David Lee
I am an Associate Professor in Media and Communication at the University of Leeds, where I've been based since 2009. Before that I worked in various roles in the media and policy, including roles at the BBC and consulting positions at BOP Consulting and Demos, all of which have enriched my teaching and research.
I gained a First Class Honours BA in English and Drama from the University of London. I then earned an MA in Media and Communications with Distinction, followed by a PhD from Goldsmiths. My doctoral thesis, "Precarious Creativity: Working Lives in the British Independent Television Industry," set the foundation for my research focus on the challenges faced by creative workers in precarious job markets.
Over the years, I've authored and co-edited several significant works, including "The Independent Television Production Industry in the UK: From Cottage Industry to Big Business." My journal articles span a wide range of topics, from internships and workfare in the cultural industries to the relocation of Channel 4’s production hubs.
My research has received funding, most recently a £60,000 grant from the Screen Industries Growth Network for assessing entry-level training schemes. I've also been a co-investigator on AHRC and ESRC-funded projects that explore cultural policy and copyright communication.
Beyond my research, I've served on editorial boards and reviewed manuscripts for leading publishing houses. At the University of Leeds, I've taken on various leadership roles, including Programme Leader for the MA Media Industries and BA (Hons) Journalism programs, and co-convened the Media Industries and Cultural Production Research Group.
In my teaching, I aim to bridge theory and practice in courses like Media Production Analysis, The Documentary and Reality, and Creative Work in the Cultural Industries. My goal is to inspire students and prepare them for dynamic careers in media and communication.
I gained a First Class Honours BA in English and Drama from the University of London. I then earned an MA in Media and Communications with Distinction, followed by a PhD from Goldsmiths. My doctoral thesis, "Precarious Creativity: Working Lives in the British Independent Television Industry," set the foundation for my research focus on the challenges faced by creative workers in precarious job markets.
Over the years, I've authored and co-edited several significant works, including "The Independent Television Production Industry in the UK: From Cottage Industry to Big Business." My journal articles span a wide range of topics, from internships and workfare in the cultural industries to the relocation of Channel 4’s production hubs.
My research has received funding, most recently a £60,000 grant from the Screen Industries Growth Network for assessing entry-level training schemes. I've also been a co-investigator on AHRC and ESRC-funded projects that explore cultural policy and copyright communication.
Beyond my research, I've served on editorial boards and reviewed manuscripts for leading publishing houses. At the University of Leeds, I've taken on various leadership roles, including Programme Leader for the MA Media Industries and BA (Hons) Journalism programs, and co-convened the Media Industries and Cultural Production Research Group.
In my teaching, I aim to bridge theory and practice in courses like Media Production Analysis, The Documentary and Reality, and Creative Work in the Cultural Industries. My goal is to inspire students and prepare them for dynamic careers in media and communication.
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Papers by David Lee
also by its ‘sociability’, often grounded in the settings, informality and tone of the interview exchanges. The article pays attention to the continuation of SBS on Sky Arts 1, including the SBS Specials, before concluding with some more
general observations on arts coverage within a changing television economy and an increasingly diverse cultural landscape.
the practices and curriculum of higher education institutions (HEIs), and their relationship to
creative sectors. Networks and networking can be seen as crucial practices for finding work, sustaining a career and progressing within the often freelance and insecure labour markets of the cultural industries. Yet, who is best placed to undertake networking successfully?
In 2010 the Culture and Sport Evidence Programme (CASE) reported on a three year research programme into the drivers and impacts of participation in sport and cultural activity. A key strand of the programme was to understand and assess the short and longer term benefits of cultural engagement, and it drew upon data from the Arts Council’s ‘Taking Part’ survey of cultural participation, and the British Household Panel Survey. Individual value was assessed by the improvements in subjective well-being and by the ‘healthcare costs saved and improved health-related quality of life,’ generated by doing sport and engaging with culture (CASE 2010:5).
Despite the rather startling assertion that a visit to the cinema once a week had an income compensation value of £9,000 per household per year (CASE 2010); there is little evidence that wellbeing is, as yet, being used to inform funding or other policy directions for DCMS. Nevertheless, in the rhetoric of arts funding, wellbeing has now joined the long list of benefits – educational attainment, self-confidence, health and social cohesion – that have at one time been claimed to result from cultural participation.
The aim of this paper is to analyse the use of wellbeing as an idea within cultural policy and too discuss what this tells us, about the adaption of such discourses by policymakers in general, and its potential uses in cultural policy in particular. It will consider the adoption of well being within cultural policy under New Labour, and consider what its retention under a Coalition government tells us about the cross-party appeal of such a notion.
The paper will consider the CASE example, look at other uses of wellbeing by local authorities or arts organisations and ask; what sort of culture might result from an approach based on wellbeing? How would culture fare vis a vis other public spending commitments under a wellbeing approach? And, if linked to a discussion about work and ownership, could well-being offer a way to think about improving working conditions within the cultural industries?"
also by its ‘sociability’, often grounded in the settings, informality and tone of the interview exchanges. The article pays attention to the continuation of SBS on Sky Arts 1, including the SBS Specials, before concluding with some more
general observations on arts coverage within a changing television economy and an increasingly diverse cultural landscape.
the practices and curriculum of higher education institutions (HEIs), and their relationship to
creative sectors. Networks and networking can be seen as crucial practices for finding work, sustaining a career and progressing within the often freelance and insecure labour markets of the cultural industries. Yet, who is best placed to undertake networking successfully?
In 2010 the Culture and Sport Evidence Programme (CASE) reported on a three year research programme into the drivers and impacts of participation in sport and cultural activity. A key strand of the programme was to understand and assess the short and longer term benefits of cultural engagement, and it drew upon data from the Arts Council’s ‘Taking Part’ survey of cultural participation, and the British Household Panel Survey. Individual value was assessed by the improvements in subjective well-being and by the ‘healthcare costs saved and improved health-related quality of life,’ generated by doing sport and engaging with culture (CASE 2010:5).
Despite the rather startling assertion that a visit to the cinema once a week had an income compensation value of £9,000 per household per year (CASE 2010); there is little evidence that wellbeing is, as yet, being used to inform funding or other policy directions for DCMS. Nevertheless, in the rhetoric of arts funding, wellbeing has now joined the long list of benefits – educational attainment, self-confidence, health and social cohesion – that have at one time been claimed to result from cultural participation.
The aim of this paper is to analyse the use of wellbeing as an idea within cultural policy and too discuss what this tells us, about the adaption of such discourses by policymakers in general, and its potential uses in cultural policy in particular. It will consider the adoption of well being within cultural policy under New Labour, and consider what its retention under a Coalition government tells us about the cross-party appeal of such a notion.
The paper will consider the CASE example, look at other uses of wellbeing by local authorities or arts organisations and ask; what sort of culture might result from an approach based on wellbeing? How would culture fare vis a vis other public spending commitments under a wellbeing approach? And, if linked to a discussion about work and ownership, could well-being offer a way to think about improving working conditions within the cultural industries?"