Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
A gentle reminder,
if you have not done so yet, to submit your ITBs for the new call of BA Small grants by today 29th September
If you require any help with the completion of the form, please let us know @ preawardenquiries@bournemouth.ac.uk
The conference is a great opportunity for postgraduate researchers to showcase and promote their research to the BU community whether they have just started or are approaching the end of their journey at BU.
Attending the conference is a great opportunity to engage and network with the postgraduate research community and find out more about the exciting and fascinating research that is happening across BU.
Abstracts are invited from postgraduate researchers to present via oral or poster presentation.
For full details on how to apply please visit the Doctoral College Conference Brightspace.
Registration to attend will open in November, all members of BU are welcome!
For any questions, please email pgconference@bournemouth.ac.uk and a member of the Doctoral College conference team will get back to you.
Professor Andy Phippen writes for The Conversation about the government’s online safety bill and the challenges of regulating the internet…
Andy Phippen, Bournemouth University
The government’s online safety bill, a reform years in the making, will now become law.
Among the bill’s key aims is to ensure it is more difficult for young people (under the age of 18) to access content that is considered harmful – such as pornography and content that promotes suicide or eating disorders. It places a “duty of care” on tech companies to ensure their users, especially children, are safe online. And it aims to provide adults with greater control over the content they interact with, for example if they wish to avoid seeing sexual content.
The legislation puts the onus on service providers (such as social media companies and search engines) to enforce minimum age requirements, publish risk assessments, ensure young people cannot access harmful content (while still granting adults access) and remove illegal content such as self-harm and deepfake intimate images.
The government has said the new law will make the UK the “safest place to be online”, but this isn’t something that can happen overnight. Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, is in charge of turning the legislation into something they can actually regulate. By the regulator’s own calculations, this process will take months.
There are many who view the bill as poorly thought out, with potential overreach that could conflict with fundamental human rights. The Open Rights Group has raised serious concerns around privacy and freedom of expression.
There are also aspects of the bill that are, currently, technically impossible. For example, the expectation that platforms will inspect the content of private, end-to-end encrypted messages to ensure that there is no criminal activity (for example, sexual communication with children) on their platforms – this cannot be done without violating the privacy afforded by these technologies.
If platforms are expected to provide “back doors” to technology designed to ensure that communications are private, they may contradict privacy and human rights law. At present, there is no way to grant some people access to encrypted communications without weakening the security of the communications for everyone. Some platforms have said they will leave the UK if such erosions in encryption are enacted.
There is a rich history of governments wrongly assuming encryption can be accessed that is not being reflected upon in current debates.
Furthermore, age verification and estimation technology is not yet foolproof, or indeed accurate enough to determine someone’s exact age. Yoti, a leading age verification and estimation technology provider has stated that their technology could correctly predict a user aged 13-17 being “under 25” 99.9% of the time. It’s entirely possible that many young adults would be falsely identified as being minors – which might prevent them from accessing legal content. There have been previous attempts to legislate age verification for pornography providers (such as in the 2017 Digital Economy Act), which the UK repealed due to the complexities of implementation.
While technology continues to develop, it seems unlikely there will be perfect implementations anytime soon for these issues.
The other major argument against the bill is that, even with the best of intentions, the protections designed to keep children safe could have a chilling impact on freedom of speech and freedom of expression.
Previous versions of the bill placed expectations on platforms to explicitly tackle “legal but harmful” content for adults. This was defined at the time as content that would be viewed as offensive by a “reasonable person of ordinary sensibilities”. While these provisions are now removed, there is still a great deal of intangibility around what it means to protect children from “harmful” content.
Outside of illegal content, who decides what is harmful?
Platforms will be expected to make rules around content they deem might be harmful to certain users, and censor it before it can be published. As a result, this might also prevent children from accessing information related to gender and sexuality that could be caught up in the filtering and monitoring systems platforms will put in place. Without a clear definition of what harmful content is, it will be down to platforms to guess – and with moving goalposts, depending on the government of the day.
As someone who researches the ethics of technology and the habits of young people online, my concern is that this bill will be viewed as the solution to online harms – it clearly is not.
These measures, if effectively implemented, will make it more difficult for young people to stumble across content meant for adults, but they will not prevent the determined teenager. Furthermore, a lot of intimate content shared by young people is shared between peers and not accessed via platforms, so this legislation will do nothing to tackle this.
