This article shares the findings from a two-year longitudinal study of the employment experiences... more This article shares the findings from a two-year longitudinal study of the employment experiences of entry-level workers in the UK film and TV industries, with particular reference to the value they attributed to their prior education-or their perception of gaps in that education. Educational institutions were better at delivering practice-based training than career skills; many graduates lacked confidence, and soft skills proved more valuable than industry-specific craft skills, in a Bourdieusian 'hysteresis' where cultural capital from the academic field does not align with the need for social capital in the professional environment. The study identifies and explores a high prevalence of unpaid work and barriers to progression in the media sector, including exploitation, precarity, geographic location, the need for prior experience, and challenges to wellbeing. Recommendations are offered for educators in preparing students to navigate these early years and beyond.
This case study compares the TV Wrap petition for freelance TV worker rights in 2005, which broug... more This case study compares the TV Wrap petition for freelance TV worker rights in 2005, which brought about policy change in the TV industry, with similar campaigns in the low-budget film industry since 2008. TV Wrap campaigners chose statutory legal employment rights as a benchmark for defining ‘injustice’ and organising action to lobby for change. Significantly, however, the same claims of injustice, applied by the same campaigners, were received with hostility by many workers in the low-budget film industry, who vigorously defended their right to work unpaid. Based on participant experience as one of the original TV Wrap campaigners, this paper asks why one set of workers perceived sufficient injustice to be mobilised, while others applied a different ethical framework. The issue is examined in the light of John Kelly’s mobilisation theory, and the components it suggests as pre-requisites for collective action to take place.
This case study compares the TV Wrap petition for freelance TV worker rights in 2005, which broug... more This case study compares the TV Wrap petition for freelance TV worker rights in 2005, which brought about policy change in the TV industry, with similar campaigns in the low-budget film industry since 2008. TV Wrap campaigners chose statutory legal employment rights as a benchmark for defining ‘injustice’ and organising action to lobby for change. Significantly, however, the same claims of injustice, applied by the same campaigners, were received with hostility by many workers in the low-budget film industry, who vigorously defended their right to work unpaid. Based on participant experience as one of the original TV Wrap campaigners, this paper asks why one set of workers perceived sufficient injustice to be mobilised, while others applied a different ethical framework. The issue is examined in the light of John Kelly’s mobilisation theory, and the components it suggests as pre-requisites for collective action to take place.
Group work, especially where it is assessed, can be of great benefit for student engagement, in t... more Group work, especially where it is assessed, can be of great benefit for student engagement, in terms of the valuable interpersonal and organisational skills it develops, and the quality of collaborative work which it enables them to produce; but it can also be a cause of dissatisfaction and disengagement for students, especially if the specific skills required to negotiate groupwork successfully are not taught, enabled and supported within the module or programme. In 2014 the presenter created an online community at www.groupwork.ning.com as an interactive hub to enable colleagues to share guidelines for good practice, and their personal experiences of group work, as well as to enter into discussion about those experiences through a forum and blog. The site also includes a repository of academic literature on the subject. The paper introduces this community, describes its creation, and examines the potential role of such an online community as a modern means of contributing to the ...
This paper contextualises the prevalence of an unpaid work culture at entry level in the film and... more This paper contextualises the prevalence of an unpaid work culture at entry level in the film and TV industries, then presents the findings and analysis of a survey of 1,100 media workers which examined ethical attitudes to unpaid work, including, for this conference, a specific analysis of the differences in responses between those in paid professional productions, and those on unpaid ‘hobby’ or ‘passion’ projects. The data suggests that there are consistent differences in ethical stance between the film and TV sectors, but that other factors – such as the nature of the funding model, and level of worker experience – showed a stronger correlation to varying ethical stance. The data also highlighted some of the key non-financial rewards which workers felt were associated with unpaid work, as well as suggesting trends over time in the increasing prevalence of unpaid work as a necessary entry route to employment. The strongest condemnation of unpaid work was clearly reserved for scena...
