Current research students and their projects

Media Phd's

Sean Conrad Anthony Alexander

Title of Project: ‘“Long Live the New Mensch”: Jewishness in the films of David Cronenberg’
Supervisory Panel: Prof. Nathan Abrams (First Supervisor), Dr Gregory Frame (Second Supervisor), Dr Steffan Thomas (Chair)

I graduated with a BA in Literature & Creative Writing at Bangor University in 2014 followed by an MA in English Literature at Bangor University in 2016. I was awarded scholarships in 2008 and 2014. My thesis aims to examine the hitherto unexplored aspects of Jewishness in the work of Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg. Using the growing body of Jewish cultural and Jewish film studies as a basis, my aim is to add to a body of research that seeks to properly recognise the contribution of Jewish filmmakers in Western cinema.

Conference presentations:

• Paper presented on the ‘video nasty’ controversy of the early 1980s, at ‘No Culture is Low Culture’ conference, Bangor University (April 2019)
• Research Seminar presentation on my PhD thesis at Bangor University (February 2020)

Tathagata Ganguly, PhD student (second year)

Title of Project: ‘An integrated marketing model for the niche musicians: Based on the current scenario in North Wales’
Supervisory Panel: Dr Steffan Thomas (First Supervisor), Dr Eben Muse (Second Supervisor), Mr Geraint Ellis (Chair)

I graduated with first class honours in Media Studies from Kalyani University, India in 2016, followed by an MSc in International Media and Management from Bangor University (with Distinction) in 2018. I received a GREAT Scholarship in addition to the Bangor University International Scholarship. The aim of my research is to find out how musicians in a minority-language niche market can maximize their reach using the marketing tools and channels that are available to them. My research focuses on developing an integrated marketing strategy model for the DIY musicians in North Wales.

The objectives of my research are:

• To understand the general online and offline promotion strategies, and the distribution channels available to the self-promoting musicians;
• To understand how these promotion strategies apply to the artists in North Wales, their offline and online strategies and how they distribute their music;
• To understand the music consumption behaviour of the audience in North Wales, how they find and interact with artists/bands, social media and distribution channels they use.

Based on the knowledge and understanding of the above, an integrated marketing model will be created for independent artists and bands located in North Wales. The findings will provide information and results will also be analysed on how artists/managers who are also marketers can use marketing communication models like ACCD (Attract, Convert, Close, Delight), as mentioned by Niemenen (2017) and RAIDAR (Research Attention Interest Desire Action Referral), as mentioned by Parkin (2010) to reach, retain and convert potential consumers.

Adina Grigorie, PhD student (write-up year)

Title of Project: ‘Promoting, archiving and digitising Welsh heritage to promote and foster heritage tourism’
Supervisory Panel: Dr Eben Muse (First Supervisor), Steffan Thomas (Second Supervisor), Prof. Nathan Abrams (Chair)

I graduated with a BSc in Tourism Management with French in 2015 and a Master of Science in Marketing (Specialist) in 2016 at Aberystwyth University. I have also completed an online course in Social Media Marketing delivered by Red & Yellow Creative School of Business in 2018. Heritage is one of the tourism subgroups which has developed significantly during the past decades. Due to its prompt and momentous development, marketing heritage tourism has become a pertinent subject to investigate empirically. My PhD project aims to identify best practice in promoting archives in the cyberspace and to gain knowledge of heritage tourism consumers. To achieve the set aims, a mixed method approach (i.e. qualitative approach via semi-structured interview and quantitative approach via surveys) has been employed. Two designs of semi-structured interviews were used to interview employees of heritage organisations from England and Wales. The interviews focused on gaining insights into the digitising process of archives and to identify marketing strategies used by heritage organisations to promote archival material on social media. Subsequently, a survey questionnaire aimed at tourism consumers was designed to assess their social media habits and interest in heritage tourism.

Conference presentations:

Paper Presentation on my PhD project, given at the School of Music and Media’s Research Seminar Series (February 2020)