I often to speak to young people about what help they would like to be safer online. They rarely ask for risk assessments and age verification technologies – they want better education and more informed adults to help them when things go wrong. Far better, young people tell me, to provide people with the knowledge to understand the risks, and how to mitigate them, rather than demanding they are stopped by the platforms.
I am reminded of a quote from the American cybersecurity researcher Marcus Ranum: “You can’t solve social problems with software.”
Andy Phippen, Professor of IT Ethics and Digital Rights, Bournemouth University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The difference Bournemouth University’s research, education and expertise makes to society has been recognised through the third Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) exercise.
The KEF is released annually by Research England and aims to increase efficiency and effectiveness in public funding for knowledge exchange and to encourage universities to understand and improve on their performance.
BU’s performance in the third KEF demonstrates several areas of strength, including our research partnerships, working with business, and local growth and regeneration.
Our work with health and care providers, including partnerships with University Hospitals Dorset (UHD) and Dorset Healthcare, supports initiatives across research, education and practice in the region, helping people to live better for longer.
This includes student placements and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for staff, with over 32,000 learner days undertaken by NHS staff at BU over the past three years. Collaborative research with UHD includes optimising nutritional care for inpatients and creating a medical simulation game to help prepare junior doctors for the pressures of life on the ward.
The university’s expertise in environmental science is helping to protect and preserve our natural environment, from working with the National Trust and RSPB to monitor habitats and support conservation efforts in the Purbecks, to the ecological consultancy work undertaken by Bournemouth University Global Environmental Solutions (BUG).
BU also supports business and entrepreneurship across the region. Around 60 SME owners have so far participated in the university’s Help to Grow: Management Programme while BU’s Eco-Entrepreneurs Fund, delivered in partnership with Santander, has supported BU students and graduates to develop businesses which address the climate and ecological crisis.
As well as regional engagement, the university works with communities and organisations on a national and international level – such as the Disaster Management Centre, which is assisting communities globally, including in Sierra Leone, in crisis preparedness and recovery.
Professor Keith Phalp, Pro Vice-Chancellor at Bournemouth University, said: “We are proud to be a catalyst for growth, using our skills and expertise to support our region and enrich society.
“The KEF provides an opportunity to assess our progress in knowledge exchange and the impact of our work. It is great to recognise the contribution of our staff, students and graduates in supporting this work on a regional, national, and international scale and making a real difference to the world around us.”
The results of the KEF have been published in the form of institutional dashboards, with institutions measured against seven perspectives – including working with businesses, the public and the third sector; intellectual property and commercialisation; and public and community engagement.
In recognition of the fact that universities have different areas of expertise and work in regions with different needs, all universities in England have been placed into different clusters according to their expertise, size and research activity.
BU is in Cluster E, alongside other large universities with a broad range of disciplines generating research. Other universities in the cluster include Oxford Brookes University, Nottingham Trent University, and Portsmouth University.
Professor Dame Jessica Corner, Executive Chair of Research England, said: “Across the breadth of higher education, institutions make rich and diverse contributions to the economy and society through their knowledge exchange activities.
“The KEF continues to be a powerful tool to describe the breadth of scope of knowledge exchange. It also provides important evidence of different university strengths through peer group comparisons.”
Visit the Knowledge Exchange Framework website to view the institutional dashboards and find out more about the KEF.
Maintaining Progress Re-Orientation
Audience: PGRs approaching their Major Review milestone.
Duration: 3 Hours.
Frequency: Once per academic year.
Date: Tuesday 3 October, 10am – 1pm, IN PERSON – room BG-217, Bournemouth Gateway Building, Lansdowne Campus.
Final Stages Re-Orientation
Audience: PGRs approaching their Viva Voce examination.
Duration: 3 Hours.
Frequency: Once per academic year.
Date: Wednesday 4 October, 10am – 1pm, IN PERSON – room P221, Poole House, Talbot Campus.
Any questions, please get in touch doctoralcollege@bournemouth.ac.uk
Doctoral College Team
Are you continuing to struggle with COVID-19 symptoms at least 8-weeks after a positive COVID-19 test or have been diagnosed with Long COVID-19? Are you interested in understanding how Long COVID-19 impacts the ability to conduct daily activities?
