Dr Paula Hearsum - mediating death to make a difference

Dr Paula Hearsum has drawn her industry and research passions of music and media together to both examine how the deaths of popular musicians have been mediated as well as to consider how it may be done better to educate society about death and mental health issues.

Paula joined the University of Brighton in 2004 as a Senior Lecturer and is now both Principal Lecturer and Academic Programme Leader in Media and Creative Industries teaching across undergraduate and postgraduate courses. In her role, she supervises and lectures in her specialism and was invited to give a key note at the Child Bereavement Network conference following her published research on the coverage of Amy Winehouse’s death and has given policy advice and talks on best industry practice in this field.

Dr Paula Hearsum

Paula has always moved between the two worlds of academia and media practice. In her first career as a music journalist for Vox (1990-1997) Paula was, for many years, one of the only full-time women members of the editorial team at a time when the music press was a ‘boys' club’. Moving online, she spent many years as a Web Editor (1997-2004) for a variety of media outlets including the BBC, Channel 4, Red and studentUK and was a senior consultant for the Department for Education as well as consecutively holding a series of visiting lecturer posts before moving to Brighton in 2004.

Having completed a Masters in Women’s Studies, Paula is politically passionate about the considerations of women in media and these concerns have underpinned much of her research, teaching and outputs. Indeed, her PhD, which comprises a series of published works in this field included work specifically on the gendered media representations of musician’s deaths.

A matter of life and death lecture poster

Image © Helen J Holroyd

Drawing upon her significant music journalism experience, Paula’s unique research into the journalistic reportage of musicians’ deaths is of crucial importance to the development of more ethical modes of journalism. Through her analysis of the gendered dimensions of death reportage in the press, she sheds necessary light on the problematic ways in which women, in particular, suffer the burden of gendered expectations in both life and death. Currently working with the British Library to create an oral history and archive of the pioneers of popular music scholarship, Paula demonstrates her continued commitment to the preservation and advancement of the ethical dimensions of journalism practice and scholarship.

Julie Doyle, Professor of Media and Communication, University of Brighton

Inspiring others

Paula is a member of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music and has written for numerous journals and contributed to many book chapters in this field as well as undertaking peer review posts and conference presentations. The way in which we communicate about death and dying, particularly through celebrity culture says much about society's values and fears – it also shines a light on where we can do better.

There couldn’t be a more important time to challenge and improve our media and creative industries and Paula encourages all students to join her in this ambition.