During the 2015-2016 academic year, in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences at Northum... more During the 2015-2016 academic year, in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences at Northumbria University, a group of student reps from programmes across the Faculty led a research project to discover the things that are most important to students in keeping their programme well organised and running smoothly. They ran student focus groups and an online survey to explore priorities, and although there were some minor variations between departments, several core themes emerged – themes which have now become priorities for the faculty. This paper outlines those priorities and how they have been implemented.
Group work, especially where it is assessed, can be of great benefit for student engagement, in t... more Group work, especially where it is assessed, can be of great benefit for student engagement, in terms of the valuable interpersonal and organisational skills it develops, and the quality of collaborative work which it enables them to produce (Boud, Cohen, & Sampson, 1999); but it can also be a cause of dissatisfaction and disengagement for students (Davies, 2009), especially if the specific skills required to negotiate groupwork successfully are not taught, enabled and supported within the module or programme (McAllister, 1995; Vik, 2001). Drawing on both the educational literature, and the presenter’s experience in teaching collaborative film-making, this paper briefly examines groupwork as a key factor in success (or otherwise) in nurturing student engagement, especially with their peers (Analoui, Sambrook, & Doloriert, 2014; Weaver & Esposto, 2012). In 2014 the presenter created an online community at www.groupwork.ning.com as an interactive hub to enable colleagues to share guid...
The media industry was formerly one of the most heavily unionised sectors in the UK. With the shi... more The media industry was formerly one of the most heavily unionised sectors in the UK. With the shift from broadcaster-producers to independent production, the end of national collective bargaining in 1988, and the rapid growth of casualised freelance working, those entering or attempting to enter the film and TV industries now face an entirely different journey to many of their predecessors, although principles of collectivism still underpin the attitudes of more experienced workers. This paper draws on the conference theme by examining the disconnection of entry level workers in these creative sectors from the industry’s shared collective memory, and the discontinuity in attitudes towards employment conditions, unpaid work, and career development which this has brought about. The paper revisits findings from a 2011 survey carried out by the writer of 1100 workers in the UK film and TV sectors, which set out to measure ethical attitudes to unpaid work, and to explore correlations to ...
This article shares the findings from a two-year longitudinal study of the employment experiences... more This article shares the findings from a two-year longitudinal study of the employment experiences of entry-level workers in the UK film and TV industries, with particular reference to the value they attributed to their prior education-or their perception of gaps in that education. Educational institutions were better at delivering practice-based training than career skills; many graduates lacked confidence, and soft skills proved more valuable than industry-specific craft skills, in a Bourdieusian 'hysteresis' where cultural capital from the academic field does not align with the need for social capital in the professional environment. The study identifies and explores a high prevalence of unpaid work and barriers to progression in the media sector, including exploitation, precarity, geographic location, the need for prior experience, and challenges to wellbeing. Recommendations are offered for educators in preparing students to navigate these early years and beyond.
This case study compares the TV Wrap petition for freelance TV worker rights in 2005, which broug... more This case study compares the TV Wrap petition for freelance TV worker rights in 2005, which brought about policy change in the TV industry, with similar campaigns in the low-budget film industry since 2008. TV Wrap campaigners chose statutory legal employment rights as a benchmark for defining ‘injustice’ and organising action to lobby for change. Significantly, however, the same claims of injustice, applied by the same campaigners, were received with hostility by many workers in the low-budget film industry, who vigorously defended their right to work unpaid. Based on participant experience as one of the original TV Wrap campaigners, this paper asks why one set of workers perceived sufficient injustice to be mobilised, while others applied a different ethical framework. The issue is examined in the light of John Kelly’s mobilisation theory, and the components it suggests as pre-requisites for collective action to take place.
