Dr Joseph Andrew Smith

I’m Dr Joseph Andrew Smith, Lecturer in Journalism at the University of Leicester. My main research focus is on the users of media, on how people engage with culture and the ways in which subject-text relationships inform constructions of identity. I have a special interest in fans and fandom, particularly older and long-term fans. I have worked mostly with sports and politics fans in my research, which can be broadly defined as belonging to the fields of communications, cultural and media studies, as well as cultural gerontology. I teach across a range of journalism and media modules, and am a former media industry professional, having worked in the sports media industry.

Research

Smith, J.A. (2024). “Reconstructive Nostalgia in Later Life Fandom”, Journal of Fandom Studies, 12:1, pp19-36 (link).

Sandvoss, C., Litherland, B. & Smith, J.A. (2024). “What Corbyn support reveals about how Starmer’s Labour won big”, UK Election Analysis 2024:
Media, Voters and the Campaign, p131. (link)

Smith, J. A. (2022). Sports Fandom in Later Life: The Everyday, Nostalgia and Home. Doctoral thesis. University of Huddersfield (link)

Smith, J. A. (2019). “Destabilisation, adaptation and the long-term fan object: The search for continuity in later-life sports fandom”, Journal of Fandom Studies [Special Issue], 7:2, pp169-188, doi 10.1386/jfs.7.2.169_1 (link)

Other publications

Smith, J. A. (2021). “Sports Journalism: The State of Play (2020) by Tom Bradshaw and Daragh Minogue” [Book review], Journalism Education, 10(2), pp51-52. (link)

I have supervised lots of different dissertation projects. Current and recent topics include: the impact of Twitter/X on ‘traditional’ sports journalism in Saudi Arabia; global NBA fandom; K-Pop fan cultures and identities; representations of veganism on YouTube; digital football fan behaviours in China; representations of race on UK television news; football fandom and identity across the English game.

I am especially interested in supervising anything which touches on fans, fandom and identity, age and ageing (both representations of age and ageing and ageing media users), and anything related to sports communications.

Current teaching

JO1003 Features Journalism (Year 1), Module Leader

MS2000 The Production of News (Year 2), Module Leader

JO2007 Journalism Perspectives (Year 2), Module Leader

JO3003 Sports Journalism (Year 3), Module Leader

UG Dissertation (Year 3), Supervisor

PGT Dissertation (MA), Supervisor

Personal Tutor (all levels)

Past modules with Leicester 

MS2016 Media and Communication Research in Practice (Year 2)

MS2010 Journalism Studies (Year 2)

MS3027 Writing for Public Relations (Year 3)

MS7360 Marketing Principles and Practices (MA)

MS7078 Public Relations, Culture and Society (MA)