LP205: Media and Creative Industries – The Workplace
Portfolio of Evidence of Placement
Introduction
“After engaging in work-related activities, people need to reflect on the behavioral and
motivational aspects […] ” to effectively learn and develop (van Loon, 2018: 1404). For this
reason, after undertaking a four-week placement in November - December 2021, it is important
for me to look back and reflect on my experience. In this paper, I am focusing on several aspects
of my placement experience. To begin with, the following section will provide some
information on
– a company where I undertook my placement – and my
role within it. It will be followed by an analysis of the context in which
operates and a number of challenges it currently faces. Subsequently, by utilising my
observations gained during the placement, I will turn my focus to the inner-workings of the
company by analysing its leadership and the case of a mentor-mentee relationship that has
recently developed within the company. Lastly, I will reflect on my learning by employing the
Honey and Mumford (1986) learning styles theory and identify a key area of personal
development. For confidentiality purposes, this paper will not refer to the company members
by name or give any specific details on any of the projects that were in development during my
time with the company.
Background
I had an opportunity to undertake my placement at a Leamington Spa-based independent TV
production company
founded by three creative professionals in 2020
2
who possess a wealth of experience in the TV industry, producing and screenwriting. The
placement took place from the 8th November until 3rd December and lasted approximately 160
hours (see Appendix 1). Two days a week I worked from
and the rest of the week
from home. I took on a role of a Researcher with the unscripted development team which
required me to assist the Development Researcher with day-to-day research as well as
contribute to brainstorming sessions and suggest ideas for potential unscripted programmes.
Landscape
Creative industries are defined by their fragmentation where a significant number of small to
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are in competition with a few large corporations (Armstrong
& Page, 2015: 6). Independent TV production companies (indies) are defined as firms that
“produce television programmes for customers, who are almost always broadcasters” (Davis
et al, 2008: 10). The issue of fragmentation is extremely severe in the TV industry where a
large number of content sellers (indies) and a small number of buyers (broadcasters) results in
extreme competition (Lee, 2018: 58; Armstrong & Page, 2015: 12). Small indies, such as
Portopia Productions, also compete with well-established bigger production companies known
as mega-indies (e.g., All3Media) which are reputable and have strong connections with
commissioners (Armstrong & Page, 2015: 12). As multiple scholars have noted, in the current
commercialised landscape, broadcasting commissioners have no room for failure and therefore
they more often than not decide to commission programmes created by companies they are
already familiar with (Armstrong & Page, 2015: 13; Lee, 2018: 199). These circumstances
make business extremely difficult for small indies.
In addition to this, UK’s Public Service Broadcasters (PSB) are also facing challenges which
consequently impact the indies. As Ofcom indicates, over the past years UK audiences have
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been consuming less and less broadcast television with numbers decreasing by 59 minutes per
day from 2010 to 2018 (Ofcom, 2020: 12). As a result, PSB now spend less on content which
results in even more severe competition between indies (Puttnam, 2018: 146) (Figure 1).
However, while such services as Netflix and YouTube might threaten the relevance of PSB,
some scholars are being more optimistic and believe that in the upcoming years PSB will
continue to attract a substantial number of audiences (Enders Analysis, 2015 cited in Freedman,
2018: 12). This suggests that the future of SME TV production companies is uncertain as
industry trends might develop either way.
Fig 1. Channels’ spend on content in UK by year
Being a start-up SME, just like
, also has its own challenges. It has been
noted that a significant number of young companies fail within the first few years (Allen &
Rahman, 1985: 13). Davis et al identify a number of external and internal factors that might
lead to failure (Davis et al, 2008: 11). In this paper I am focusing on the select ones that I had
identified to be of the most significance to
. The company’s location is
said to be one of the determinants whether the company is going to survive or not (Davis et at,
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2008: 11).
is based in Leamington Spa – one of the 46 UK’s creative
clusters outside of London - known for its video game industry (Bazalgette, 2017: 23). Existing
literature on creative clusters has identified that an abundance of skilled creative workers
results in knowledge and sources spill over into other creative sectors (Chapain et al, 2010: 42).
Therefore, Leamington Spa has potential of becoming an important creative region supporting
talent knowledgeable in more than just video games which might benefit
in the future. Moreover, the government has been actively trying to deconcentrate the creative
industries with more and more investment being directed towards regions outside of London.
For example, BBC is aiming to spend an additional £700 million outside of London from
2020/2021 until 2027/2028 (BBC, 2021: 16). This has already benefited
as they have been named one of the 50 recipients of the BBC Small Indie fund – a funding
scheme which supports content producers based outside of London (BBC, 2022).
Despite the efforts of shifting the creative industries away from the London region, around
46,7% of all jobs in the sector are concentrated in London and the South East (Bazalgette.
