Feona Attwood

Middlesex University, Media and Cultural Studies, Faculty Member

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Feona Attwood is a Professor in the Media Department at Middlesex University, UK. Her research is in the area of sex in contemporary culture; and in particular, in onscenity; sexualization; sexual cultures; new technologies, identity and the body; and controversial media.

She is the editor of Mainstreaming Sex: The Sexualization of Western Culture (2009), porn.com: Making Sense of Online Pornography (2010) and (with Vincent Campbell, I.Q. Hunter and Sharon Lockyer) Controversial Images (in press) and the co-editor of journal special issues on Controversial Images (with Sharon Lockyer, Popular Communication, 2009), Researching and Teaching Sexually Explicit Media (with I.Q. Hunter, Sexualities, 2009), and Investigating Young People’s Sexual Cultures (with Clarissa Smith, Sex Education, 2011).

Her recent publications have focussed on online culture, aesthetics, sex and the media, and public engagement. She is leading an international research network on onscenity, funded by the AHRC and is at the start of an AHRC Fellowship project. Her current book project is Media, Sex and Technology.

http://www.feonaattwood.com/
Address: F.Attwood@mdx.ac.uk

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(with Sharon Lockyer) ‘The Sickest TV Show Ever: Paedogeddon and the British Press’, Popular Communication Vol. 7(1). 2009. pp. 49-60.

This paper explores the controversy caused by Paedogeddon, a one-off special of the Channel 4 ser... more This paper explores the controversy caused by Paedogeddon, a one-off special of the Channel 4 series Brass Eye broadcast on July 26, 2001. Although the program sought to satirize inconsistencies in the way the British media treats and sensationalizes child sex offenders and their crimes , it offended many viewers and caused considerable controversy. More than 900 complaints were made to the Independent Television Commission, almost 250 complaints to the Broadcasting Standards Commission, and 2,000 complaints to Channel 4, "officially" making Paedogeddon the most complained-about television program in British television history at that time. This paper examines the nature of the objections to Paedogeddon as played out on the pages of the British national press and contributes to debates about morally acceptable television. Three themes are identified in the press objections to the mock-documentary: aesthetic arguments; moral and ethical implications; and consequences of ministerial intervention. The nature of these press objections served to prevent an engagement with Paedogeddon's critique of the media. Further, the analysis illustrates how media discourses and scripts can fix and limit debates surrounding controversial television programming.

Feona Attwood

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