Dr Ruth Garland is a Lecturer in Promotional Media and Convenor of the MA Brands at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her research is a longitudinal study of UK government media relations from 1979 to date. She spent 28 years as a public sector communicator, working in health promotion, local government and at the BBC and BBC Worldwide, where she was Head of Communications. Her most recent position was as communications manager for Hackney Council’s 2012 Olympic and Paralympics team. After the Games she began a PhD at the LSE, submitting her thesis in 2016. Since then, she has taught media subjects at the LSE, Kings, Stirling, Hertfordshire, and Brunel.