Dr David Lee

Profile

Before joining the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds in 2009, I developed a varied professional career across the media, cultural and policy sectors. I began in current affairs and documentary production, working for the BBC and independent production companies on programmes including Newsnight, Panorama and The Money Programme. This experience provided first-hand insight into the organisational cultures, creative practices and structural pressures shaping audio-visual production, and continues to inform both my teaching and research.

I subsequently moved into policy research and consultancy, working with organisations such as Demos and BOP Consulting. During this period, I led and contributed to a range of national and regional projects focused on cultural and creative industries policy, working with clients including DCMS, CABE, regional development agencies, and most of the UK’s regional screen agencies. This policy-facing work deepened my interest in the relationship between cultural production, governance, regional development and economic change.

My academic career began at Goldsmiths, University of London, where I completed an AHRC-funded PhD in 2009. My doctoral research examined cultural production in the UK independent television production sector, using qualitative methods to explore networking, precarity, craft and cultural value. These themes have continued to shape my research, which sits at the intersection of cultural industries studies, cultural policy, political economy and television studies.

I have published widely in these areas in leading journals and academic presses. Key publications include Independent Television Production in the UK: From Cottage Industry to Big Business (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), which provides the first book-length academic account of the UK independent television sector and its changing labour conditions; Culture, Economy and Politics: The Case of New Labour (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), co-authored with David Hesmondhalgh, Kate Oakley and Melissa Nisbett, which critically examines the instrumentalisation of culture in UK cultural policy; and Advancing Media Production Research: Shifting Sites, Methods (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), co-edited with Chris Paterson and colleagues, which develops new methodological approaches to studying media production across platforms and institutional contexts.

My research has been supported by funding from bodies including the AHRC, ESRC and the Screen Industries Growth Network. Recent projects include research on how the television and games industries in Yorkshire adapted working practices during and beyond the Covid-19 lockdowns, and a study of Channel 4’s Production Trainee Scheme, both funded by the Screen Industries Growth Network.

Alongside my research, I teach undergraduate and postgraduate modules on media industries, media production, media policy and television studies, and supervise PhD students working in related areas.

Responsibilities

• Programme Leader MA Media Industries

Research interests

My research sits at the intersection of media and communication, media industries, and media and cultural policy, with a particular focus on the screen industries, creative labour, and regional cultural production.

A core strand of my work examines the screen industries, especially the UK independent television sector and wider processes of audio-visual cultural production. I have published extensively on the history, structure and labour dynamics of independent television, documentary and factual production, and public service broadcasting. My monograph Independent Television Production in the UK: From Cottage Industry to Big Business provides the first book-length academic account of the UK independent television production industry, combining political-economic analysis with in-depth qualitative research on working conditions, precarity and cultural value. Related publications address arts and talk television, documentary, and questions of regional and public service media production.

A second major strand of my research focuses on creative labour. Here, I have written widely on precarity, affect, networking, inequality and cultural value in the cultural and creative industries, with particular attention to the lived experience of freelance and project-based work. This work explores how creative labour is shaped by broader transformations in media industries, neoliberal governance and digital culture, and how workers navigate insecurity, attachment, and moral commitment to creative work. I am currently developing new strands of research on creative labour mobilisation and affective creative economies, building on earlier work on networks, performativity and value.

I also have a long-standing research interest in media and cultural policy, particularly in relation to the UK creative industries and regional governance. With David Hesmondhalgh, Kate Oakley and Melissa Nisbett, I am co-author of Culture, Economy and Politics: The Case of New Labour, which emerged from a major AHRC-funded study of British cultural policy and critically examines the role of culture within New Labour’s economic and political project. Related publications address regional creative industries policy, cultural mapping, and the institutional frameworks shaping media production.

Recent funded research has included leading a Screen Industries Growth Network (SIGN) project on regional cultural production in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, and another project examining screen skills and workforce development. These projects have contributed empirical insight into the spatial, institutional and labour conditions shaping contemporary screen production, particularly in relation to regional ecologies and post-pandemic restructuring. Building on this work, I am currently developing new research strands on creative labour mobilisation, affective creative economies, and the changing politics of work and inequality in the screen and cultural industries.

• Communicating Copyright: An Exploration of Copyright Discourses in the Digital Age

Professional memberships

• IAMCR
• HEA Fellow
• ECREA

Student education

My teaching in the school connects to my research interests in documentary, television studies, media policy and media industries. I teach across a range of modules at undergraduate and postgraduate level in these areas. 

Research groups and institutes

• Media Industries and Cultural Production