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Julian McDougall
Julian McDougall (born 1969) is a British educationalist and media theorist. He specialises in the study of contemporary media (particularly media 2.0), creative arts education and the role of video games in education.

Career
McDougall took his PhD at Birmingham University whilst teaching at Halesowen College. In 2004 he took up a Senior Lecturer post in Education at Newman University College, before becoming a Reader in Media and Education and being appointed Head of Creative Arts.

McDougall’s published research relates to media and creative arts education. He is the author of 'The Media Teacher’s Book' (Hodder) and 'Studying Videogames' (Auteur) and a range of textbooks for A Level Media students. He is a regular presenter at conferences and provider of in-service training for media educators.

McDougall is a Principal Examiner on the OCR Media Examinations Board. More recently, McDougall acts as editor of The Media Education Research Journal. He is also external lecturer and Visiting Fellow for the MA in Media Studies at Bournemouth University.

Media Studies
Often provocative and controversial, McDougall explores new avenues in Education, and calls on educators to abandon their prejudices and engage with what students are already actually doing with new media forms. Building on work from David Buckingham, Steven Johnson and David Gauntlett, he advocates a shift away from students viewing cultural products as texts to a view where even video games need analysis, explanation and research.

In this way, he is very much an advocate of exploring new and less traditional forms of literacy, as well as analysing the relationship between new media and postmodern theories , particularly Jean Baudrillard.