A Framework for Ethical Research Impact in the Creative Industries

Questions around impact relate more than ever on a fundamental level to contemporary academic practice. There are many ways of creating and contributing to social change through academic work. However, there is only limited research interrogating impact activities themselves, in creative industries research and beyond.

The 2023 ISIR Symposium brought together a range of academic and industry stakeholders to discuss the ethics of impactful research in the creative industries.

This report outlines ‘Ethical Approaches to Knowledge Exchange and Impact’. It is intended as a step towards more detailed investigation of these issues in order to develop a more widely applicable framework for ethical engagement and impact, to improve the quality and sustainability of our impact/s and knowledge exchange activities.

Download the Ethical Approaches to Knowledge Exchange and Impact report (PDF)

Locked Down and Locked Out

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mothers working in the UK television industry

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated government lockdowns have been nothing short of a disaster for mothers working in the UK television sector.

Being a mother in television has always been accompanied by enormous difficulties related to the nature of the working practices and cultures that have become prevalent in the UK television. The COVID-19 pandemic has shattered the already fragile and precarious networks of support upon which mothers relied to enable them to manage work and caring responsibilities, up to the point where for many it has become unbearable.

Locked Down and Locked Out: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mothers working in the UK television industry represents the voices of hundreds of television workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was led by the Institute for Screen Industries Research in collaboration with sector organisations SMTJ and Telly Mums Network, and with the support of BECTU, which represents 40,000 creative industry workers in the UK.

Locked Down and Locked Out project

Supporting Professionalisation of the Sustainability Department in UK Screen Productions

The global screen industries are increasingly reckoning with the environmental impacts of production. While we often think of screen production in terms of intangible "content", latest data from the BAFTA albert initiative reveal that the average hour of television produced in the UK generates no less than 16.6 tonnes of Co2 – as much as the average UK citizen's carbon emissions over 18 months.

As part of the industry's efforts to shift to more sustainable ways of working, new roles and businesses have emerged that specialise in environmental consultancy for the screen sector. Many productions now incorporate a "sustainability department" that works to collect data on and to mitigate the production's material impacts. This new subsector of the screen industries is growing at a remarkable rate globally, with consultants active across the Anglosphere and EU as well as South Africa, Mexico, Colombia, India, Jordan, Uruguay, Argentina and Kenya. However, these still new and evolving roles yet lack professional standards, frameworks, and broad industry recognition, and practitioners face many obstacles to their working lives and capacity to make a difference.

This report, produced in collaboration with leading UK-based consultant Neptune Sustainability Ltd., presents a first of its kind look at the work, expertise, and challenges of sustainability practitioners in the UK screen industries. It examines the conditions and lived experience of work in the sector and proposes actions for supporting the development of the sector as a vital element in the industries' green transition.

Supporting Professionalisation of the Sustainability Department project

Television 2054: Imagining the Future of Television

TV2054 was a collaboration with the Radio Times that provided qualitative insights into what audiences thought the future of television and television listings magazines would (or should) be. Prof. Elizabeth Evans and Dr. Cassie Brummitt – two researchers based in ISIR with expertise in television audiences and qualitative research methods – worked with Radio Times staff to facilitate a better understanding of their readership and what they value from television.

The project responded to several concerns facing the broadcasting industries relating to changing audience behaviours, including:

• changes in how audiences discover content and the reduction in circulation figures for listings magazines
• the impact of streaming and other digital technologies on television viewing

The project delivered focus group workshops with both adults and children, using creative methodologies – from Lego to drawing to playdough – to facilitate imaginative understandings of television’s potential futures. Key findings included a surprising parity in answers between older and younger audiences, and concerns from teenagers about the potentially invasive nature of developing screen technologies.

Findings have since been shared with the Royal Television Society and will be the subject of upcoming publications by Evans and Brummitt.

Imagining the Future of Television project