New PostDoc Researchers at MEDIT: Anna Ozimek

My main research interests concern new media, work in the cultural industries and the political economy of the video game industry. In my research, I primarily focused on creative labour and economic and social conditions under which media and cultural commodities are made. My area of expertise includes investigating video game industries and video game workers. My PhD project was focused on the investigation of the Polish video game industry and Polish video game workers.

I am joining the MEDIT team thanks to funding provided by the Mobilitas Pluss grant. During my post-doctoral fellowship at the TLU/MEDIT, I will be investigating the development of the Estonian video game industry and its workforce. This project aims to contribute to the growing body of research about video game industries and the video game workforce outside Western Europe and North America. The project consists of three stages whose aim is to provide in-depth knowledge about the economic and social development of the video game industry in Estonia. The first stage of the project aims to provide contextual knowledge on policy and the economic condition of the industry through an analysis of secondary sources and policy documents. The second stage will consist of a demographic survey about the video game industry workforce in Estonia. During the third stage of this research project, I plan to conduct focus groups with both industry workers and representatives. The research project outcomes will be not only presented in the form of academic publications but also in the form of reports for the industry and educators.

The University of Tallinn and MEDIT centre has excellent facilities and the support of experienced scholars which will undoubtedly benefit my project. It is also quite rare to see a research centre which supports research into media industries and digital cultures. The combination of these elements provides an ideal environment to conducted proposed research project.