This case study compares the TV Wrap petition for freelance TV worker rights in 2005, which broug... more This case study compares the TV Wrap petition for freelance TV worker rights in 2005, which brought about policy change in the TV industry, with similar campaigns in the low-budget film industry since 2008. TV Wrap campaigners chose statutory legal employment rights as a benchmark for defining ‘injustice’ and organising action to lobby for change. Significantly, however, the same claims of injustice, applied by the same campaigners, were received with hostility by many workers in the low-budget film industry, who vigorously defended their right to work unpaid. Based on participant experience as one of the original TV Wrap campaigners, this paper asks why one set of workers perceived sufficient injustice to be mobilised, while others applied a different ethical framework. The issue is examined in the light of John Kelly’s mobilisation theory, and the components it suggests as pre-requisites for collective action to take place.
Group work, especially where it is assessed, can be of great benefit for student engagement, in t... more Group work, especially where it is assessed, can be of great benefit for student engagement, in terms of the valuable interpersonal and organisational skills it develops, and the quality of collaborative work which it enables them to produce; but it can also be a cause of dissatisfaction and disengagement for students, especially if the specific skills required to negotiate groupwork successfully are not taught, enabled and supported within the module or programme. In 2014 the presenter created an online community at www.groupwork.ning.com as an interactive hub to enable colleagues to share guidelines for good practice, and their personal experiences of group work, as well as to enter into discussion about those experiences through a forum and blog. The site also includes a repository of academic literature on the subject. The paper introduces this community, describes its creation, and examines the potential role of such an online community as a modern means of contributing to the ...
This paper contextualises the prevalence of an unpaid work culture at entry level in the film and... more This paper contextualises the prevalence of an unpaid work culture at entry level in the film and TV industries, then presents the findings and analysis of a survey of 1,100 media workers which examined ethical attitudes to unpaid work, including, for this conference, a specific analysis of the differences in responses between those in paid professional productions, and those on unpaid ‘hobby’ or ‘passion’ projects. The data suggests that there are consistent differences in ethical stance between the film and TV sectors, but that other factors – such as the nature of the funding model, and level of worker experience – showed a stronger correlation to varying ethical stance. The data also highlighted some of the key non-financial rewards which workers felt were associated with unpaid work, as well as suggesting trends over time in the increasing prevalence of unpaid work as a necessary entry route to employment. The strongest condemnation of unpaid work was clearly reserved for scena...
During the 2015-2016 academic year, in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences at Northum... more During the 2015-2016 academic year, in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences at Northumbria University, a group of student reps from programmes across the Faculty led a research project to discover the things that are most important to students in keeping their programme well organised and running smoothly. They ran student focus groups and an online survey to explore priorities, and although there were some minor variations between departments, several core themes emerged – themes which have now become priorities for the faculty. This paper outlines those priorities and how they have been implemented.
Group work, especially where it is assessed, can be of great benefit for student engagement, in t... more Group work, especially where it is assessed, can be of great benefit for student engagement, in terms of the valuable interpersonal and organisational skills it develops, and the quality of collaborative work which it enables them to produce (Boud, Cohen, & Sampson, 1999); but it can also be a cause of dissatisfaction and disengagement for students (Davies, 2009), especially if the specific skills required to negotiate groupwork successfully are not taught, enabled and supported within the module or programme (McAllister, 1995; Vik, 2001). Drawing on both the educational literature, and the presenter’s experience in teaching collaborative film-making, this paper briefly examines groupwork as a key factor in success (or otherwise) in nurturing student engagement, especially with their peers (Analoui, Sambrook, & Doloriert, 2014; Weaver & Esposto, 2012). In 2014 the presenter created an online community at www.groupwork.ning.com as an interactive hub to enable colleagues to share guid...
The media industry was formerly one of the most heavily unionised sectors in the UK. With the shi... more The media industry was formerly one of the most heavily unionised sectors in the UK. With the shift from broadcaster-producers to independent production, the end of national collective bargaining in 1988, and the rapid growth of casualised freelance working, those entering or attempting to enter the film and TV industries now face an entirely different journey to many of their predecessors, although principles of collectivism still underpin the attitudes of more experienced workers. This paper draws on the conference theme by examining the disconnection of entry level workers in these creative sectors from the industry’s shared collective memory, and the discontinuity in attitudes towards employment conditions, unpaid work, and career development which this has brought about. The paper revisits findings from a 2011 survey carried out by the writer of 1100 workers in the UK film and TV sectors, which set out to measure ethical attitudes to unpaid work, and to explore correlations to ...
