1 Uses and Gratifications Research – Katz, Blumler & Gurevitch | 1973 | Journal article | Instead of asking what media do to people, ask what people do with media—different users seek different gratifications. | Whenever someone wants a single reason why people use social media, this is my excuse to say, “No, sorry, humans are multitab browsers.” | Feels very 70s survey-heavy, but the core move—audiences as active, needy, slightly messy agents—still rescues me from blaming “the algorithm” for everything. |
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2 The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media – McCombs & Shaw | 1972 | Journal article | News doesn’t tell us what to think, but it powerfully shapes what we think about by spotlighting certain issues. | In news or platform studies, this is my go-to for explaining why “what trends” matters even when nobody believes the headline. | If this paper were a TV character, it’d be the quietly competent sidekick who’s in every episode, even when the plot is allegedly about something else. |
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3 Living with Television: The Violence Profile – Gerbner & Gross | 1976 | Journal article | Long-term heavy TV viewing cultivates a “mean world” perception where people overestimate danger and violence in everyday life. | As a conceptual bridge when I’m talking about doomscrolling, true crime binges, or why your uncle thinks the city centre is a war zone. | Methodologically creaky in 2026 terms, but the core vibe—media as a slow-drip reality script—is still uncomfortably on point. |
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4 The Emergence of Community in Computer-Mediated Communication – Nancy K. Baym | 1995 | Journal article | People in early online forums developed real, meaningful communities with norms, rituals and relationships, not just disembodied text. | As my polite way of saying “no, online community did not begin with Facebook” whenever someone’s timeline starts in 2004. | Feels almost cosy now—Usenet drama instead of TikTok pile-ons—but the analytic toolkit for studying digital community still holds up. |
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5 Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior in the Laboratory and in Life – Anderson & Dill | 2000 | Journal article | Two studies linking violent video game play with short-term aggressive thoughts and behaviours and with self-reported delinquency. | In lectures as a worked example of how one strong-looking effects paper can fuel two decades of argument, replications, and re-analyses. | Less a final verdict on games and violence, more the cold open of a very long series about methodology, measurement and moral panic. |
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6 Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture – Henry Jenkins | 1992 | Book (ethnography/theory) | TV fans aren’t passive consumers; they actively rewrite, remix and extend stories, building cultures and communities around them. | Any time I’m analysing fandom data, I start here, if only to reassure myself that there were smart people thinking about fanfic before AO3 stats existed. | Yes, it’s a book and yes, I’m cheating on a “papers” list—but fan studies basically rolls its opening credits over this thing. |
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7 Introduction: “Worship at the Altar of Convergence” – Henry Jenkins | 2006 | Book chapter | Introduces “convergence culture,” where stories, brands and audiences move across media platforms and industries negotiate with participatory fans. | When I need to explain why my students watch one show, tweet another, and buy merch from a third, yet somehow see it as one coherent universe. | Reads like a season premiere for the age of platforms—quite optimistic, occasionally overconfident, but still the reference I end up returning to. |
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8 Social Network Sites as Networked Publics – danah boyd | 2010 | Book chapter / scholarly essay | Social network sites create “networked publics” shaped by persistence, searchability, replicability and invisible audiences. | As the conceptual skeleton when I’m trying to explain to non-academics why a throwaway post can haunt you like a particularly clingy ghost. | If Benjamin gives you aura, boyd gives you affordances—the practical checklist for understanding what makes online visibility feel so weird. |
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9 The Talk of Fandom / Early Fan CMC Work – Nancy K. Baym | 1993 | Journal article (fan community study) | Detailed look at how soap opera fans use online discussion to build shared knowledge, norms, and social bonds. | When I’m coding comment threads or Discord logs and need a reminder that behind every wall of text is a group slowly negotiating what “being a fan here” means. | Feels like a prequel to today’s stan cultures—smaller, slower, far less GIF-heavy, but the same mix of analysis, gossip, and low-key identity work. |
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TheLysts