If so please see the below poster and contact us for further information – marmstrong@bournemouth.ac.uk
A study by an international team of scientists, including Dr Laura Renshaw-Vuillier from Bournemouth University, has for the first time established a relationship between specific emotions and wellbeing during a period of collective stress.
The findings, published in the journal Emotion, showed that calm and hope appear to be promising routes to psychological wellbeing. Anxiety, loneliness, and sadness are consistently associated with reduced wellbeing. The researchers believe this is an important finding for wellbeing interventions, especially in view of future societal crises.
“It is common sense that when people feel good, they report higher levels of well-being. But people don’t just feel ‘good’ or bad’, we feel excited or hopeful or calm; or angry or sad or lonely,” explained Dr Renshaw-Vuillier, Principal Academic in Psychology.
“Understanding the contribution of specific types of emotional experiences is key to guiding efforts to enhance well-being, particularly in times of collective stress like the COVID pandemic, or climate change,” she continued.
The team of sixty-two researchers tested the hypothesis that certain kinds of emotional experiences relate to psychological wellbeing during a stressful period.
They conducted a survey among 24,221 participants in fifty-one countries during the Covid-19 pandemic. They then followed this up with a repeat study in the USA and UK, and a further study where participants completed a diary of their feelings and behaviours.
“We found that only the specific emotional experiences of calm and hope were consistently associated with better psychological well-being, while anxiety, loneliness and sadness were linked with lower wellbeing. The exciting part is that these results were consistent across 51 countries, held across analytical approaches, and were confirmed in a replication and a diary study as well.”
The scientists advise that their findings provide a key to strengthening individual and societal interventions to improve wellbeing.
“This does not imply that emotions and well-being are a personal responsibility, or that we should only just experience positive emotions,” said Dr Renshaw-Vuillier. “Unpleasant emotions are entirely natural and a part of an everyday healthy life. But it suggests that interventions targeting these emotions, for instance through public institutions creating opportunities to experience moments of calm and hope, may be helpful to improve collective well-being, particularly in periods of collective stress,” she concluded.
We hope everyone has had good rest before start of the new academic year.
As promised, after return of all RDS Research Facilitators, we resume funding briefing sessions to be held as usual – every Wednesday at 12pm except during half term dates.
For this academic year, we have made some changes both regarding format and content of these sessions.
Firstly, we will be sending weekly email with newest funding opportunities in advance, so academics may join and ask specific questions regarding those new opportunities they are interested in.
Secondly, briefings this academic year will be organised as drop-in sessions, so you are welcome to join the session at any time between 12 and 12:30pm.
To allow more flexibility, spotlight sessions are not planned in advance. For example, as soon as important funding call is announced, one of the facilitators will present more details. The first spotlight presentation will be related to Horizon Europe on 1 November 2023. Until then, stay tuned and follow the news related to Horizon Europe association on Research Blog.
Please save the following link in your records for joining briefing sessions until 25 October: click here to join the meeting (after 25 October new link will be provided).
Just as a reminder, our Research Facilitators are funder focussed and these are their expertise areas:
Kate Percival – Life Sciences (NIHR: National Institute for Health and Care Research, Medical Research Council (MRC – UKRI), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC – UKRI), and Wellcome Trust)
Eva Papadopoulou – Social Sciences and Humanities (Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC – UKRI), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC – UKRI), The British Academy, The Leverhulme Trust, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) central funding)
Zarak Afzal – Innovation and Infrastructure (Innovate UK, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC – UKRI), The Royal Society, Research England (UKRI), Major infrastructure funds)
Ainar – EU & international (European Union – Horizon Europe (including European Research Council and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions), National Institutes of Health (NIH – US), other international funding opportunities)
If you are not sure whom you would like to contact with your specific question, forward your enquiry to Funding Development Team mailbox and we will sort it out.
And once again, here is the link to drop-in sessions.
On behalf of the whole pre-award team, let me wish you good and exciting academic year!
To welcome back all PGRs at the start of the new academic year, join the Doctoral College team, your PGR colleagues and new PGRs for coffee and cake.
Date: Wednesday 4 October, 1pm – 2 pm.
Location: Talbot Campus, K103 Kimmeridge House
We look forward to seeing you!
