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[ecrea] CFP - Spectator: Performing Labor in the Media Industries

Wed Aug 06 12:18:55 GMT 2014





?Spectator is a biannual publication for the Bryan Singer Division of Critical Studies at USC's School of Cinematic Arts. This issue seeks submissions that address performance, performativity, media industry studies, historical studies of film and television labor, fan labor, digital labor and celebrity, and related topics.


Volume and Date of Issue: Volume 35 Number 2 (Fall 2015)

Deadline for Submission: November 23, 2014



This issue of Spectator seeks to explore the relationship between compensated labor and the intangible, creative, and often unremunerated elements of performance that characterize work in the media industries. Great performances and their effects can often be challenging to describe. As audiences we watch actors perform on-screen and are drawn to and captivated by elements of the performances that we cannot necessarily quantify. These same actors (and other media workers) also engage in everyday performances of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, professionalism, or even passion for their careers, performances that are even more challenging to quantify or even to determine the extent to which they are calculated or authentic. While this type of performance labor has always existed in the media industries, as audiences and scholars we now have increased access to these performances. These lines between professional (compensated) actors and social actors become blurred, posing a theoretical challenge for scholars trying to evaluate these performances. From an industrial standpoint it is also difficult to assess the monetary value of these off-screen performances, which might be crucial for the development of an actor’s persona or brand.



This issue invites papers that explore the industrial, creative, and textual dimensions of performance and work in the media industries. However, it welcomes papers that address issues of labor and/or performance through industrial analysis, ethnographic or archival research, textual analysis, and/or theoretical investigations of the on- and off-screen work of people in the media industries.



Papers are encouraged to interrogate the concept of labor, both in relationship to compensation and to guilds and union activity where applicable. What is the relationship between self-presentation on social media and the labor of media workers? How do off-screen workers perform and what kinds of performances do they give? What kind of labor does on-screen talent (reality performers, athletes, stars, actors, etc.) perform? What kind of media labor is privileged in ancillary content? How do workers in the media industries conceive of themselves as “labor”? How can we put a price on performance? What is the relationship between fan labor and traditional or compensated media industry labor? What are the tangible and immaterial forms of compensation (pleasure, creative fulfillment, etc) within the media industries? How has the expectation of immaterial compensation changed over time? How do media texts help us make sense of labor and ascendance within the media industries? This issue of Spectator seeks to understand how labor in the media industries has changed, both in relation to job functions and emotional expectations, as the work has become increasingly casualized.



Potential topics may include, but are not limited to:



· Digital labor and celebrity (fictional characters on social media, celebrity self-promotion and presentation on social media, etc.)

·      Marketing, PR, and celebrity branding

·      Casualization of labor in the media/creative industries

·      Compensated and/versus uncompensated labor in media industries

·      Fandom as labor

·      The labor of promotion and copyright

·      Comic-Con and press-junkets as labor

·      The Hollywood guilds (SAG-AFTRA, WGA, DGA, IATSE, etc.)

·      Reality TV performers

· Professional Players Associations (NFL Players Association, NBA, MLB, etc.) and the organization and/or regulation of athletes

·      Residuals or compensation for re-use of likeness or material

·      The dimensions of freelance labor

· The complexities of hyphenate positions (writer-producers, actor-producers, etc) and the challenges these pose to traditional boundaries of labor and unions

· Media labor on screen (making of documentaries, ancillary content, fictional films about Hollywood, etc)



Submissions should be emailed to (fortmuel /at/ usc.edu).



Contributions should not be more than 5,000 words. They should also include a brief abstract for publicity. Authors should also include a brief biographical entry. Articles submitted to Spectator should not be under consideration by any other journal.



Book Reviews may vary in length from 300 to 1,000 words. Please include title of book, retail price and ISBN at the beginning of the review.



Forum or Additional Section contributions can include works on new archival or research facilities or methods as well as other relevant works related to the field.



Electronic Submissions and Formatting. Authors should send Microsoft Word attachments of their work via e-mail. Endnotes should conform to the Chicago Manual of Style.



Upon acceptance, a format guideline will be forwarded to all contributors as to image and text requirements.
--
Kate Fortmueller, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Scholar - Teaching Fellow

The Bryan Singer Division of Critical Studies
School of Cinematic Arts - University of Southern California
900 W. 34th St.
Los Angeles, CA 90089

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