A new research project led by Lancaster University will shed new light on the highly controversial world of reality TV with the aim of improving care practices across the sector.
The Arts and Humanities Research Council has awarded £951,433 to researchers, led by Lancaster University working with the Universities of Leicester and Nottingham, for the 'RE-Care TV': Reality Television, Working Practices and Duties of Care project.
This project will be the first to put the various aspects involved in reality TV sector (RTV) - production, participation and policy - under the microscope to improve caring practices across the sector.
RTV is a significant and highly controversial site of media production that has rapidly expanded over the last two decades with an increasing share of the UK's £1.48bn global TV export market.
"High profile concerns around mental health risks have led to changes to Ofcom's Broadcasting Code around improved welfare for participants, whilst broadcasters increasingly understand a need for the continued evolution of care practices across the sector," says Principal Investigator Professor Helen Wood, of Lancaster University.
"Most policy and industry initiatives have so far focused on risk management around mental health concerns for individual participants, without any interrogation of the broader contexts of cultural labour and working practices."
This project will investigate how care is understood and experienced across reality television by asking:
· Production. How is care understood, mediated and practised by different workers across reality television production?
· Participation. How should the working experiences of participants inform our understanding of care in RTV?
· Policy. How is care understood, inscribed and implemented in policy and industry decision-making?
· Care. How can the analysis of care be incorporated into theorisations of cultural labour in the creative industries?
This study will include policy analysis, media tracking, and qualitative interviews with a diverse range of key stakeholders.
The research will centre the previously overlooked experiences of production workers and non-professional participants alongside contemporary policy debates and public concerns around duties of care.
"This investigation into how care is mediated and practised within cultural production will have wide application across academic scholarship and the creative industries," adds Professor Wood.
The project team will work with the co-operation of all the UK Public Service Broadcasters and three key project partners:
· BECTU, the media and entertainment workers' union, to understand how care is implemented in production, which will inform the creation of a report and training materials.
· Equity, the trade union for creative practitioners, to listen to participants' voices, understand their needs, and to consider whether and how they can be formally recognised as cultural workers. This will lead to the production of a video for would-be participants which informs them of their rights and helps them to negotiate the complex terrain of RTV production.
· Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee to integrate findings from production, participation and policy, both to consider the current protections in place and to propose future policy recommendations.
Researchers will consult with the Chair of the British Psychological Society's Media Advisory Board, Professor John Oates, to understand how their findings can support developments around mental health protections, which will also inform their report to the DCMS select committee.
"The empirical knowledge produced by this project has transformative potential for re-conceiving care in RTV production, whilst the new theoretical framework, derived from careful empirical analysis, will offer a far-reaching academic agenda for care in the creative industries more widely," adds Professor Wood.