Doctoral College Team
At Café Scientifique, you can explore the latest ideas in science and technology in a relaxed setting. Enjoy listening to a short talk before engaging in debate and discussion with our guest speaker and audience.
Barriers such as dams and weirs alter a river’s natural flow, severely affecting aquatic ecosystems and leading to a decrease in water quality. Researchers in Europe have been working to address this issue – with the goal of reconnecting 25,000km of rivers by 2030. However, with funding for long-term monitoring decreasing, how do they track the success of this rewilding process?
Join Bournemouth University’s Dr Demetra Andreou, an expert in environmental science on Tuesday 3 October to discover how citizen scientists might play a role in the collection of such vital long-term data.
This event will be held at The Black Cherry in Boscombe, Bournemouth. Although the talks start at 6:30pm, the café will be open early so we encourage you to arrive early for a drink and a bite to eat before the talk starts.
If you have any questions about this event, or you’re interested in getting involved with a future Café Sci event, please email the Public Engagement with Research Team: publicengagement@bournemouth.ac.uk
Dr Rachel Moseley writes for The Conversation about the gender differences in autism and the impact of late, or no, diagnosis for autistic people…
Rachel Moseley, Bournemouth University
For many women, adult diagnoses of autism are “a light in the darkness”, an epiphany of self-understanding. My “lightbulb moment” came in my late 20s. “They thought you were autistic,” my mum mused when I told her I was embarking on an academic career in autism research.
As a child, I was painfully aware of being different. The adults and the children around me had noticed my strangeness, my inability to fit in. It turned out that autism had been suggested to my mother – but then dismissed by a child psychiatrist. I didn’t fit what was known about autism. Although socially gauche, I’d mastered eye contact and was fairly eloquent.
A few years after my mum had made that off-the-cuff comment, I was re-evaluating my life in the context of a shiny new diagnosis.
Researchers are learning more and more about the way autism differs in people of different sexes and genders. As they do so, the lights are coming on for more of us who’ve felt lost in the world.
There is no one type of autistic person. The key features of autism – differences in the way we think, communicate and interact with others – show up in more diverse and subtle ways than the limited examples suggested by the diagnostic criteria. This is often true in autistic girls.
This article is part of Women’s Health Matters, a series about the health and wellbeing of women and girls around the world. From menopause to miscarriage, pleasure to pain the articles in this series will delve into the full spectrum of women’s health issues to provide valuable information, insights and resources for women of all ages.
You may be interested in:
Birth trauma is a growing problem — experiencing it myself revealed how few people understand it
While they struggle with social understanding, many autistic girls are adept mimics of the social behaviour of other people. In the way they speak and the things they talk about, they are more similar to neurotypical children than autistic boys are. This may explain why, on first impression, people tend to underestimate autistic girls’ difficulties.
In comparison to autistic boys, the conversation of autistic girls tends to be more social in nature, focusing more on the people and friendship groups around them. Their interests tend to be more social, involving fictional characters, animals or celebrities rather than non-living objects. Tellingly, they express greater longing for the friendships and relationships which often elude them.
As they grow, some girls learn scripts to use in social situations, and develop a passive way of behaving with others that focuses on making the other person feel comfortable. Many autistic girls and women engage in this kind of “social camouflaging” constantly in order to seem acceptable to others.
The subtleties of autism in girls mean that they’re diagnosed significantly later than boys. In part, this reflects lack of awareness in the professionals who typically signpost children to autism services. However, others will be passed over because diagnostic assessment tools are less sensitive to autism in girls with cognitive abilities in the normal range.
Undiagnosed autistic people are often painfully aware of their inability to fit in and to do the things that others do easily. If no one gives you an explanation, you’re left to find one yourself.
I knew as a teenager that I must be fundamentally bad, since I was bullied and had no friends at school. Autistic people I’ve worked with in my research have similarly blamed themselves for a lifetime of struggling and being abused, pinning these things on personal failings.
Across research studies, we late-diagnosed autistics are that societal subgroup with a history of academic struggles, employment problems, mental illness and relationship breakdowns. Our self-narratives are ones of inadequacy and failure.
Research has found that autistic girls and women have poorer mental health than autistic men. So are people who are diagnosed later in life compared to those diagnosed when young. These two facts are almost certainly interrelated. Autistic children who grow up without a diagnosis are unlikely to receive appropriate support. What’s more, they’re less likely to be viewed with compassion when they struggle.
