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

?“Performing Labor in the Media Industries”



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)



Spectator is a biannual publication, and submissions that address 
performance, performativity, media industry studies, historical studies 
of film and television labor, fan labor, digital labor and celebrity, 
and related topics are now invited for submission.



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. ?



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., #215
Los Angeles, CA 90089
Office: 213-821-6695

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