Happy slapping, in so far as it even exists, is when a mobile phone with video capability is used to record assaults on strangers as a perverse form of entertainment. The subsequent footage might resemble MTV's reality show Jackass, but it is not the same thing, given that the broadcasts feature consenting adults. So I dismissed recent headlines - "TV blamed for happy slaps" ( The Sun ), "TV shows fuelling happy slaps fad" ( Daily Mirror ) - as yet more scaremongering about copycat violence.
Reading on, I was surprised to find that I was behind the scaremongering. A quick self-Google showed me excoriating happy slapping on three continents, backed by John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, himself nearly a victim, apparently. This seemed out of character: what was my evil twin up to now?
I called BBC Online ("TV shows blamed for attack craze") to say that Jackass should not be banned. The " Jackass to blame" webpage was amended to "Don't ban slap attack TV shows", but still a bemused MTV issued a statement denying responsibility for the escalating violence. It was time to figure out how I had acquired my new academic speciality and global audience.
Long ago I wrote an anthology chapter about reality TV. This led a BBC reporter to inquire about similarities between the reality TV show Big Brother and snapshots of abused Iraqi prisoners. Although I did not mention it myself, the eventual article described happy slapping. Weeks later, thanks probably to a cursory web search, I was interviewed for Tonight with Trevor McDonald: Mugging for Kicks. The producers had me watch happy slap videos and give my expert response to the "disturbing new craze". My professed lack of academic expertise in this field cut little ice.
Before interviewing me, Tonight filmed me as I watched footage of happy slaps. When not continually crashing the laptop, the clips were often incomprehensible. Some alleged incidents were obviously staged. At one point, the producer said: "You don't seem very shocked. But it's so violent, we've had to take legal advice and move Tonight past the watershed." I mumbled something about having seen worse while working as nightclub security in Sheffield. The director encouraged more wincing and gurning; the cameraman thought he had caught a sharp intake of breath on video. I had probably earned my Equity card. A rambling interview concluded before I shook hands, claimed travel expenses and departed.
My eventual appearance was mercifully brief. In 90 seconds, I said that "happy slapping has become a shortcut in the eyes of the slappers to fame and notoriety, among the people who see the images circulated on the web or sent to them via their mobile phones". Not my greatest insight, but enough to get quoted widely on the wire services. I have made the equivalent of a daily press/TV/radio appearance ever since. Tonight 's press release generated instant media interest. I now spend lots of time stating my real take on happy slapping - "don't panic" and "it's the teenage equivalent of media voyeurism" - to contradict the Tonight press release, which has a life of its own on the web.
Are there lessons here for budding media dons? Or is it a case of "poacher turned game" as I encounter the exact problems of representation I regularly teach my journalism students? Well, I did go on TV and did sign the release forms. No one twisted my arm. The appearance fees should come in handy. And through online journalism I can retaliate quickly if necessary. It is just a shame that relationships between academic researchers and current affairs broadcasting can seem driven by web search engines. And it is more of a shame that today's media voyeurism and fear of youth created this panic in the first place.
Graham Barnfield is lecturer in journalism at the University of East London - not head of media, as has been widely reported