Recognition of autism in girls and women may come at a crisis point. For some, this occurs in the pubertal chaos and complex social world of adolescence, where rates of anxiety and depression climb steeply in autistic girls. For some, it happens in the world-rocking turmoil of menopause, which appears to derail the coping skills and social camouflage that undiagnosed people rely on.
For some, it never happens. Undiagnosed autistic people are believed to constitute a high number of suicide deaths.
Beyond diagnosis, there are other ways that autistic girls and women face greater challenges than boys and men. While women generally suffer higher rates of sexual abuse, this risk is even higher for autistic women.
Autistic women often find their difficulties are poorly understood by employers, and must also contend with gendered pressures to perform emotional labour at work – taking on the unpaid and implicit responsibility to look after the emotions of others – or face damage to their reputation.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, autistic gender disparities in stress-related illnesses and risk of suicide are stark. Despite this, autistic women still face greater barriers to accessing help.
It’s uncertain to what extent these disparities can be traced back to the fundamental fact that autism is poorly understood and under-catered for in women and people of minority sexes and genders.
What we do know is that early diagnosis seems crucial for girls to grow up with positive self-image and lower risk of mental illness.
For we lucky women who got there in the end, a discovered autistic identity can be a life-changing gift. Finding ourselves means finding each other, release from self-blame and a new sense of belonging.
Rachel Moseley, Principle Academic in Psychology, Bournemouth University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
We’re excited to share …
some great RKEDF training opportunities coming up in October
Please, click on the post titles to see details and book a place on to upcoming events
| Impact Essentials: From public engagement to impact
Online session, Tuesday 3rd October 14:00-15:00 |
This session is aimed at researchers at all stages of their careers to find out how public engagement activity can help their research have an impact on the world. You can book your place here.
| Impact essentials: Finding your stakeholders
Online session, Tuesday 10th October 10:00-11:00 |
This workshop will give you the tools to help you identify the organisations, groups and people who could either benefit from your research, or be able to influence or facilitate impact arising from it. You can book your place here.
| Imposter Syndrome
Hybrid session, Tuesday 12th October 10:00-11:00 |
The Imposter syndrome session will offer a space to discuss this growing issue as well as offer advice, guidance and support on how to manage, avoid and overcome such feelings. You can book your place here.
| Introduction to RED – The Research & Enterprise Database
Online session, Wednesday 18th October, 15:30-14:00 |
This session is aimed at all academics to provide an overview of the Research & Enterprise Database. You can book your place here.
| Principal Investigation – Post Award for RKE
Thursday 19th October, 14:00-15:00, Lansdowne Campus |
By the end of this session, attendees will have a strong foundation of what to expect when being responsible for their awarded projects. You can book your place here.
For any further information, please contact RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk
This Online session is aimed at all academics to provide an overview of the Research & Enterprise Database, including how to access the system, the information available to view, budget management via RED, and how to use RED to identify your supporting pre and post award officers.
You can find a suitable date and book your space here Introduction to RED
For any queries regarding this workshop, please contact Alex Morrison Post Award Programme Manager morrisona@bournemouth.ac.uk
Post Award for RKE – Principal Investigation
This session is aimed at any researcher who is, who plans to be, a Principal Investigator for an externally funded research or knowledge exchange project.
Topics covered include:
• What is post award?
• Roles and responsibilities
• Systems
• Key policies
• Starting your awarded project
• Making changes to your project and reporting
• Hints and tip
By the end of the session, attendees will have a strong foundation of what to expect when being responsible for their awarded projects.
The month’s session is on Lansdowne Campus
on Wednesday 19th October, 14:00-15:00
You can find a suitable date and book your space here: Booking Form
For any queries regarding this workshop, please contact Alex Morrison, Post Award Programme Manager morrisona@bournemouth.ac.uk
Whether you are a new supervisor, you plan to be one, or you have experience but are new to Bournemouth University, this development workshop is for you.
The workshop, which is mandatory for new supervisors, offers the necessary knowledge to supervise Postgraduate Research students by placing this knowledge within both the internal and external regulatory framework.
