Research Excellence

The Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies (CMPS) is proud of its Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) results having submitted all eligible staff to the Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies unit of assessment (UoA). Collectively (with Film and Television Studies and Theatre and Performance Studies) we have been ensuring a diverse, inclusive, and interdisciplinary research culture. Being No1 in the UK for Research Power (THE) with a GPA of 3.52 from the largest amount of researchers submitted to that UoA, we have demonstrated the quality and the quantity of our submission. Overall (with Film and Television Studies and Theatre and Performance Studies) 61% of our research is considered ‘world-leading’ ranking us as joint 12^th (THE) from a group of 84 universities.

Collectively we have achieved a high score of 77% for our research environment being considered ‘world-leading’ and with more 4* outputs in this assessment reflecting the hard work colleagues have put into their publications, conferences, reports and practice-as-research. This reflects strategic investment from the Faculty of Arts into researching the challenges of contemporary media and creative industries, which we are pleased to take forward (with other disciplines) as part of the School. Our aspiration, to ensure CMPS research meets the needs of regional, national, and international scholars, audiences and stakeholders has been achieved and we continue to develop new ways of researching media, cultural policy and the creative industries.

Of our results, Prof Joanne Garde-Hansen said:

‘The Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies continues to produce internationally excellent and world-leading results through interdisciplinary and innovative research that explores media and cultural policy from Brazil to Finland, from China to the USA, from local and regional activities to UK national policy making on the value of culture. We cover all aspects of culture, media and creativity from mainstream to grassroots, from museums and memory to the future of creative work, and apply our research to cities as well as the climate crisis, so that our thinking, methods, networks and approaches will benefit communities and practitioners. Now more than ever we need cutting edge cultural and media policy studies research. The media and the cultural and creative industries are central to how the past is experienced, how the present is produced and how the future is made’.

Research Environment

The interdisciplinary environment we have fostered informs our research and consultancy in the fields of cultural policy, media and cultural studies, communications, digital culture and research of the creative industries. Our researchers have been successful in securing funding from with a variety of Councils and funders including the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the British Academy, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), Leverhulme and the Arts Council England (ACE). Our colleagues take key roles in university research centres (Centre for Digital InquiryLink opens in a new window and Centre for Television HistoriesLink opens in a new window) and have developed important strands of research to meet Warwick's Global Research Priorities on Connecting Cultures, Productivity and the Futures of Work, and Sustainable Cities). We have leading roles in external collaborations and consultancy (e.g. City of Culture 2021, UK Department of Digital Media, Culture and Sport, Contemporary Visual Arts Network) with research and publishing in cultural and media policy that has impact (e.g. UK Centre for Cultural Value, Museums Association); as well as media and creative industries that forges new areas of research, such as green media production, protest memory culture, AI and the Arts, and the future of creative work post-pandemic. Explore our Research Themes and ProjectsLink opens in a new window in more depth and our Impact and EngagementLink opens in a new window activities.

Our Journals

Founding members of the Centre have helped define the field of cultural and media policy studies, notably through the founding and continued editing and publishing of the International Journal of Cultural Policy (IJCP) which is the primary sponsor of the International Conference on Cultural Policy Research (ICCPR) and chair of its scientific committee. In recent years, we have extended and redefined the research of culture and creativity through our interdisciplinary research and publications, through the Journal of Law, Social Justice and Global Development and contributions to journals as diverse as European Journal of Cultural Studies, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Cultural Trends, Celebrity Studies, Emotion, Space and Society, Journal of Scandinavian Cinema, Media, Culture and Society, Memory Studies, Journal of Critical Realism and many more. We are 'multi-disciplinary' and collectively bring a critical Arts and Humanities approach to subjects normally dominated by the social sciences, from policy, industry and globalisation, to technology, economy and the environment. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework 90% of our unit's research outputs were rated as world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour 4* or judged internationally excellent 3*. Find out more about Centre members and their research interests.

Internationalism

Our research has always had an international scope from our founding as the only place where European cultural policy research was undertaken. We continue to engage with cultural, media and creative industries researchers from across Europe, North and South America, and Asia. This is reflected by the international reach of our two AHRC Network projects (Global Green Media ProductionLink opens in a new window and Afterlives of ProtestLink opens in a new window), our success with the Brazil Partnership Fund, Santander fund and the Belmont Forum. We have established an MOU with the State University of Sao Paulo (Unesp) and we have expertise on Scandinavian film and Sami media cultures, alongside our many years of research with scholars and professionals from a variety of countries and organisations. We have recently hosted international visiting fellows from the US, Canada, Brazil and France, and our staff have been invited to give keynotes and residencies in Sao Paulo, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Belgrade, Milan, Venice, Paris and many more. The internationalism of our thriving community of postgraduate students is evident from our PhD students invited to attend and organise research seminars at ICCPR conferences in Hildersheim, Seoul and Tallin.

Interdisciplinarity

Interdisciplinarity is a vital component of the Centre's research combining scholarly work with applied research, and practice as research with impact and public engagement. We have played a central part in University initiatives designed to promote interdisciplinary research (Centre for Television HistoriesLink opens in a new window, Centre for Digital InquiryLink opens in a new window, Connecting CulturesLink opens in a new window and Productivity and the Futures of WorkLink opens in a new window Global Research Priorities, and the Institute for Global Sustainable DevelopmentLink opens in a new window, Sustainable CitiesLink opens in a new window and the Environmental Humanities NetworkLink opens in a new window). While our home is firmly in the arts and humanities we collaborate with the widest range of disciplines to pursue shared long-term shared research interests on cities, spaces and environment, digital technology and data, memories and histories, creative industries and productivity, ethics, politics and sustainability (Law, Politics, Computer Science, Environmental Science, Memory Studies, Interdisciplinary Methodologies, Business and Management studies).