±«Óãtv Research & Development has been awarded funding for four new PhD researchers to help tackle a grand societal challenge - the digital divide. Would you be interested in being one of these researchers? You’ll receive four years of full funding for your PhD, including fees and a generous enhanced stipend, and you’ll get to work with the ±«Óãtv and leading academics in the field.
The Designing For All research programme, led by the ±«Óãtv in partnership with four leading universities - University of Liverpool, Newcastle University, University of Sheffield, and University College London (UCL) - will deliver research and innovation to help shape universal and inclusive public service media provision that enables public value for all.
Data and AI are at the centre of the ±«Óãtv’s digital technology and innovation plan and will transform audiences’ experiences. However, not everyone has equal access, or the same knowledge or capacity to engage with and benefit from digital technologies. This inequality is referred to as the ‘digital divide’ and can be influenced by a person’s geography, income, age, education level, and other demographics. Those at risk are often those who are already experiencing social, cultural and economic marginalisation.
As the ±«Óãtv and other public service broadcasters increasingly use digital services and data-driven technologies to reach audiences, they are required to deliver on their mandate of being accessible and delivering value to all. The challenge was brought into sharp focus throughout the pandemic when many UK families were unable to access vital trusted information online about the pandemic or their children's educational provision due to the associated costs of the technology and data needed to access it.
±«Óãtv Research & Development is tasked with technology innovation in the public interest. This multidisciplinary cohort of students will work with innovation, policy, and audience teams across the ±«Óãtv to undertake timely and foundational research to understand, address, and evaluate digital inequality and inclusion as a critical form of public value in a digital age.
Each of the four studentships is part of the EPSRC’s for collaborative industry PhDs. Each is based at a different UK university, and will tackle a different aspect of the challenge area - from gaining a deep understanding of the social context, attitudes, lived experience and needs of underserved audiences, to undertaking inclusive and participatory design to co-create future ±«Óãtv digital media services with digitally disadvantaged groups, to new approaches to measuring the value of our digital products and innovation in terms of digital inclusion.
The outcomes of this work will help inform the ±«Óãtv’s technology policy, strategy, and innovation and ensure that future digital provision is inclusive, fair and socially sustainable.
The studentships are open for applications now and will officially start in September.
If you have a passion for helping everyone in our society benefit from online and digital technologies, and for researching an exciting and diverse field, then we hope you’ll apply for one of the studentships. We expect these researchers will become future research leaders with experience in working with multidisciplinary teams and across academic and industry contexts. Candidates should expect to learn new, cross-disciplinary skills, including those related to empirical research design, data science/analysis and cutting-edge technology.
Apply for one of the PhD studentships
- - Designing for All: Empirical Research and Co-creation of Digital Public Media Services with Marginalised Communities
- - Designing for All: Trust and Inequalities in the Context of Data-driven Media
- - Designing for All: Applying Mission-Driven Innovation and Advancing Techniques to Measure Public Value
- - Designing for All: Raising Digital Living Standards through Empirically Informed Technology Policies and Strategies
If you would like to discuss these opportunities further, contact the ±«Óãtv team (Dr Rhianne Jones, Dr Mike Evans and Miranda Marcus) at info.rd@bbc.co.uk