McKee has undoubtedly confronted a challenging and subjective topic, he does not establish or firmly assert any solution, answer or resolution to the existing debates. Instead, he adequately presents two conflicting perspectives, and leaves the reader to form his or her own opinion.
McKee's stance on the importance of cultural difference is not a new argument. He presents no novel or ground-breaking arguments, nor are his case studies a diversified collection that truly depict and embody our multicultural global world of advanced technological innovation. For instance, the Asian community and their use of public communication tools are not mentioned. Instead, his texts and discussions are confined to familiar binaries like the Black/White and hetero/homosexual divides, and cliched examples of the mass media such as reality television, hip-hop music and tabloid newspapers.
Nevertheless, McKee's utilisation of common and cliched texts does enable the reader to recognise and identify easily with the material, thus bestowing his book with user-friendliness and accessibility. McKee is also to be commended for his lucid and incisive summaries on the existing political debates and philosophical scholarship on the public sphere. Overall, this interdisciplinary primer is a recommended read, especially for those interested in an accessible and (generally) up-to-date insight into the current state of public opinion and debate.
Sufern Hoe
Department of English with Cultural Studies
Hoe, Sufern
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Hoe, Sufern. "The circulation of ideas." Traffic [Parkville], no. 7, 2005, p. 160+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA159180196&it=r&asid=95430dbe00a863b2e516d8bc226bf268. Accessed 27 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A159180196