Matthew Alford's PhD thesis applied Noam Chomsky's Propaganda Model to contemporary Hollywood and his subsequent research similarly concerns the representation of Western exceptionalism.

He teaches on a range of subjects - Film & Media, International Relations, and British & American politics - and is a Fellow of the HEA.

Dr. Alford's first documentary feature film, The Writer with No Hands, followed his investigation into the disappearance of a Hollywood screenwriter.  It premiered in 2014 at Hot Docs, Toronto and received three wins and a dozen nominations at festivals worldwide.  The stage adaptation of the associated novel has being previewed and will be premiered in due course. 

Alford's second documentary, Theatres of Command:  The Military Occupation of Hollywood is distributed worldwide by the Media Education Foundation in Massachusetts.  The film is based on his co-authored book National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood and draws on his research trip to the Department of Defense's film archive in Washington DC.  

In 2018, he co-authored the book Union Jackboot:  What Your Media and Professors Won't Tell You About British Foreign Policy.  His first book was published by Pluto Press in 2010 and later translated into Chinese and French.