Adrian Butterworth
- 07790037246
- abutterworth at bournemouth dot ac dot uk
- http://orcid.org/0009-0003-0054-5051
- Lecturer in Journalism
- Weymouth House W217, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, BH12 5BB
Biography
I am Deputy Head of the BA (Hons) Film and BA (Hons) Film and Television Production degrees. I am a broadcast journalist, viral video producer, camera operator/editor, television studio director, marathon runner and enthusiastic guitarist.
I work in the Media School in the Faculty of Media, Science and Technology. I am a passionate teacher with a PgCert in Teaching Practice, and I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Through the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice I will submit my Doctorate in Education in 2027 that asks the question, “to what extent is the university television studio an inclusive learning space?”
Before 2007 I worked as a broadcast journalist and in station management for several ultra-local television channels (Taunton, Bristol, Portsmouth, Southampton and Oxford). This included two years as Head of Broadcast Operations for the MyTV network across Southampton and Portsmouth. I lobbied at regional and national level for digital licences including working with the Parliamentary Select committee for Culture Media and Sport and a presentation to a cross-parliamentary group of MPs at Westminster, which culminated in important political support from the then Chair of the Broadcasting Standards Commission, Baroness Howe... This early work by a group of industry pioneers laid groundwork that culminated in statutory mandates empowering Ofcom to establish a permanent local digital television network.
2008-15 I worked in cross-platform digital marketing and PR. Firstly as an embedded video journalist for Dorset Police and then running my own viral video production company, www.adelia.tv. Clients ranged from a financial trading provider (City Index), large public transport company (Go South Coast) and a small online only shaving supplies brand (The Bluebeards Revenge) that utilised online marketing to launch internationally.
moreResearch
My doctoral thesis in under 3 minutes:
Imagine you’re a 1st year walking into the university television studio for the very first time. The lights are bright but all around is dark – do you stride to the centre or hang back in the shade? In lectures and seminars, you’ll have already learnt how the roles are structured – Producer, Director, Camera Operator, Floor Manager and so on. But what role are you going for?
My research asks, to what extent is the university television studio an inclusive learning space? How do students experience their roles, and how do their life experiences shape the way they see themselves in this simulated professional environment?
Students come into higher education with different forms of experience, or what sociologist Pierre Bourdieu called capital: cultural, social, and symbolic resources shaped by upbringing and past learning. These influence how students choose and perform studio roles – and how confident they feel doing them.
The studio has its own rules and hierarchies that attempt to mirror the professional television industry field but in the field of education. For some, these fields may feel familiar. For others, to borrow Bourdieu’s metaphor, they may feel like a “fish out of water”.
To understand this better, sixty-two first year students answered a questionnaire that has been used to map (using Exploratory Factor Analysis) the positions or roles in the university television studio field from the learner's perspective.
Then, a smaller group of ten took part in a unique process... Using 360-degree virtual reality headsets one by one they were re-immersed in VR recordings of their own studio rehearsals. As they watched themselves, they narrated their movements and decisions – what they were thinking, how they felt, and how they chose and then navigated their role. This technique is called VR elicitation.
The next step for this research is to analyse the VR elicitation data for insights. Perhaps the students recognise unconscious bias, talking too much, or perhaps their overuse of mobile phones and disengagement, symbolic violence, and the power dynamics at play. Anecdotally during data collection, I observed students avoiding leadership roles, not because they lacked ability, but because they didn’t see themselves as the kind of person who were a “fit” for those roles.
This matters, because if we want to prepare students for work in industries that are striving for diversity, we must ensure our learning environments don’t unconsciously reinforce the very exclusions we’re trying to challenge.
By focusing on student voice – quite literally, through VR elicitation – my research offers a new way to think about inclusive education in creative disciplines. It shows how we can better support industry diversity requirements, not just by teaching technical skills, but by recognising and responding to the social dynamics that shape how students see themselves and each other.
moreJournal Articles
- Berger, R., Butterworth, A., 2025. The SEND Television Studio: A Pilot Study. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs.
Conferences
- Butterworth, A., 2025. To what extent is the university television studio an inclusive learning space? In: European Conference on Education (ECE2025) 10/07/2025 UCL London. https://papers.iafor.org/proceedings_category/ece-official-conference-proceedings/ UCL - University College London: Iafor.
- Butterworth, A., 2025. Transforming Education Through Innovation: Celebrating Excellence at Bournemouth University’s Annual Conference. In: Roushan, G., eds. FLIE Learning and Teaching Conference 07/07/2025 Share Lecture Theatre, Talbot Campus, Bournemouth University BH12 5BB. Transforming Education Through Innovation: Celebrating Excellence at Bournemouth University’s Annual Conference.
Profile of Teaching UG
- BA(Hons) Television Production, L5 Production Portfolio 1: TV Studio
- BA (Hons) Television Production, L5 Production Portfolio 2: TV Studio
- BA(Hons) Media Production, L5 Stories and Spaces: Projection Mapping using Touchdesigner
- BA(Hons) Media Production, L4 Digital Media Design: Mobile Apps using Adobe XD
- BA(Hons) Media Production, Specialist Craft Skills: Adobe Creative Cloud
- Breda University Summer School, three week intensive television studio production
Conference Presentations
- ECE2025 (The European Conference on Education), To what extent is the university television studio an inclusive learning space?, 10 Jul 2025, UCL (University College London, Torrington Place)
- Transforming Education Through Innovation: Celebrating Excellence at Bournemouth University’s Annual Conference, To what extent is the university television studio an inclusive learning space?, 07 Jul 2025, Share Lecture Theatre
Attended Training
- Continued Professional Development (CPD) Lighting Workshop, 20 Jun 2016
Qualifications
- PGCert in Education Practice (Bournemouth University, 2018)
- MA in Multi-Media Journalism (Bournemouth University, 2007)
- PgDip in Broadcast Journalism (Plymouth University, 2000)
- BA (Hons) in Broadcasting Studies (Plymouth University, 1998)
Memberships
- Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association, Associate (2015-), http://www.meccsa.org.uk/
Social Media Links
Website Links
- Viral Video production company, http://www.adelia.tv/
- The dissertation compared and contrasted linear and non-linear narratives. Taking the same editorial content and putting it in front of two audiences - one via the linked website and one audience viewing a traditional linear television programme. A qualitative questionnaire was used before and after to measure whether audience members had modified key opinions related to the content - the two mediums were then compared., http://www.roadanarchy.co.uk/
- https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0054-5051
External Media and Press
- Duo Set New Guinness World Record by Travelling to Five Continents in One Calendar Day, International Business Times, 20 Mar 2014. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/duo-set-new-guinness-world-record-by-travelling-five-continents-one-calendar-day-1441143
- Duo visits five continents in one calendar day to set new record, Guinness World Records official website, 18 Mar 2014. http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2014/3/duo-visits-five-continents-in-one-calendar-day-to-set-new-record-56226
- Friends film visit to five continents in one day, BBC online, 02 Jul 2012. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-18671472