Prof Jamie Medhurst

BA (Hons), MLib, PhD, FRHistS, FHEA

I have been a member of staff in the Department since 1996 (Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader, and now Professor of Media and Communication) and before that was Tutor in Information Studies in the Department of Information Studies (1993-96) teaching on media information sources and services. I have undertaken various administrative and managerial roles during my time in Aberystwyth: Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Arts (2005-2008), Departmental Director of Learning and Teaching (2007-2010) and Head of Department (January 2011 - July 2014, August 2018 - January 2019, and August 2022 - August 2023). I'm married and have three children (one of them grown up and married!) .... and a host of pets! Outside of work I enjoy watching rugby, coarse fishing, spending time with the children, playing the organ and occasionally preaching at Eglwys St Mair in Aberystwyth. During December, a large part of my time is spent in a bright red and white fur suit, black boots and false white beard.

I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Higher Education Academy and am an external examiner at Birkbeck, University of London (BA Film and Media) and the University of Liverpool (BA Communication and Media). I have examined around 17 PhD theses as external examiner in universities in the UK and Australia. I have reviewed papers for Contemporary Wales, Critical Studies in Television, Media History and Twentieth Century British History together with book proposals for Routledge, Sage Publications and Palgrave-Macmillan.

• Editor-in-chief, Media History
• Deputy Chair, QAA Subject Benchmark Statement Advisory Group for Communication, Media, Film and Cultural Studies
• Member, British Academy Advisory Group for Media Studies 
• Chair, Academic Advisory/User Group, National Broadcast Archive of Wales
• Member, Media Studies Commission, FIAT/IFTA (Fédération Internationale des Archives de Télévision/International Federation of Television Archives)
• Member, Institute of Welsh Affairs Media and Democracy Advisory Group
• Honorary Associate of the Centre for Media History, Maquarie University, Australia
• Member, UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowships (UKRI FLF) programme Peer Review College
• Steering Group Member, Entangled Media Histories (EMHIS) research network
• Member, Project Advisory Board, Connected Histories of the BBC (AHRC-funded project at University of Sussex) 
• Member, Royal Television Society Shiers Trust Award Jury
• Member, Advisory Committee for AHRC-funded project ‘The History of Forgotten Television Drama in the UK’ at Royal Holloway University of London 
• Member, Bournemouth University Broadcasting Archives Advisory Group
• Member, Consultative Group, 'People's Voices in a People's War: Aberystwyth 1939-1945' (Heritage Lottery Funded Project)

Module Coordinator

• FM10620 - Studying Media
• FM22620 - Media, Politics and Power

Coordinator

• FM10620 - Studying Media
• FM22620 - Media, Politics and Power

Moderator

• FM36720 - Media Law
• TFM3640 - Film Producing
• FM27120 - Writing Audio Drama

Lecturer

• ILM2720 - Media Archives
• TFM4820 - Research Concepts and Skills
• FM10720 - Studying Communication

I teach in the areas of broadcasting history, media policy, media and politics, the political economy of the media, media archives, and documentary film history.

My research interests include broadcasting history; media policy; film and media archives; media and society in Wales; media in the devolved nations; documentary film history. My latest book, The Early Years of Television and the BBC was published by Edinburgh University Press in June 2022.

I am currently working on a number of books/projects:

Programmes, Protest, and Politics: broadcasting and society in Wales in the 1970s (book to be published by the University of Wales Press in 2025)

Audiences, Identities, and the BBC in Wales, 1923-2023 

Entangled Media Histories (a research project with colleagues in Macquarie, Lund, and Hamburg universities)

External Research Grants/Awards:

Arts and Humanities Research Council (£23,230), September 2008-January 2009 - research leave to complete a book (A History of Independent Television in Wales, 1956-1968).

British Academy Small Research Grant (£3117), November 2008-August 2009 - 'The Early Years of Television and the BBC, 1923-1939'.

British Academy Overseas Conference Grant (£200), 'Television: the experimental moment 1935-1955', University of Paris 8, 27-29 May 2009.

Arts and Humanities Research Council (£33,000), February 2010-January 2012 - international research network on broadcasting history.

Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant (£113,813), September 2016-August 2019 - Television and Society in Wales in the 1970s

MPhil/PhD
supervision and examining

Research Supervision

Gwenan Edwards ('What role does screen media play in maintaining and developing indigenous minority language in the UK, and how significant is it in revitalising language and culture?')

Huw Penallt Jones (PhD by publication)

Lucy McFadzean (AHRC studentship): ‘Community, politics and the economy in the cultural policies of the Greater London Council 1981-6.’

Gregor Cameron: ‘Re-performing Who: Tracing Theatre Technique Through Television Time’

Donald F. McLean (PhD by publication): ‘Investigations into the emergence of British television, 1926-1936’

Dafydd Sills-Jones: ‘History Documentary on UK Terrestrial Television, 1982-2002.’

I have examined over 20 PhD theses in areas including public service broadcasting, Welsh language journalism, local radio in England, representations of Wales in documentary and interactive television drama. I would be interested to hear from any potential research students wishing to explore any aspect of media history/policy or issues surrounding media and national identity.

• Director of Research (Semester 1, 2023-24)
• Foundation Year Coordinator
• Degree Scheme Co-ordinator, BA Media and Communication Studies
• Co-Director, Aberystwyth Centre for Media History