This workshop will cover the following key areas:
Book your place onto one of the Doctoral Supervision: New Supervisors Development workshops below. Further details about this workshop can also be found on the staff intranet.
| Date | Time | Location | Booking (via Eventbrite) |
| Tuesday 10 October 2023 | 10:00 – 15:15 | Talbot Campus (in person) | Book |
| Thursday 16 November 2023 | 10:00 – 15:15 | Talbot Campus (in person) | Book |
| Wednesday 31 January 2024 | 10:00 – 15:15 | Online | Book |
| Tuesday 5 March 2024 | 10:00 – 15:15 | Talbot Campus (in person) | Book |
| Wednesday 15 May 2024 | 10:00 – 15:15 | Lansdowne Campus (in person) | Book |
Zoom meeting, Live streaming on Facebook,
25th September 1 pm- 2pm
Raising the SDG flag at Bournemouth University
We are delighted to join the #togetherfortheSDGs movement and alongside many organisations in the UK, we are thrilled to raise the SGDs flag at Bournemouth University (BU) to celebrate the 8th anniversary of the SDGs.
In this webinar, we would like to briefly discuss how we embed the SDGs in our teaching to raise awareness and inspire our students to take action
Sid Ghosh (Operation Management), Lingling Wei (Business Law), Osikhuemhe Okwilagwe (Strategy),and Kaouther Kooli (Marketing) will draw from their different disciplines perspectives to share their practice in embedding the SDGs in their teaching and inspire and give their students the best skills and capabilities that will help them raise the SDGs flag, now with us, and later in their career. Matt Cosier founder of Gaia Card, a BU alumni will also join to share with us how his learning experience at BU enabled him in his endeavour to create Gaia Card.
Bournemouth University is a member of the EAUC, an organisation that is supporting UK HE in achieving sustainability. An EAUC representative will join us to celebrate the Eighth anniversary of the SDGs and share their viewpoints. Also, we will have on board Bloomsbury Academic Publishing to give from their perspective, how best we could develop our pool of resources and together equip students with the necessary skills that will enable them to become the future leaders of this SDGs endeavour.
The meeting will be Live on Facebook. Please join us and interact with us. You can use Kaouther Kooli to join the meeting.
On behalf of our team, I would like to express our gratitude to Stuart Claw, Marketing and Communication for supporting the SDGs celebration and in particular this event.
UKRIO has announced details of a forthcoming Free Webinar “Introduction to Research Integrity” on Wednesday 18th October from 10:00 – 11:00 BST.
The webinar will look at the challenges involved in ensuring that research is high quality and of high ethical standards, discuss the pressures faced by researchers and explore what researchers and organisations can do to safeguard and enhance good research practice.
During the webinar the following will be discussed:
This webinar is aimed at all researchers.
As BU subscribes to UKRIO services, UKRIO webinars are free and open to anyone who may be interested in research integrity and ethics, good research practice and improving research culture and avoiding misconduct.
To register – please click here (takes you to external website).
Dr Christa van Raalte and Dr Richard Wallis write for The Conversation about the culture and working practices within the TV industry…
Christa van Raalte, Bournemouth University and Richard Wallis, Bournemouth University
The presenter, comedian and actor Russell Brand is at the centre of a joint investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches, which has reported allegations of abuse made against him by four women, which include emotional abuse, sexual assault and rape. Brand has denied these allegations, saying his relationships have been “always consensual”, and they have not been tested in any court of law. However, this investigation focuses attention on a problem at the heart of the culture of the UK’s television industry.
According to the investigation, many of the allegations were borne out of what TV industry insiders describe as a working culture that tolerates, even facilitates, the abuse of power by its “talent”. A runner on one of Brand’s shows, interviewed for the Channel 4 film, recalls a colleague’s response on hearing of Brand’s behaviour: “Girls, girls. You know, it’s what happens with the talent. Boys will be boys.”
These allegations are only the most recent in a seemingly endless stream of high-profile incidents dating back to 2012 and the uncovering of historic abuse by the broadcaster Jimmy Savile. This scandal is clearly referenced in Dispatches’ documentary’s title, Russell Brand: In Plain Sight (Savile was described across the media at the time as having hidden “in plain sight”).
There have been many efforts at industry reform since 2012. However, we continue to see regular revelations of alleged bad behaviour – from accusations levelled at staff at Gogglebox to complaints recently made about TV chef James Martin.
