Faculty of Arts Events Calendar

Professor Helen Wood will be talking about duties of care in UK reality TV, outlining the work of the AHRC funded ReCareTV project. Details below.

Professor Helen Wheatley (Film and TV) will act as a respondent.

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Between the duty of care and an ethics of care: compliance, work and experiences of care in UK reality television.

This talk will introduce you to the work of ‘ReCARETV: Reality Television, Working Practices and Duties of Care’ (AHRC) research project investigating care practices in UK reality television. Following a parliamentary inquiry and a consultation, Ofcom added new rules and guidelines around duty of care into the Broadcasting Code in 2021. This research involves interviews with senior executives, commissioners and legal compliance teams at the broadcasters and independent production companies; production staff and freelance crew (from runners, casters to editors); as well as participants of reality television across different types of show, in order to obtain a holistic picture of experiences of care across the industry. This talk will share some of the findings from across the project so far, which point out distinctions between the work of compliance in a regulatory framework, and ethical tensions in working practices and decision-making in production. The research reveals some fault-lines between a corporate response to care as risk management, and an ethical approach to care as a condition of mutual interdependency.

Helen Wood is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the Aston University in Birmingham. She is author of Talking With Television (2009) University of Illinois, Reacting to Reality Television (2012) Routledge with Bev Skeggs, and her latest book is Audience (2024) Routledge. She is a member of the DCMS College of Experts and is currently Principal Investigator of ‘ReCARETV: Reality Television, Working Practices and Duties of Care’ (AHRC) research project investigating care practices in UK reality television (2023-2026).