Professor Andrea Esser

Andrea joined CMCI in 2022 as Co-Investigator on the AHRC-funded research project, Screen Encounters with Britain: What do young Europeans make of Britain and its digital screen culture (2022-24). Before coming to King’s, she held a position as Professor of Media & Globalization at Roehampton University, London.

A graduate in English, Russian and Economics, she completed her PhD in 2001 at London South Bank University on The Transnationalisation of Television in Europe.

Before re-joining academia in 2003, she worked for German media consultancy HMR International (1999-2001) and as a researcher and Executive Assistant Business Development for Bloomsbury Publishing (2001-3). Academic positions held include Senior/Principal Lecturer and then Professor at Roehampton University (2005-20), Senior Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London (2004-5), and part-time lecture roles at the universities of East London and London South Bank (2003-4).

She is Director of the AHRC-funded Media Across Borders network, member of the AHRC’s Peer Review College, and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA).

Research interests and PhD supervision

Andrea is a leading researcher in the field of transnational screen studies, including:

• Political economy of television production (transnational production networks, formats)
• Global distribution of screen content
• Transnational audience research (consumption, reception)
• Media Industries (policy, global media)
• History of the transnationalisation of television in Europe

She is currently not taking on any PhD students.

Selected publications

• Esser, A. (2020). The appeal of ‘authenticity’: Danish TV series and UK audiences, in Jensen, P.M. and Chauhan Jacobsen, U. (eds)The Global Audiences of Danish Television Drama. Gothenburg: Nordicom.
• Esser, A. (2017). Form, platform and the formation of transnational audiences: A case study of how Danish TV drama series captured television viewers in the UK, Critical Studies in Television, 12:4, 411-429.
• Esser, A. (2017). TV format sector consolidation and its impact on the configuration and 'stickiness' of the UK entertainment production market, International Journal of Digital Television, 8:1, 143-145.
• Esser, A., Bernal-Merino, M. and Smith, I.R. (eds) (2016) Media Across Borders: Localizing TV, Film and Video Games. New York: Routledge.
• Esser, A. (2016). Challenging US Leadership in Entertainment Television? The Rise and Sale of Europe’s international TV Production Groups. International Journal of Communication, 10, 3585-3614.

Teaching

Andrea’s teaching is informed by perspectives and insights from a range of research traditions, including political economy, media industries research, and cognitive screen studies; globalization theories from various disciplines (anthropology, sociology, media management); and her experience of working in media consulting and publishing (both with an international focus).

During nearly two decades of teaching, she has led and taught on introductory media modules, such as Media, Culture & Society and Media History, and many modules that built on her research interests in transnational screen audiences, Tv production and distribution, and the transformations that arise from changes in media consumption, technology, policy and management.

Expertise and public engagement

Andrea is happy to talk to the media on any aspects that relate to the transnationalisation of television - production, distribution, consumption and reception.