Professor Simeon Yates BA BSc DipNatSci PhD

Personal Statement

I am the Professor of Digital Culture in the Department of Communications and Meda at the University of Liverpool and Joint Director of the Digital Media and Society Research Institute. I have undertaken research on the social, political and cultural impacts of digital media for over three decades. I have a major focus on projects that address issues of digital inclusion and exclusion. I currently work with both academic and government colleagues to develop policy and interventions to support digital inclusion. This includes working with the UK's Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the UK's media regulator Ofcom, and the Welsh Government as well as charity organisations such as the Good Things Foundation, Cwmpas in Wales and SCVO in Scotland. In 2017 I was seconded to DCMS to act as research lead for the Digital Culture team – helping to develop the first UK “Digital Culture” policy. I am a Member Greater Manchester City Region Mayoral Digital Inclusion Action Network and I am an appointed expert advisor to DCMS and Ofcom.

I have currently completed a project exploring citizens' data literacy and have just commenced a project to explore a “Minimum Digital Living Standard” for UK households – both funded by the Nuffield Foundation. I am a co-Investigator for the DSTL Defence Data Research Centre and the ESRC Digital Footprints Programme Advisory Team.

My research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Nuffield Foundation, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), EU and industry. My work has often been interdisciplinary and has predominantly involved creative and digital industry partners. He led on a major Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded interdisciplinary programme (Engineering for Life) while at Sheffield Hallam.

I have explored a variety of digital society topics. I have been researching the impacts of the internet and digital media on language and culture since 1990. My PhD thesis (1993) is a large-scale linguistic comparison of speech, writing and online interaction. This started with a long-standing focus on digital media and interpersonal interaction. Subsequent published work has covered analyses of gender differences in computer-mediated communication (CMC), gender and computer gaming, email and letter writing, and science in the mass media. I have also explored issues of gender and technology use, workplace ICT use, politics online, ICT use in relation to policing and security, and the role of digital technologies in arts and culture. I have written textbooks on social research methods — in particular, linguistic and discourse analytic methods.

I was previously the Associate PVC for Research Environment at the University of Liverpool and also previously the Director of the Institute of Cultural Capital, a strategic collaboration between the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University. I established the Cultural, Communication and Computing Research Institute (C3RI) at Sheffield Hallam University, and previously worked at the Open University and at the University of Leeds. As well as a background in social science, Simeon has an interest and training in science (BSc Geology, DipNatSci Physics).