Film and Television Studies in Great Britain

Abstract

that as compared to the United States only a small number of people are involved. Currently there are about ten persons employed to teach film fulltime in British universities. Fewer are employed to teach television, though there are research programs at the universities of Leeds, Leicester, and Strathclyde. In the polytechnics, the parallel system of higher education, the numbers are greater, but film and television are likely to be integrated into a wider field of activity, known variously as Communications or Media Studies in which radio, journalism, and information technology all play a part. Given this small base of operation, the question of whether to choose film or television is a luxury which few can afford to contemplate. And, in practice, the two fields have for some time been yoked more or less happily together. Thus the nearest equivalent to SCS in Britain, the Society for Education in Film and Television (SEFT), publishers of Screen, added the final T to their acronym a long time ago. SEFT's parent body, the British Film Institute, has, its title notwithstanding, been moving closer to parity between film and television in its operations. It should be added that the two industries are also coming closer together. Historically, Britain's film industry has always been weak, exposed as it has been to the direct competition of Hollywood without even the protection of a language barrier. Television, on the other hand, has been heavily protected, and, as a result, has a strong economic and cultural base. Increasingly the film industry has had to turn to television for help. A high proportion of the new British features screened at the last two London Film Festivals