Sexting has generated considerable public and professional interest with concerns centring on young people, and potential harms to mental and sexual health. Little research thus far has explored the practice among adults and none has focused on the cultural norms relating to the emotional experience of sexting across different ages and genders. We conducted 40 semi-structured interviews with a diverse sample of adults aged 18-59 years in Britain on the role of digital technologies in participants' sexual lives. In this paper, we draw on the accounts of 34 people with experience of sexting. We identified three main themes in participants' accounts related to the emotional aspects of sexting: (1) trust, (2) desire/intimacy and (3) shame. Under each theme, we identified motivations, 'feeling rules', and examples of 'emotion work' relating to the self, the other and the dyad. We conclude that there are shared cultural norms that constitute what appropriate sexting should feel like. Interventions aiming to minimise harms arising from sexting need to build on commonly held cultural conventions regarding the 'rules of the game' concerning feelings as well as behaviours.

Once perceived as a means for those unsuccessful at traditional dating, online dating has become normalized as a way to seek sexual or romantic partners. In 2019, we interviewed 40 British adults on the role of digital technologies in their sexual lives; this paper draws on the accounts of 22 who had used such technologies for seeking partners. We analyzed qualitative accounts of online partner seeking as a social practice, drawing on a sample diverse in age, gender and sexual orientation, and informed by sexual script and social practice theory. Our theoretically informed analysis emphasized the multiple meanings and goals involved, the affordances of the technology and individuals' skills. Our study provided several novel contributions. Young heterosexual people commonly used general social media, rather than dating apps, to meet partners; meeting partners often involved complex interplays between online and offline networks and encounters. Risks were defined not merely in relation to "risky others" but in terms of one's own actions or attitudes. Participants deployed various skills in minimizing harms such as non-consensual sharing of intimate images, and used self-care skills such as setting limits to engagement.

Audience research has changed dramatically under the influence of cultural studies, with its emphasis on pleasures, meanings, identities and communities, along with its critique of quantitative ‘effects’ research. But a number of researchers have sought to overcome the limitations of the associated qualitative research methods by developing qualiquantitative methods. This chapter outlines how such a method – trialled in a number of earlier major projects – was deployed for Game of Thrones, and explains the analytic procedures that followed.

Background Rapid development and uptake of digital technologies have influenced sexual lives. As part of development research for the decennial British National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal–4), we aimed to understand the practices of adults in Britain using digital technologies to meet sexual and romantic partners. Methods We conducted 40 semi-structured interviews with adults in Britain on the role digital technologies played in their sexual lives. Here we draw on the accounts of 22 of those who had direct experience of online partner seeking. Informed by Social Practice Theory, we developed thematic codes encompassing the materials, skills and meanings that constitute online partner-seeking as a social practice. Findings Online partner seeking is a social practice normalised in contemporary culture, enmeshed within broader online cultures of image presentation. It is associated with multiple goals and imbued with possibilities as well as risks. Material elements we identified related to the technology, its affordances, and how these shape interactions. We found that technological, interpersonal, and self-care skills were together required to seek and progress to various relationship forms and protect the self. Distinct linguistic, sexual, harm/damage limitation and exit strategies also drew on a range of skills. Participants reflected on how they presented themselves online, on their intentions, and on the skills required to ‘read’ situations and act authentically. Conclusion While online partner seeking has often been considered individualistic, outcomes can be read through a lens of Social Practice Theory. Successful partner selection, communication and avoidance of harm depend on a complex learned constellation of the skills, materials and meanings associated with dating choices. Our findings have potential to inform survey questionnaire design and effective, nuanced health promotion interventions which consider intersecting dimensions of this social practice to build skills, develop goals and assess strategies to respond to unwanted interaction.

The eight-season-long HBO television adaptation of George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones was an international sensation, generating intense debates and controversies in many spheres. In 2016–17, an international research project gathered more than 10,000 responses to a complex online survey, in which people told of their feelings and judgements towards the series. The project was an ambitious attempt to explore the role that 'fantasy' plays in contemporary society. This book presents the project's major outcomes. It explores people's choices of favourite characters and survivors. It looks at the way modern works of fantasy relate to people's sense of their own world, and what is happening to it. It explores the way that particular televisual decisions have generated controversies, most notably in relation to presentations of nudity, sex and sexual violence. The book uses the project's distinctive methodology to draw out seven ways in which audiences watched the series, and shows how these lead to different responses and judgements. Notably, it leads to a reconsideration of the idea of 'lurking' as a problematic way of participating. A pair of complex emotions – relish and anguish – is used to make sense of the different ways that audiences engaged with the ongoing TV show. The book closes with an examination of the debates over the final season, and the ways in which audiences demanded 'deserved' endings for all the characters, and for themselves as fans.

In this article we discuss a large scale research project aimed at uncovering people's everyday engagements with pornography. We focus on women aged 18-25; the only category of our participants in which women outnumbered men. Looking at responses from women in this group we examine their narratives, views, feelings, positions and judgments. We focus in particular on the elements of pornography that engaged them in terms of content and scenario, style and aesthetics, emotion and thought, tone and mood, and identification, and we consider the accounts of four participants in more detail. Our discussion illustrates what different forms of engagement with pornography can look like and outlines what they suggest about the possible relations of porn engagement and sexuality. We situate our discussion in relation to qualitative cultural studies work, a tradition of feminist audience studies, an emerging porn studies, and accounts which understand both sexuality and media and consumption as part of everyday life.

Game of Thrones proved a huge success, but also the focus of many inquiries, debates and controversies. This opening chapter takes a broad look at the range of impacts and uses from the TV show, covering celebratory and marketing adoptions; its parallels with real histories and politics; its uses as metaphor for contemporary events; and approaches through media tourism. It considers debates over the adaptation from books to television, and over different representations (especially disablement and gender). Finally, it considers the thinness to date of actual audience research, and the problems with attempts to see the series from an 'effects' angle.