Often abuses are all too conveniently attributed to “a few bad apples”. Yet the reality is that bullying and harassment are endemic in the UK television industry. We found this in a survey we conducted in 2021 of nearly 1,200 television professionals.
A staggering 93% of respondents had experienced or witnessed bullying or harassment at work during their careers. The Film and Television Charity’s 2022 report on mental health in the industry supports these findings, with nearly half of respondents reporting personal experience of bullying, harassment or discrimination in the previous 12 months.
Brand may or may not ultimately be found to be a “bad apple” but he’s prominent in an industry where such alleged cases, as recent interviewees in the media have attested to, are often open secrets and accepted as part of the nature of the work.
Our research suggests that the problem is structural and systemic.
Research in organisational behaviour shows that certain characteristics of work increase the likelihood of bad behaviour. It is more likely to happen where workloads are high and mentally demanding. It is more likely where roles are not well-defined or where people are constantly asked to balance conflicting demands.
It is common where teams are working under pressure to tight schedules, where lines of communication are unclear and critically where job insecurity makes workers reluctant to report concerns. All of these circumstances characterise current working conditions in UK television.
Over the past two or three years various mechanisms have been introduced to encourage the reporting of unacceptable behaviour and the abuse of power in the television industry. A new bullying watchdog, the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA), is currently refining its brief before a planned launch next year.
Arising out of the work of Time’s Up UK, which campaigns against discrimination and sexism in the workplace, this is certainly a welcome development. However, it does little to tackle the underlying structural issues, including the culture of fear that enables serial abusers.
The TV executive quoted as dismissing staff concerns in the Dispatches film was not unusual in her attitude. The kind of work environment in which bullies and abusers feel able to operate with impunity – and victims feel disempowered – is common.
Industry insiders claim that Brand’s activities were an “open secret” and that staff were “basically acting as pimps” for him, being expected to provide his contact details to women in his studio audiences.
Multiple complaints from crew members reportedly went unheeded. It is also claimed that in a development meeting for a new show, when the issue of his behaviour toward female crew was raised, one producer’s suggestion was to use an all-male crew – an idea which could potentially be putting female professionals out of work.
The investigation suggests that the alleged way in which Brand’s behaviour was tolerated by successive employers effectively gave the star permission to abuse the women around him. In a Guardian review of the Channel 4 documentary, Jack Seale accurately identified a “collective culpability that resonates well beyond whatever one man might have done”.
In our written evidence to the culture, media and sport parliamentary select committee this week, we are proposing an industry-wide code of practice to support good work and employment arrangements. We also hope to discourage the use of exploitative and unethical ways of working.
There needs to be a clear-cut way for staff to report bullying and harassment. And managers need to be made aware of their legal and ethical responsibilities in caring for their staff.
We hope that the film and television industries can set a positive example for the wider creative industries, where similar problems are reported. Fundamental changes are needed now and the industry cannot remain the sort of environment that facilitates bullying and harassment, moving from one scandal to the next.
These allegations are a wake-up call. The TV industry cannot continue the way it has.
Christa van Raalte, Associate Professor of Film and Television, Bournemouth University and Richard Wallis, Principal Academic in Media Production, Faculty of Media & Communication, Bournemouth University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
BU staff can login below:
BU Research blog in 2023 grows into 2026 publication
REF 2029 Sector Survey: Have Your Say
BU methods paper reached 2,500 reads
UKCGE Recognised Research Supervision Programme: Applications Close 19 October
Dr. Orlanda Harvey interviewed as expert
Dr. Paul Whittington attends Technology and the SEND Reforms Roundtable in the House of Commons
Horizon Europe Cluster 3 (Civil Security for Society) 2026 Calls Now Open
MSCA Doctoral Networks 2026 Call Information Webinar
ESRC Festival of Social Science 2026: Application Deadline Extended to Thursday 25 June 2026 Apply now to take part in the 2026 ESRC Festival of Social Science
Reminder: Register for the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2026 Information Session
ECR Funding Open Call: Research Culture & Community Grant – Apply now MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 Call
ERC Advanced Grant 2025 Webinar MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025
Update on UKRO services
European research project exploring use of ‘virtual twins’ to better manage metabolic associated fatty liver disease
Research Information Network