2017: 14). In terms of film and TV, roughly 47% of companies in this sector (that is including
radio and photography) are located in the capital (Carey et al, 2019: 41). This implies that a
significant number of workers might still relocate to London as one of the main tendencies in
the creative industries is for professionals to gravitate towards “the glamour” of areas which
bear an abundance of diverse career opportunities (Garcia & Sapsed, 2011: 2; Grugulis &
Dimitrinka Draganova, 2009: 3). Consequently, this drains the talent pools of such creative
clusters as Leamington Spa and thus might discourage the government or companies in the
private sector from further investments (Carey et al, 2019: 43).
Another factor influencing the survival of start-up SMEs as identified by Davis et al is
limitations regarding finance and a lack of business skills (2008: 11). It is one to have creative
ideas but the other to successfully run a business. Even though
is
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managed by three accomplished creatives, occasionally the move from that to the “successful
entrepreneur” can be challenging (Armstrong & Page, 2015: 7). For
this
difficulty might have been minimised by the production company being a part of the Warwick
Innovations’ Creative Futures incubator. Some of the earlier literature defines business
incubators as “facilities that aid the early-stage growth companies by providing rental space,
shared office services, and business consulting assistance” while more contemporary scholars
choose to include training, mentorship and the focus on the nurturing of start-ups in their
definitions (Allen & Rhman, 1985: 12; Ogutu & Kihonge, 2016: 231).
joined Creative Futures in the spring of 2021 and for six months had an opportunity to use the
co-working space a
and benefit from coaching and mentoring regarding the
development of their business (Jepson, 2021; Warwick Innovations District, [2022]). During
the placement, as per my knowledge,
’ Development Researcher attended
several events held by Creative Futures which indicates that
utilised the
support offered by the incubator to a great extent. This opportunity may have been an absolutely
crucial part of the company’s formative years as business incubators’ ultimate goal is to help
start-ups survive this period of the utmost fragility (Allen & Rhman, 1985: 13).
Reflection
Leadership and mentoring
leadership can be characterised as shared leadership. It is defined as “a
dynamic, interactive influence process among individuals in groups for which the objective is
to lead one another to the achievement of group or organizational goals or both” (Pearce &
Conger, 2003: 2). The significance of this form of leadership has been highlighted by multiple
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scholars who indicate that it is the most useful one when a company faces obstacles that require
a variety of skills to overcome it that one person simply cannot possess (O’Toole et al, 2002:
67; Pearce, 2004: 47). Pearce also highlights that shared leadership can be especially beneficial
to businesses of creative nature (2004: 49). As previously discussed, running a TV production
company requires both creative and business management skills which are easier to congregate
from multiple individuals. Even though most scholars claim that shared leadership emerges
organically and informally within the members of an organisation (e.g., Pearce & Conger,
2003: 7), D’Innocenzo et al propose that in some instances leadership is formally divided
between individuals (2016: 1966) This is the case in
where leadership is
equally distributed between three founding members. It is important to point out that this paper
focuses on the team I had a chance to be a part of during the placement. This allows me to
utilise my experience and insights more effectively as I did not have the opportunity to interact
with the scripted development team or observe all three leaders working together, therefore my
competence would be insufficient.
During my placement the team developing unscripted projects had three key members – a
Development Researcher, a Development Executive and a Creative Director/Co-founder with
the Creative Director in this scenario playing the role of the leader. I have identified this
Creative Director as a charismatic leader. Charismatic leadership is commonly seen as being
one of the features of the transformational leadership theory (Afacan Findikli & Yozgat, 2012:
228). Yet, Conger & Kanungo propose that it is the same leadership theory but observed from
two different perspectives – transformational theory focuses on the follower outcomes while
charismatic leadership theory concentrates on the leaders’ behaviours (1994: 442). As a
charismatic leader is identified based on their followers’ observations and opinions, it is only
appropriate for me to use this term as I am analysing this leader from the position of a follower
(Conger & Kanungo, 1994: 442). Charismatic leaders are defined as aiming to change the
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status quo, driving the followers to have a positive if occasionally even idealised view of the
future and performing actions perceived as model and exceptional (Conger & Kanungo, 1994:
442). In the case of this leader, they challenge the UK’s TV industry’s status quo by strongly
believing in and conveying the main values of
. This production company
aims to “demonstrate the breadth of talent and experience […]” in the Midlands (Flatpack
Festival, 2021). Indeed, during my placement, while conducting research on talent that could
potentially appear on one of the programmes in development, the Creative Director was
particularly concerned with me including as many individuals from Birmingham, and the
Midlands more generally, as possible. Moreover,
uts a great focus on
representation and diversity (Flatpack Festival, 2021). The majority of the projects I had a
chance to contribute towards either discussed issues related to diversity or had talents from
underrepresented groups attached to it. Another significant trait of a charismatic leader is that
they view the future through an optimistic lens. During my four-week placement I did not
perceive any negative or sceptical comments from the Creative Director regarding the
upcoming pitches or projects in development – they prepared for every meeting with
determination to get a commission. During one of our informal conversations, the Creative
Director even commented how exciting it would be for the both of us to see a programme I
contributed to on television which indicated that the leader was accustomed to always
expecting positive developments in the future. Lastly, this paper identified that charismatic
leaders perform activities that are seen by the followers as exemplary. The following section
of this paper is focusing on, in my opinion, the most significant one that I have observed during
the placement - mentoring the Development Researcher.
