Screen Lives: What the experiences of documentary contributors tell us about the media

The overall aim of this fellowship is to have a positive impact upon the wellbeing of the ordinary people who take part in media productions and the ways they are represented, by influencing working practices, policy, and public debates. This will be achieved through a programme of activities designed

to make the findings of my research accessible to influential audiences - including academics, industry bodies, and the general public. From the public discourse, we might surmise that contributing to the media is an ambivalent proposition at best. Contributors are derided as fame-hungry, greedy and narcissistic on the one hand,

and naive victims of the other (Winston, 1988; De Benedictis et al., 2017). Yet despite the increasing centrality of media participation in everyday life, surprisingly little sociological interest has been paid to the actual people involved. Their dual status, as both insiders and outsiders, both subject and object,

affords them a unique perspective; but furthermore, means that their experiences can reveal a great deal about the politics of the media. A key finding of my research is that the wellbeing of media contributors is inextricably tied to the production environment, which has been fundamentally reshaped by the deregulation of the industry.

Until the 1980s, a comfortable duopoly of the BBC and ITV broadcast to a captive audience, reaching tens of millions of viewers every night. Since then, the launch of the independent production sector, multi-channel television, the Internet, TV on demand, and streaming services are among a multitude of

developments which have led to the creation of a hyper-competitive media environment and a fragmented audience (Hesmondhalgh, 2018). Media research to date has tended to focus upon the experiences of workers in the creative industries, but the consequences of political-economic reorganisation ripple out far beyond the paid workforce, to everyone who participates.

The impact of structural changes upon ordinary people has scarcely figured within policy debates and the public discourse, which typically revolve around vulnerable participants and the effects of social media trolling upon their mental health. The industry has made considerable investments in psychological screening and aftercare, but my findings suggest these measures are unlikely to address

many of the fundamental causes of contributor distress (Coleman, 2023). The purpose of this fellowship is to contribute to a growing debate about duty of care and how it is conceptualised within the creative industries, encouraging policy-makers to look beyond quick-fix solutions and make the workplace a fairer and safer environment. As a former TV producer, I will use

my professional contacts to publicise my research amongst the industry, circulating my findings to executives at broadcasters and production companies, in order to reshape the conversation surrounding duty of care, and make an impact upon future policy directions. To develop the field of research within academia, I plan to turn my thesis into a monograph,

making my findings accessible to future researchers, and raising the profile of these important issues. As the first book-length publication to examine the media industries from the perspective of its subjects, this monograph has the potential to make a significant impact upon the wider scholarship.

These activities will be supported through regular mentoring sessions with Dr Christina Scharff, who is a leading international scholar in the field of creative work and the cultural industries, with shared interests in subjectivity, social justice, and qualitative research. In these sessions, I will be able to

discuss my work in progress and receive feedback on my manuscript. The fellowship will give me the opportunity to maximise the value of my research, and develop the core skills I need to support my transition into academia.