Brett Nicholls
Biographic Data
| ID | 4502260 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brett Nicholls |
| GIVEN NAMES | Brett |
| FAMILY NAME | Nicholls |
| SIGNATURE | NICHOLLS B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Otago |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3042-6654 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 9 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
All that from two symbols?!”
Adolescence (2025) is a hit television show that has sparked widespread debate in both the press and in government houses. In this collaboratively written response, we consider how the show might index relatively new social phenomena – that is, involuntary celibate (incel) culture, social isolation, anxiety about young people’s engagement with social mediascapes – but also reproduce older social fears, such as threats to hegemonic institutions an…
The communist empty signifier
A Satanic Master Signifier
This article presents an account of prosperity gospel preacher Kenneth Copeland’s unwavering support for Donald Trump. Employing an approach to discourse derived from Ernesto Laclau and Chantelle Mouffe, I examine two aspects of Copeland’s teachings and practices. First, I examine his infamous judgement upon Covid-19 (The Judgement), in which he declares war on the virus as a satanic plot. Second, I consider his spiralling teachings on faith, whi…
Post-Truth and the Mediation of Reality
Our contemporary moment is preoccupied with arbitrating and articulating 'reality'. With the spectre of buzzwords like 'fake news' and 'post-truth' we find a scramble to locate or fix some sort of universal 'real' beneath what are positioned as 'fake' articulations. To engage with this crisis, this collection argues for the importance of a new conjuncture in communication and cultural studies of media. Building on Hall's understanding of 'conjunc…
Mediation
The term “mediation” has historically functioned in four distinct ways. First of all, the concept has been employed as a third term in a triadic structure, mediating between one state of reality and another. Second, the concept refers to the technical means for transmitting messages, such as in mass media. In this second case, the relationship between the means and the message is examined. Third, the concept refers to the dominance of media in co…
East West 101 as edgy text
East West 101 is a television show that bears the traces of the highly charged social and cultural fields in which it is embedded. At one level, the show bears the traces of recent events such as the war on terror. At another interrelated level, we also find traces of a more long-standing and deeply embedded fantasy of White supremacy that marks Australian culture, even the official policy of multiculturalism. These traces are also entangled with…
Hardt, Negri, and Antagonism
At first glance, Hardt and Negri.FN”s brief excursion into the sociology of media in Empire is hardly earth shattering; in fact it is quite disappointing. In Empire the media occupies a fraught and complex space between the past (civil society) and the emergence of the neoliberal consensus in which capitalism is considered the only social and economic option. Popular instrument or lackey for corporate capital, this is the tension that marks insti…
Mediation
The term mediation has historically functioned in four distinct ways. First of all, the concept has been employed as a third term in a triadic structure, mediating between one state of reality and another. Secondly, the concept refers to the technical transmission of messages, such as mass media. In this case, the sense of reality that the transmission conveys is under scrutiny. Thirdly, the concept refers to the dominance of media in contemporar…
Postcolonial Interventions
This article responds to Terry Eagleton's claim that Spivak's latest book, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason, works against the intent of postcolonial criticism. Reading the work as a search for a just representational strategy, we explore the implications of Spivak's engagement with philosophy - Kant, Hegel, and Marx. As a disciplinary machine, philosophy produces Western subjects who are engendered by simultaneously including and excluding the …
A contaminated critique
The communist empty signifier
East West 101 as edgy text
East West 101 is a television show that bears the traces of the highly charged social and cultural fields in which it is embedded. At one level, the show bears the traces of recent events such as the war on terror. At another interrelated level, we also find traces of a more long-standing and deeply embedded fantasy of White supremacy that marks Australian culture, even the official policy of multiculturalism. These traces are also entangled with…
A contaminated critique
Postcolonial Interventions
This article responds to Terry Eagleton's claim that Spivak's latest book, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason, works against the intent of postcolonial criticism. Reading the work as a search for a just representational strategy, we explore the implications of Spivak's engagement with philosophy - Kant, Hegel, and Marx. As a disciplinary machine, philosophy produces Western subjects who are engendered by simultaneously including and excluding the …
Mediation
The term mediation has historically functioned in four distinct ways. First of all, the concept has been employed as a third term in a triadic structure, mediating between one state of reality and another. Secondly, the concept refers to the technical transmission of messages, such as mass media. In this case, the sense of reality that the transmission conveys is under scrutiny. Thirdly, the concept refers to the dominance of media in contemporar…
East West 101 as edgy text
East West 101 is a television show that bears the traces of the highly charged social and cultural fields in which it is embedded. At one level, the show bears the traces of recent events such as the war on terror. At another interrelated level, we also find traces of a more long-standing and deeply embedded fantasy of White supremacy that marks Australian culture, even the official policy of multiculturalism. These traces are also entangled with…
Hardt, Negri, and Antagonism
At first glance, Hardt and Negri.FN”s brief excursion into the sociology of media in Empire is hardly earth shattering; in fact it is quite disappointing. In Empire the media occupies a fraught and complex space between the past (civil society) and the emergence of the neoliberal consensus in which capitalism is considered the only social and economic option. Popular instrument or lackey for corporate capital, this is the tension that marks insti…
Mediation
The term “mediation” has historically functioned in four distinct ways. First of all, the concept has been employed as a third term in a triadic structure, mediating between one state of reality and another. Second, the concept refers to the technical means for transmitting messages, such as in mass media. In this second case, the relationship between the means and the message is examined. Third, the concept refers to the dominance of media in co…
Post-Truth and the Mediation of Reality
Our contemporary moment is preoccupied with arbitrating and articulating 'reality'. With the spectre of buzzwords like 'fake news' and 'post-truth' we find a scramble to locate or fix some sort of universal 'real' beneath what are positioned as 'fake' articulations. To engage with this crisis, this collection argues for the importance of a new conjuncture in communication and cultural studies of media. Building on Hall's understanding of 'conjunc…
A Satanic Master Signifier
This article presents an account of prosperity gospel preacher Kenneth Copeland’s unwavering support for Donald Trump. Employing an approach to discourse derived from Ernesto Laclau and Chantelle Mouffe, I examine two aspects of Copeland’s teachings and practices. First, I examine his infamous judgement upon Covid-19 (The Judgement), in which he declares war on the virus as a satanic plot. Second, I consider his spiralling teachings on faith, whi…
The communist empty signifier
All that from two symbols?!”
Adolescence (2025) is a hit television show that has sparked widespread debate in both the press and in government houses. In this collaboratively written response, we consider how the show might index relatively new social phenomena – that is, involuntary celibate (incel) culture, social isolation, anxiety about young people’s engagement with social mediascapes – but also reproduce older social fears, such as threats to hegemonic institutions an…
Sociology (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · History (5 works) · History (5 works) · Context (archaeology (4 works)