[ecrea] CFP: Kick-Starting Media - International Symposium

CALL FOR PAPERS

*/Kick-Starting Media:/*
*/
*/Cultures of Funding in Contemporary Media Industries/*
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*One-Day International Symposium: 9 June 2016*
*

*Media Futures Research Centre, Bath Spa University*
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*Held at Bath Spa University, Newton Park Campus*
*Newton Park, Newton St Loe, Bath, BA2 9BN*
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/Confirmed keynotes:/
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Professor Gillian Doyle, University of Glasgow
Professor Mario La Torre, University of Rome


With recent threats of change to the BBC’s future public funding at a
time when online streaming providers such as Amazon Prime are thriving,
the subject of new media funding models and their impact on how
audiences can – or should – consume media has become a point of public
discussion. Trends such as crowdfunding and co-creation – where
producers and audiences share responsibility for financing media – as
well as subscription-based platforms like Netflix and video-on-demand
services such as iTunes have all made media more sharable and personal,
but all of these trends and services also raise further questions about
the funding priorities, strategies and policies in the arts, media and
culture sectors. It is thus timely to take stock of cultures of funding
in contemporary media industries, and this symposium provides a platform
for analysing the impact of these contemporary funding cultures, be it
on texts, audiences, technologies or industries.

Recent public debates over funding in the media industries seem tied to
the impact of digitalisation, which has provided a catalyst for change
in terms of how media is now produced and consumed across multiple
platforms. As such, basic business models for funding media are
changing. While digitalisation is seen to have redefined ideas of
ownership amidst shifts from a top-down corporate-driven model to a more
bottom-up consumer-driven model (Jenkins 2006), how is such a shift
continuing to shape the type of media now being financed? Moreover, how
are digitised media interfaces – bringing greater individualised choice
for media audiences (Tryon 2013) – impacting funding patterns and
creative imperatives for such media? What is the impact of convergences
and the need to spread content across multiple platforms on license fee
funding? Equally, emerging digitalised funding models such as
co-creativity raise questions about entrepreneurship in the media but
also about unequal power structures as audiences may come to function as
free labour (Scholz 2013; Smith 2015). In what ways, then, might such
blurring of power structures redefine basic notions of media funding?
And how do different media industries now orchestrate, manage and
perceive the turn towards crowdfunded, video-on-demand or co-created
content as business models of the future?

To address these questions, the conference organisers invite proposals
for 20-minute papers from both researchers and media practitioners. As
well as exploring the broader questions above, proposals can be on, but
are not limited to, the following topics:

  * Contemporary film funding (e.g. Hollywood franchise-based models of
    financing, independently-financed productions, crowdfunding
    platforms such as Kickstarter, public/private sector film financing,
    etc)
  * Contemporary television funding (e.g. subscription-based streaming
    services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, public service/license
    fee funding models, new sponsorship models, product placement, TV
    promo companies, video-on-demand services such as iPlayer, etc)
  * Contemporary videogame funding (e.g. co-creation, social media
    gaming production, etc)
  * Contemporary comics and book funding (e.g. digital/motion comics,
    online publishing trends, etc)
  * Contemporary music funding and new economic models (e.g.
    live-touring, streaming, downloading platforms such as iTunes, etc)
  * Contemporary advertising and transmedia funding (e.g. social media
    marketing, online apps, intermediary agency funds, branded
    entertainment, etc)
  * Impacts of contemporary funding practices on audiences (e.g.
    exploitability of co-creativity, crowdfunding as fandom,
    fan-fiction, binge watching, etc)
  * Impacts of contemporary funding practices on media texts (e.g.
    changing narrative formats, participatory content, etc)

* A Special Issue devoted to the conference theme of ‘Funding in the
Convergence Era’ will be published in /The International Journal on
Media Management <http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hijm20/current>/ in
2017, co-edited by Matthew Freeman and Bozena Mierzejewska. Conference
speakers will be invited to submit their papers to this Special Issue
for consideration.

Please send proposals (300 words plus a 100 word bio) to Dr Matthew
Freeman ((m.freeman /at/ bathspa.ac.uk) <mailto:(m.freeman /at/ bathspa.ac.uk)>) by
*_15 January 2016_*. Delegates will be informed of acceptance by
mid-February 2016.

This event is part of the Media Futures Research Centre
<http://www.media-futures.org/> ‘Economic Futures’ 2015-16 programme of
activities at Bath Spa University.


*Dr Matthew Freeman*

*Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication*
*Director, Media Futures Research Centre*

*Department of Film, Media and Creative Computing*

*Bath Spa University*

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