Paul joined King’s in August 2015 as Professor of Culture, Media and Creative Industries.

Between 2017 and 2020, he was Vice Dean (People and Planning) Arts in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, and prior to then (2016-17) Head of Department for Culture, Media and Creative Industries.

Previously he held the positions of Professor of Cinema and Media Industries at the University of Nottingham (2011-15), Professor of Cinema at the University of Portsmouth (2007-11), Reader in Film at Roehampton University (1999-2007), Senior Lecturer in Media at South Bank University (1996-1999), and Senior Lecturer in Media and Performance at the University of Salford (1990-96).

Before entering academia, Paul trained as a professional actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and performed on stage and screen before working in various areas of the media industries including animated film production, film exhibition, studio photography and art book publishing.

Paul holds a PhD in Film Studies from the University of Warwick, and a BA Honours, First Class, in Film and Drama (major) with Philosophy (minor) from the University of Reading.

Research interests and PhD supervision

Paul’s research is located in the field of critical media industries research. Specific areas of interest include:

• Film and television industries
• Digital distribution of entertainment media
• Conceptual and methodological approaches to media industries research
• Media piracy
• Media industries and the city

He welcomes applications for PhD research in any of these areas.

Paul is currently working on six books:

• Cheung, R., Hill, J., Kawashima, N. and McDonald, P. (eds) Global Film Policies: New Perspectives. Abingdon: Routledge.

• McDonald, P. and Spicer, A. (eds) Spatial Dynamics of Media Industries. Abingdon: Routledge.

• Meir, C., McDonald, P. and Spicer, A. (eds) Locating Media Platforms: Space, Place and Streaming. Abingdon: Routledge.

• Spicer, A. and McDonald, P. (eds) Media Industries and Cities. Abingdon: Routledge.

• Murschetz, P. C., Dal Zotto, C., McDonald, P. and Hang, M. (eds) International Media Management – Key Issues and Current Practices. Cham. Springer.

• Crisp, C. and McDonald, P. Media Piracy. Cambridge: Polity.

Paul is the founder and Director for the biennial Media Industries conferences, showcasing work from across various intellectual and methodological traditions in media industries research.

From 2002 to 2024, Paul co-edited with Professor Michael Curtin (University of California, Santa Barbara) the International Screen Industries book series from British Film Institute Publishing.

From 2010 to 2014, Paul was co-investigator for Channel 4 and British Film Culture, a project led by Professor Justin Smith (De Montfort University). Examining C4’s contribution to the UK’s cultural life as both a producer and a broadcaster of film, this work was made possible by a four-year Research Grant (Standard) from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. A key outcome from the project was the Channel 4 Press Packs 1982-2002 database, produced in collaboration with the British Universities Film and Video Council. 

Paul has received a Leverhulme Research Fellowship and an AHRC Research Leave award, and his research has also benefited from the financial support of the British Academy. 

In collaboration with Professor Elizabeth Evans (University of Nottingham), Paul led two projects on audience engagement with online services for the distribution of film and television content: the first looked at the market and audiences for video-on-demand in the UK; the second conducted similar work in Brazil, India and South Korea. These projects were run under the auspices of the Connected Viewing Initiative, co-ordinated by the Media Industries Project of the Casey-Wolf Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara and funded by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. 

Paul is a founding member of the Editorial Collective for the journal Media Industries.

He is the founder and former co-chair of the Media Industries Scholarly Interest Group in the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, and founder and former co-ordinator of the Screen Industries Work Group in the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies. 

Paul has served on the Strategic Reviewers Group and the Peer Review College of the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Teaching

Across the department’s undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, Paul’s teaching and supervision aims to encourage students to develop their own understanding and critical evaluation of the contemporary media entertainment industries.

Expertise and public engagement

Paul McDonald is happy to speak to the media on matters relating to screen entertainment industries, and in particular Hollywood cinema, film stardom, media piracy, and the online distribution of film and television.

Selected publications

Recent publications include:

• P. McDonald (ed.) (2022) The Routledge Companion to Media Industries
• P. McDonald, C. Brannon Donoghue and T. Havens (eds) (2021) Digital Media Distribution: Portals, Platforms, Pipelines