Media Production

Thinking, Fixing, Delivering: Planning and evaluating student-led creative projects

by Roy Hanney

Journal of Learning and Teaching No.2, pp. 20-28. 2007.

This paper explores the nature of a 'project', evaluates appropriate structural considerations for project delivery... more This paper explores the nature of a 'project', evaluates appropriate structural considerations for project delivery and makes recommendations on the appropriate level of documentation for small-scale student-led projects using PRINCE2 as a basis for discussion.

Schulbuchverlage als Organisationen der Diskursproduktion: Eine ethnographische Perspektive

by Felicitas Macgilchrist

2011. Zeitschrift für Soziologie der Erziehung und Sozialisation, 31(3), 248-263.

Educational publishers as organizations of discourse production: An ethnographic perspective

Educational... more Educational publishers as organizations of discourse production: An ethnographic perspective

Educational publishers have to date been seen as relatively autonomous organization which are driven primarily by economic and politically conservative interests. To develop a more complex understanding of educational publishing, this paper draws on ethnographic observations at leading German educational publishing houses, and on the concepts of relevancy spaces and selection horizons. It thus identifies a range of somewhat contradictory aims of, and members in, the production process. Two case studies from the observations of textbook production – one on gender and one on postcolonial knowledge – enable the paper to explore in more depth how educational publishing produces, cites and transforms discourse. The paper argues that educational publishers can be understood as organizations of discourse production, in which official (school) knowledge is often reproduced and stabilized but also, occasionally, contested and destabilized.

Reflexivity in Television Depictions of Media Industries: Peeking Behind the Gilt Curtain

by Brooke Duffy

Co-authored with Tara Liss-Marino and Katherine Sender. Forthcoming in Communication, Culture, and Critique

This study considers whether television shows depicting the media industries are reflexive about the challenges... more This study considers whether television shows depicting the media industries are reflexive about the challenges currently facing traditional media.  It draws upon a multi-method qualitative analysis of five series--30 Rock, Entourage, Mad Men, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and Ugly Betty—to investigate whether reflexivity constitutes an attempt to safeguard these industries’ mythical place at the “mediated centre.”  We argue that reflexivity elucidates these shows in three ways: via textual reflexivity (within the shows themselves); producer reflexivity (as articulated by the production staff); and research reflexivity (how we, as researchers, engage with the data and their contradictions). We conclude, however, that reflexivity is used to inoculate these representations from highlighting the very real threats facing traditional media industries.

Bolin, Göran (2009): ‘Symbolic Production and Value in Media Industries’

by Göran Bolin

, in Journal of Cultural Economy, vol. 2(3): 345-361.

This article discusses value creation within the fields of cultural production. It departs from Bourdieu's field... more This article discusses value creation within the fields of cultural production. It departs from Bourdieu's field model, and seeks to develop it to fit unrestricted cultural production, for example television production. Bourdieu for the most part discussed the production of value (or forms of capital) in relation to fields of restricted cultural production, that is, within the fine arts (e.g. art, literature). Although one of his best known works dealt with television, one cannot say that he used the possibilities inherent in his own theory thoroughly enough to analyse this field of mass production. This article builds on recent discussions on the role of field theory in media studies, and seeks to contribute to the development of a theory of value production in fields of large-scale or unrestricted cultural production. It is argued that the conflation of commercial value with other kinds of value is more intense in the subfield of unrestricted cultural production, as production in this part of the field needs to obey outer demand in a way that production at the pole of restricted production does not.

Teliesyn's Start: 1981-1989

by Dafydd Sills-Jones

The following paper will present the early evidence on Teliesyn’s beginnings as a production company, and set the... more The following paper will present the early evidence on Teliesyn’s beginnings as a production company, and set the format and tone for further papers on its development. This first paper will present a narrative of the founding of Teliesyn, by drawing material from six interviews with the main movers in the company’s inception in 1981-2.

SCIENCE ON THE AIR: Investigating how radio can be used to communicate science in the Maltese Islands

by Christopher Bugeja

Published in UWE Science Communication Postgraduate Papers 2009.  Co-authored with Dr. Emma Weitkamp.

This research work was partly funded by Malta Government Scholarship Scheme grant number MGSS/2006/014.

In a bid to create an infrastructure for research and innovation (R&I) in the Maltese Islands, the Malta Council... more In a bid to create an infrastructure for research and innovation (R&I) in the Maltese Islands, the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST), issued a report in which it outlined its vision
for R&I between 2007 and 2010. MCST stated that ‘it is strongly argued… that a comprehensive and multi-pronged science popularisation strategy is of fundamental importance’ (MCST, 2006: 67).

The multi-pronged strategy sought, amongst other things, to ‘launch on-going science journalism and science TV and radio programmes’ (MCST, 2006: 67). Science On The Air was a science communication initiative designed to explore the potential for a science-based radio programme in Malta. The project involved developing a pilot 15-minute science radio programme in the Maltese language. A lack of similar programmes and research into their audience appeal in Malta
meant that evaluation was an essential component of the study.

This research work was partly funded by Malta Government Scholarship Scheme grant number MGSS/2006/014.