ScreenME stands for screen media entrepreneurship. Screen media entrepreneurship refers to entrepreneurial activities that revolve around making innovations in products and services that are offered on screens and their connected business models. This includes entrepreneurial activities relating to TV, cinema, mobile apps, and generally, the Internet. What all of these screens have in common is that they enable communications via audio and visual content. For our ScreenME initiative, however, we decided not to use the term “audiovisual media entrepreneurship” because the usual associations with that term “audiovisual media” are too restricted to TV and film. In contrast, the term “screen media” is wider, and it puts the focus on innovations for products and services for all kinds of screens. In fact, increasingly, companies that we don’t traditionally think of as media companies are also producing and offering content and services that are made available on screens. In fact, the expertise needed to produce and distribute media content, which was formerly held only by media companies, is now an important element of how today’s companies operate across industries. Audiovisual content is produced, widely shared and offered by all sorts of companies, not just media companies. The drivers of the widespread influence and relevance of screen media are the Internet and mobile applications.
ScreenMe is an acronym that we invented to refer to our activities to boost research, teaching and stakeholder collaboration with regard to screen media entrepreneurship at Tallinn University. Our partners in this project are Aarhus University, LUT University, Jönköping International Business School, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Munster Technology Institute, and Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Each of these partners is an international leader in entrepreneurship research, teaching, or collaborating with industry and policymakers.
The specific objectives of the ScreenMe-Net project are as follows:
To co-establish joint research hub ScreenME-Hub within MEDIT at TLU that conducts locally, nationally and internationally relevant and interdisciplinary research on screen media entrepreneurship.
To advance the original research output and intellectual climate at MEDIT with regard to screen media entrepreneurship in cooperation with the project’s partners.
To advance interdisciplinary in researching screen media entrepreneurship within TLU and in cooperation with the project’s partners.
To advance the co-production of knowledge and the sharing of knowledge between screen media entrepreneurship scholars and the media industry as well as policymakers.
To increase excellence in teaching screen media entrepreneurship at TLU and in cooperation with the project’s partners.
To improve the networking position and visibility for TLU and MEDIT in terms of scholarship on screen media entrepreneurship.
To ensure the sustainability of TLU’s research and network capabilities in the field of screen media entrepreneurship, with a special focus on supporting early career researchers and developing and maintaining research management and administration skills.