Mentorship is often defined as a relationship between two individuals at different hierarchical
positions in which the junior individual is guided by the senior through issues and situations
they might come across in their current job or future career (Kram, 1985 cited in Schipani et al
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2008: 101). Schandure & Williams note that transformational leaders are more prone to
mentoring and that mentoring and transformational leadership theories - thus the charismatic
leadership theory as well - are interrelated (2002: 2, 15). This might be one of the reasons why
a mentor-mentee relationship has emerged between the Creative Director and the Development
Researcher at
. Moreover, research conducted by Armstrong and Page
identified that professionals in the creative industries preferred informal learning – which
includes mentorship – to formal learning, while Mallia points out that mentors in the creative
sectors are “indispensable” (2015: 11, 2019: 82). In the aforementioned mentor-mentee
relationship, the “career enhancement/development mode of mentoring” is evident (Kram,
1985 cited in Schipani et al 2008: 109). During my placement, I observed the Creative Director
advising the Development Researcher on relevant job-related tasks, a training opportunity
available to the Development Researcher that would benefit their career and how to write an
application that highlighted and celebrated mentee’s capabilities. In addition, this case of
mentorship is distinct as it also features “the psychosocial support mode” which is not
prominent in all mentor-mentee relationships (Kram, 1985 cited in Schipani et al 2008: 109).
This part of the mentorship relationship includes a development of a friendship between the
mentor and mentee as well as mentee receiving encouragement from the mentor that improves
their self-esteem (Bowen, 1986: 64). During the conversation regarding the training
programme the mentor reassured the mentee that they would be perfect for the course as they
possessed all of the needed skills thus boosting mentee’s confidence. The aspect of friendship
in this mentor-mentee relationship was also accentuated by informal Zoom calls that took place
at the end of each working week during which I had a chance to observe the Development
Researcher and the Creative Director in a more relaxed environment. These calls rarely
revolved around work and most often were focused on personal lives. Over those four weeks I
perceived that the Creative Director was genuinely interested in the Development Researcher’s
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life outside the company and was always ready to offer advice. This makes this mentor-mentee
relationship uncommon as Lee’s research has found that in the independent television
production sector there is a “total lack of support” when it comes to the “emotional stuff” (Lee,
2018: 120). What is more, this mentor-mentee relationship had also influenced the
Development Researcher’s outlook on mentorship and inspired them to take on the role of a
mentor themselves. As Ragins & Cotton’s study has found, individuals who have previously
been in the role of the mentee are more keen to mentor others (1993: 108). During my
placement I experienced it first hand as the Development Researcher performed actions
identified as ”career enhancement/development” style of mentoring towards me – they took
interest in my future career, gave me advice on where to look for career opportunities, how to
approach professionals while networking in this industry and how to improve my CV.
Self-reflection
As self-reflection has been noted by creative professionals to be a valuable tool of learning, it
is only appropriate for me to also delve into this form of personal and professional development
(Armstrong & Page, 2015: 11). I have decided to utilise Honey & Mumford’s (1986) learning
styles questionnaire as a starting point. The results of the questionnaire reveal which of the four
learning styles is the most preferred by the individual: Activist, Reflector, Theorist or
Pragmatist (Honey & Mumford, 1986). The results indicate that my most favourable style of
learning is Reflector while Activist is my least preferred learning style (see Appendix 2). This
indicates that my key strengths are thoughtfulness and methodological thinking. Some of the
characteristics related to this learning style were also noted by my placement provider. She
observed that I was “extremely diligent and thorough” which are the traits Reflectors are known
for (see Appendix 3). The questionnaire has also highlighted some shortcomings related to my
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learning style which are important to discuss in relation to my chosen career field. Nesta’s
research has found that the most preferred style of learning between individuals working in
Film and TV production companies is the Pragmatist with Reflector being the second most
favoured (2015: 8). That might be due to the latter not being too keen on taking risks while risk
tolerance has been identified as one of the key personality traits prevalent among creative
individuals (Mallia, 2019: 56). The questionnaire also identified that the Theorist learning style
is favoured by me as high as the Pragmatist learning style while in the creative industries it is
preferred by the minority of people (Nesta, 2015: 8). This might be the case as Theorists are
known to have low tolerance for ambiguity and disorder while the creative industries are
recognised for their high levels of uncertainty and unpredictability (Honey & Mumford, 1986,
Gundolf et at, 2015: 150). During my placement I experienced this limitation getting in the
way of my productivity.
