Catherine Johnson

My research expertise lies in television, media industries and marketing/promotional culture, with a specific focus on screen media (TV, internet, film). My research is particularly interested in how the screen industries respond to change. My new book, Online TV (Routledge, 2019), examines the convergence of television and the internet, arguing that we are entering a new 'internet era' that is changing how we understand television as a medium. Through the process of defining online TV, the book identifies four core 'battlefields' where the industrial struggle for online TV is taking place: technology, intellectual property, interfaces, and data. It argues that these battlefields should be on the top of the agenda for academics, policy-makers and regulators.

This work builds on my previous research into the changing nature of promotional screen culture (Promotional Screen Industries, Routledge 2015, written with Paul Grainge) and into the adoption of branding by the US and UK television industries (Branding Television, Routledge 2012), as well as on previous research into the US and UK television industries. This included co-editing the first academic book on the history of ITV (ITV Cultures, Open UP 2005, edited with Rob Turnock) and examining the industrial contexts within which innovation in television production has taken place (Telefantasy, BFI 2005).