This article concerns individualism, collective awareness and organized resistance in the creativ... more This article concerns individualism, collective awareness and organized resistance in the creative industries. It applies the lens of John Kelly’s mobilization theory (1998), usually used in a trade union context, to “TV WRAP,” a successful non-unionized campaign facilitated through an online community in the UK television (TV) industry in 2005, and finds that Kelly’s prerequisites to mobilization were all present. It explores previously unpublished questionnaire data from a 2011 survey of over 1,000 UK film and TV workers, which suggests that such prerequisites to mobilization are still present in the TV workforce. Finally it examines recent and ongoing mobilization by video game workers as a modern comparison, updating the relevance of Kelly’s theory to explore and consider potential models for a new politics of resistance in the digital age.
This article shares the findings from a two-year longitudinal study of the employment experiences... more This article shares the findings from a two-year longitudinal study of the employment experiences of entry-level workers in the UK film and TV industries, with particular reference to the value they attributed to their prior education-or their perception of gaps in that education. Educational institutions were better at delivering practice-based training than career skills; many graduates lacked confidence, and soft skills proved more valuable than industry-specific craft skills, in a Bourdieusian 'hysteresis' where cultural capital from the academic field does not align with the need for social capital in the professional environment. The study identifies and explores a high prevalence of unpaid work and barriers to progression in the media sector, including exploitation, precarity, geographic location, the need for prior experience, and challenges to wellbeing. Recommendations are offered for educators in preparing students to navigate these early years and beyond.
This article concerns individualism, collective awareness and organized resistance in the creativ... more This article concerns individualism, collective awareness and organized resistance in the creative industries. It applies the lens of John Kelly’s mobilization theory (1998), usually used in a trade union context, to “TV WRAP,” a successful non-unionized campaign facilitated through an online community in the UK television (TV) industry in 2005, and finds that Kelly’s prerequisites to mobilization were all present. It explores previously unpublished questionnaire data from a 2011 survey of over 1,000 UK film and TV workers, which suggests that such prerequisites to mobilization are still present in the TV workforce. Finally it examines recent and ongoing mobilization by video game workers as a modern comparison, updating the relevance of Kelly’s theory to explore and consider potential models for a new politics of resistance in the digital age.
This article concerns gendered sustainability of careers in the UK TV industry. Much academic scr... more This article concerns gendered sustainability of careers in the UK TV industry. Much academic scrutiny is focused on equality of access and progression, using data secured from those still working in the sector. The research featured here offers a new insight by focusing on career sustainability and exit, reporting on a survey of 80 individuals, both male and female, who left professional careers in the industry to move on to other careers or activities. While quantitative data demonstrate that incompatibility with parenting was the overwhelmingly dominant factor motivating early exit from the sector for women, the qualitative findings also advance discussions of wider structural barriers and gendered inequalities, embedded in working cultures, practices and attitudes. The article explores the wider perception of a lack of care for the sector’s workers, as well as the individual bereavement and identity loss encountered by those who leave.
This article concerns resistance to unpaid work in the television and film industries. It outline... more This article concerns resistance to unpaid work in the television and film industries. It outlines one notable and successful campaign against unpaid labour which was conducted in the UK television industry and discusses how a similar campaign in the film industry met much greater opposition. It then reports on a survey that was conducted in order to investigate the seeming differences in attitudes in the two industries observed during these campaigns. While confirming that workers in the film industry are more prepared to accept unpaid labour than television workers, the survey also revealed a more striking characteristic: those who have worked longer in either sector view unpaid labour considerably less favourably than relative newcomers. The article discusses possible reasons for this, such as self-interest and altruistic attitudes towards younger workers; it also explores some implications for future working conditions, and for the role of activism and solidarity in resisting the worst aspects of existing labour relations in the cultural industries.
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