had a significant number of projects in
development during those four weeks. This required me to research many different subjects in
a short period of time which at the start of the placement was rather overwhelming. Moreover,
I found it challenging to keep track of all the different project ideas – everything was rapidly
changing, some projects were put aside for one moment but required significant attention the
next which was mostly impacted by upcoming meetings and pitches to commissioners. As this
type of work environment is common in the screen industries, it is one of the skills I must work
on and develop.
In terms of the working environment, some industry professionals have noted that they have
felt excluded from companies while working as freelancers or on short-term projects
(Armstrong & Page, 2015: 15). During my placement at
even though it
was relatively short, I truly felt as part of the team - I was invited to attend the weekly strategy
meetings, my research and contributions were always taken seriously which made me feel like
I was contributing to the overall goals of the company. As mentioned previously, I was part of
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the informal meetings and often had relaxed conversations with all members of the team which
made me feel welcome.
In terms of my future career, this placement was a fantastic introduction to the realities of
working in the TV industry – I gained significant insight into the industry terminology (e.g.,
pop-doc, watershed), the differences between PSB channels, what type of programmes were of
interest to them and was introduced to the concept of commissioning briefs. Moreover, I was
able to develop my research, office etiquette skills as well as professional communication and
other interpersonal skills which will allow me to progress in my career.
Conclusion
The aim of this paper was to have a detailed look a
and reflect on the
placement I undertook with this company. A succinct analysis of the context in which the
company operates highlighted how inconsistent and unpredictable the landscape is while an
examination of the internal functions helped me develop a better understanding of this specific
company and the whole TV industry which will help me navigate it more efficiently in the
future. This analysis has helped me identify mentorship as an important aspect of work and
learning in the creative industries – if opportunity presented itself, I would strongly consider
becoming a mentee as it is of significant importance in the screen industries. Moreover, the
importance of a company having a charismatic leader has emerged. Lastly, my self-reflection
on the placement and my learning style has allowed me to identify one of my weaknesses that
I will now aim to tackle in order to feel more comfortable in this industry and to advance in my
career.
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Evidence of hours worked. For further confirmation please contact
School of Creative Arts, Performance and Visual Culture
Centre for Culture and Media Policy Studies
Placements: Student Letter of Agreement
Student:
Placement:
Date
Dear
This Letter of Agreement confirms the arrangements that have been agreed between the University of Warwick (“the
University”) and you in connection with your Placement with Portopia (“the Placement Provider”). For your
information, a copy of the Letter of Agreement to the Placement Provider will follow, detailing yours and the
Placement Provider’s responsibilities to each other.
Participation Eligibility
1.1 To participate in the programme, you must be able to answer Yes to ALL of the following criteria:
a. I am completing my undergraduate studies at The University of Warwick in Media and Creative Industries
b. I am currently registered as a student at The University of Warwick.
c. I am legally entitled to undertake this placement in the UK during the period 2021 to 2022, and that if
required, can produce the appropriate ID and/or visa to demonstrate this.
2. Commencement and Termination
2.1 The Placement shall commence between November 8th and December 6th 2021 (exact date agreed locally), and
shall last for a time of approximately 160 hours, with such time to be spread over a period as agreed between the
student, the Placement Provider and the University, unless:
a. terminated by either the Student or the Placement Provider giving no less than one weeks’ written notice; or
b. terminated by the Placement Provider with immediate effect without notice due to gross misconduct on the
Student’s part or a persistent breach by the Student of the Placement Provider’s policies that are in place at the
time. The Placement Provider shall inform the University before they terminate the Placement.
c. terminated by the University in the event that the Placement does not meet the objectives of a work-based
learning experience.
d. terminated as a result of an element of Force Majeure defined in para 5 below.
2.2 Beyond this period, any further Placement arrangements (e.g. extension of Placement etc.) are at the sole
discretion and responsibility of the Placement Provider and not the University of Warwick.
3. Summary of Expectations
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Appendix 2: Honey and Mumford (1986) learning styles questionnaire, result and
descriptions.
18
19
20
21
22
Appendix 3: Letter of Reference obtained from the placement provider.
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