Andrea is Professor Emerita of Media & Globalization and Co-Investigator on the AHRC-funded research project, Screen Encounters with Britain: What do young Europeans make of Britain and its digital screen culture (2022-25).

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

Research interests and PhD supervision

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

• Transnational audience research (consumption, reception)
• Global distribution and circulation of audiovisual content
• Political economy of television production (transnational production networks, formats)
• 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, Hilborn M and Steemers J (2024) Screen Encounters with Britain - Interim Report Netherlands: What do young Europeans make of Britain and its digital screen culture? King's College London.
• Esser A, Hilborn M and Steemers J (2023) Screen Encounters with Britain - Interim Report Germany: What do young Europeans make of Britain and its digital screen culture? King's College London.
• Esser A, Hilborn M and Steemers J (2023) Screen Encounters with Britain - Interim Report Denmark: What do young Europeans make of Britain and its digital screen culture? King's College London.
• Esser A (2022) The end of transnationalisation? The future of European TV fiction. In: Gutierrez Lozano JF, Eichner S, Hagedoorn B and Cuartero A (eds) New Challenges in European Television. National Experiences in a Transnational Context. Granada: Editorial Comares, pp. 19-36.
• 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 (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 audience research, cognitive screen studies, media industries research and political economy; 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 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. She is currently not teaching any modules but taking guest lectures and papers across a number of European universities on the transnational consumption of screen content, particularly young European’s engagement with British film & television, and the impact that these screen encounters have on their understanding of the world and their place in it, their knowledge and views of Britain, and the contribution this makes to cultural policy and Britain’s soft power.

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), the role that British film & television plays for young European audiences, and the contribution it makes to cultural policy and Britain’s soft power.