Special interest group:
Screen Industries

Convenors:  

• Andrew Spicer (University of the West of England) 
  
• Kate Nash (University of Leeds)
  
• Steve Presence (University of the West of England)

Overview

Industry-focused research and pedagogy within film and television studies has dramatically increased in recent years. While the importance of industrial conditions in shaping the production and circulation of film and television texts has been of longstanding importance to scholarly debate, the impact agenda, an increased emphasis on graduate employability, and the embedding of the notion of the creative industries in public, policy and academic discourses have increased the relevance of the screen industries to research and pedagogy. Likewise, the transformations in industrial practice associated with convergence, conglomeration, digitisation, democratisation and the ‘culturalisation’ of economies have brought into view the multiple and contradictory impacts the screen industries have on economies, culture and the environment. Industry-focused research is often interdisciplinary, drawing upon methodological and epistemological traditions from the humanities and social sciences. The members of the Screen Industries SIG feel that these and other factors make industry-focused research both a key source of innovation in the field of film and television studies, and an important locus requiring specific and sustained critical engagement.

The Screen Industries SIG works to reflect, promote and advance historical and contemporary industry-focused research within film, television and screen studies by providing a forum for interdisciplinary communication and exchange, and a platform for the dissemination of cutting edge scholarship. ‘Industry-focused research’ is understood in broad terms. Specific areas of concern include, but are not limited to:​
​

• The multiple cultural, economic, social and environmental impacts of the film, television and screen industries;
• Critical analysis of the relationship between screen industries and institutions and the academy, in terms of research and pedagogy, policy and practice;
• The relationships between screen industry structures, organisation and practices, and audio-visual form and aesthetics;
• The advancement of interdisciplinary methodologies for the production of industry-focused knowledge and critical analysis;
• Questions of equality and social justice in all aspects of the film, television and screen industries, including labour markets, labour processes, organisational and institutional structures, distribution and circulation, consumption and representation.​​​

The BAFTSS Screen Industries SIG has links with the European Communications Research and Educational Association (ECREA) Media Industries and Cultural Production thematic section, chaired by David Hesmondhalgh.

Reports on activities

SIG reports

• BAFTSS Screen Industries SIG Report 2016-18

Other

• BAFTSS Screen Industries Methodologies for Screen Industries Research Symposium Report 2020 

Founding members

• Sarah Atkinson (King’s College, London)
• Kyle Barrett (University of the West of Scotland)
• James Bennett (Royal Holloway)
• Llewella Burton (University of East Anglia)
• James Chapman (Leicester University)
• Holly Chard (Brighton University)
• Ruby Cheung (University of Southampton)
• Pei-Sze Chow (UCL)
• Shelley Cobb (University of Southampton)
• Virginia Crisp (King’s College, London)
• Charlotte Crofts (UWE Bristol)
• Jinuo Diao (University of St Andrews)
• Philip Drake (Edge Hill University)
• Matthew Freeman (Bath Spa University)
• Mattias Frey (University of Kent)
• ​Sheldon Hall (Sheffield Hallam University)
• Helen Hanson (University of Exeter)
• Will Higbee (University of Exeter)
• Dina Iordanova (University of St Andrews)
• Geoff King (Brunel University)
• Paul Long (Birmingham City University)
• Paul McDonald (King’s College, London)
• John Mateer (University of York)
• Laura Mayne (University of Hull)
• Christopher Meir (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)
• ​Clive Nwonka (University of Greenwich)
• Shane O’Sullivan (Kingston University)
• Lydia Papadimitriou (Liverpool John Moores)
• Bella Honess Roe (University of Surrey)
• ​Kate Sang (Heriot-Watt University)
• Carl Schoenfeld (Coventry University)
• Melanie Selfe (University of Glasgow)
• Dafydd Sills-Jones (Aberystwyth University)
• Justin Smith (De Montfort University)
• Roderik Smits (University of York)
• ​Jeanette Steemers (King’s College, London)
• Sarah Thomas (University of Liverpool)
• Nathan Townsend (University of York)
• Jonathan Wroot (Birmingham City University)