[ecrea] Media Mutations 6 - cfp - Modes of production and narrative forms in the contemporary TV series ((nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be))

Media Mutations 6. Modes of Production and Narrative Forms in the 
Contemporary TV Series.
Bologna, Dipartimento delle Arti, May 27th-28th, 2014


Media Mutations, the international conference on audiovisual media 
studies, comes to its sixth annual edition. This year's theme is the 
relationship between modes of production and narrative forms in 
contemporary scripted television series in the United States and in 
Europe. The industrial structures of television, from labor organization 
to economic models of monetization, all shape the types of content that 
is created: the stories that the medium tells and the ways in which it 
tells them. This year's conference seeks to explore changes brought in 
the past decade by new models of business, new technologies and new 
forms of integration within the media, and the resulting changes to 
television narratives.
We invite submissions that cover the following topics, favoring 
proposals that are able to intersect across different areas:

* Narrative models and industrial structures: the influence of 
extratextual factors (organizational structures, institutional policies, 
production patterns, economic models and types of distribution) on the 
form and language of TV series.

* New forms of monetization: the relationships between television 
series, ancillary products and branded extensions in a context of 
digitization and cross-media storytelling. What effect is the trend 
towards gamification having on TV series? What elements in series are 
highlighted by broadcasters according to diverse cross-platform 
monetization strategies? How is this influenced by contexts of distribution?

* Genres: the impact of changing economic considerations in re-shaping 
subgenre traditions (dramas, sitcoms) and in inventing new genres and 
hybrid forms. To what extent does the TV series format, and its various 
genres and subgenres, influence and regulate audience expectations?

* From TV watching to user experiences: the effects of the transition of 
media broadcasters from content providers to designers of user-oriented 
experiences based on scripted series. In what ways is added value 
provided to television texts? What kinds of new cross-media skills are 
required from TV professionals in the context of expansion of, and 
integration with, digital media content?

* Global content flows and local contexts: the discourse of television 
as a national medium in the shaping of production cultures. In what ways 
is this discourse influenced by economic, technological and cultural 
changes? What is the role of production and distribution routines (i.e. 
dubbing, acquisition, promotion) in the modification (forms and 
identities) of original series into different local contexts?

* Theoretical definitions: the identification of effective models in the 
contemporary milieu, thirty years after the Second Golden Age. The 
evolution of aesthetic and product-related definitions such as quality 
TV, high-concept series and narrative complexity.


The official languages of the conference are English and Italian. 
Proposals of no more than 250 words (for 20-minute talks), should be 
sent to Luca Barra ((luca.barra /at/ unicatt.it) 
<mailto:(luca.barra /at/ unicatt.it)>), Leora Hadas ((lhadas.uni /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(lhadas.uni /at/ gmail.com)>) and Paolo Noto ((paolo.noto2 /at/ unibo.it) 
<mailto:(paolo.noto2 /at/ unibo.it)>) by January the 27th 2014. Please attach a 
brief biography (maximum 150 words) and an optional selected 
bibliography (up to three titles) relevant to the conference theme. An 
extended version of this call for papers may be found on 
www.mediamutations.org <http://www.mediamutations.org>.