Marcus J Gilroy-Ware

Writer, speaker, researcher, maker;
concerned human being.

The cultural politics of the attention economy

I'm interested in the media that we give our attention to; why, why not, and what the impact of these media can be. I recently completed a book about misinformation and disinformation as a function of so-called late capitalism.

Day to day, I wear a number of different hats. Some people consider me...

a writer

I am the author of two books:

a lecturer & speaker

I'm currently lecturer in creative digital media in the Centre for Creative Industries, Media and Screen Studies at SOAS, University of London.

I was previously senior lecturer in digital journalism at the School of Film and Journalism, University of the West of England, where was the inaugural Leader for BA (hons) Media Production as well as teaching media law seminars; a visiting lecturer in online journalism at City, University of London from 2008-2017, where I taught online journalism and media law at the Graduate School of Journalism to students on the Master of Arts in International Journalism, and was convenor of Online Journalism 2011-2014.

I have recently spoken/taught at: Re:Publica 2022, The British Academy, Human Rights Film Festival Berlin 2021, Bristol Festival of Ideas (x3), Open Future Festival 2019 (The Economist), Digital Everyday Conference at the Centre for Digital Culture, Kings College London, POLIS at the LSE, the Media Development Centre, Birzeit University (Ramallah, Palestine), The Baitul Futuh Mosque as a guest of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association (London, UK), Société Romande de Relations Publiques (Lausanne, Switzerland; given in French), Centre for the Humanities, Utrecht University (Netherlands), London Design Festival (UK), School of Information and Library Sciences - Pratt Institute (New York, USA) and Goldsmiths, University of London.

I am qualified to teach media law, online journalism, web video, critical theory of media and communications, data journalism and related areas.

a digital strategist, coder and web developer

Founder and director of VSC Media, a digital services consulting business.

Head of digital strategy and public engagement for The Sociological Review Foundation from August 2014-January 2018

Created Smartest - a fully featured content-management system for design-critical projects - from the ground up, as well as Quince 2 - a rapid development architecture on which it is built. Smartest was released open source in 2009 under the GNU Public License and is used all over the world.

a lawyer

Well, not yet. I hold an LL.M. (Master of Laws) from the School of Law, Birkbeck, University of London.

I am interested in where the legal meets the digital - everything from criminal law to defamation law to intellectual property and notions of ownership.

Excerpt of a video filmed in March 2015 for the Sage Knowledge video series on Media, Communication and Cultural Studies.

Law, like technology, is a category of tools, and best understood as a reflection of its creators, rather than simply in terms of what it is designed to achieve.

a linguist

Once upon a time, at least. Received a BA in Linguistics from School of Cognitive Science, Hampshire College in 2005 - one of the only undergraduate interdisciplinary cognitive science schools in the world. My senior thesis was on the verbal aspect of future progressivity (e.g. "I will be arriving...") in Brazilian Portuguese.

I speak Brazilian Portuguese (fluent), French (pretty good), Spanish, and basic Italian (good enough to find the nearest beach). I am also taking German classes.

a musician

I was named after a certain prominent electric bass player hailing from Queens, NY.

I have been a bass guitar player since childhood. jazz, funk, avant-garde, and have studied contemporary improvised music with Yusef Lateef and Mark Dresser.

I play Suhr, Fender, Roscoe and Stambaugh instruments, my primary being the Suhr.

“Marcus Gilroy-Ware is a virtuoso electric bass player” --Mark Dresser, 2002

other things too

Resident at the Pervasive Media Studio at Watershed in Bristol, UK.

I am also a coordinator and contact point for the estate of my late grandmother, Dr. Beryl Gilroy, who was a novelist and well-known educator.