[ecrea] CfP: Contemporary TV Drama Series in Global Media Journal - German Edition

www.globalmediajournal.de

Call for Papers:

Special issue (Spring/Summer 2015): Contemporary TV Drama Series

Guest editors: Elisabeth Klaus & Florian Huber, University of
Salzburg/Austria
Deadline: December 1st 2014

Articles with 30,000-50,000 characters, that will undergo a peer-review, are
as welcome as reports from the field (20,000-40,000 characters) or essays
and commentaries
(10,000-30,000 characters). The submissions must follow the guidelines of
the Global Media Journals (see
http://www.globalmediajournal.de/de/submission-guidelines/).

Please send your submissions until December 1st, 2014 to the editors
Elisabeth Klaus ((elisabeth.klaus /at/ sbg.ac.at)) and Florian Huber
((florian.huber /at/ stud.sbg.ac.at)), University
of Salzburg, Department of Communications, Rudolfskai 42, 5020
Salzburg/Austria.

Download the call here:
http://www.globalmediajournal.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Call_GMJ9_1_2015
_en.pdf
----------------------------
The Global Media Journal invites papers for the spring/summer 2015 edition
on the topic of “Contemporary TV Drama Series”. Examples of such series,
sometimes vaguely referred
to as “Quality-TV”, are The Sopranos, The Wire, or Breaking Bad. Other
labels used for these internationally successful TV-programs are “Post-TV
Drama”, “Transnational
Drama”, “Post-Modern Drama”, “TV-Novels” or “Auteur-TV”. Despite their vague
name a surprisingly strict canon exists as regards to the particular series
mentioned. Their origins
from different countries, the producers’ marketing strategies and their
modes of appropriation/adoption reveal their transnational and cross-medial
character.

Of interest for the special issue of the Global Media Journal are articles
that discuss the nomenclature, the boundaries and specific characteristics
of the different series. The
terms “Quality-TV” and “Auteur-TV” show that contemporary drama series are a
means of distinction for the producing broadcasters, the critics and the
audience alike. At the same
time they can be seen as a “reinvention” of the medium television at a time,
when digital media questions its unidirectional flow. Contemporary TV Drama
Series thrive on the
convergence of the “old” medium with multimedia communication and digital
media. Contrary to this, one could argue that their success is routed in
their capability to truly
fulfill the story-telling potential of television, which has often been
discussed in media studies. In addition, some doubts are warranted that such
diverse series as Mad Men and
The Walking Dead can be qualified as part of the same genre or genre family.
Could the success of the different series simply be accounted for by their
narrative properties? If this
is the case, is it legitimate for media and television studies to analyze
them as a group with distinct properties?

A close look at the different series opens up another subject area.
Hermeneutic, discursive or content analysis can be performed on a textual
level that entail a closer look at
particular series or allow for a comparison of different series. For
instance, many series explicitly show violence, which has been interpreted
as a higher degree of realism.
Although often referred to as “American Quality Series”, other series such
as Downton Abbey (UK), Borgen (Denmark) or Real Humans (Sweden) reveal their
cross- and
transnational character. Series that do not originate from English-speaking
countries often enter the American and the international market only through
remakes as in the
case of Homeland. How does the copy differ from the original, and what do
the differencestell us about the social and cultural embedding of the
series?

Such questions address the mode of production and financing of Contemporary
TV Drama Series. The cultural industry is looking for new models and
opportunities for marketing
and sales. Despite their differences, “Quality-TV” has proven to be an
equally successful strategy as “Trash-TV”. Although the two program concepts
seem to be antithetic, they are
similar in many respects. Both formats offer ways of finding an audience in
a competitive market – for commercial and public-service companies, as well
as for online streaming
services. It is also interesting to pay attention to the cultural contexts
of the series and their particular reception, their success or failure in
different countries. In the United
States the series succeeded by granting Pay-TV channels new subscribers, a
strategy the German channel Sky is trying to replicate. Whether Sky will be
successful is questionable,
as the Contemporary Drama Series were only moderately successful, if at all,
when aired on commerical and public-broadcasting channels in Germany. What
are the reasons for
such differences?

Very important is the question of consumption and reception of Contemporary
TV Drama Series. Why do members of the audience turn to them and why? Are
they consumed
following the television scheduling or are they watched time-delayed via
(portable) devices and by relating to the so-called binge-watching? What
role does the socio-economic and
cultural context of the audience play? Television critics often imagine the
audience as a highly sought-after group of sophisticated and well-to-do
intellectuals. This is clearly a
construction, but to what extent do audience members share this view and
portray their preferences as a means to distinguish themselves from other
viewers and to differentiate
between "Quality-TV" and "everyday-TV"? First research shows that the
language used in talking about the series by recipients, television critics
and scholars is remarkably similar.
Moreover, it parallels the marketing speech of many series. No doubt, the
Contemporary Drama Series encourage the production of tertiary texts:
Members of the audience become
participant producers themselves. They exchange opinions in (international)
forums, produce fan-videos, fan-edits, and fan-fiction. What are the
motivations, the contents and
the meanings of fandom in the context of the series?

We are looking forward to articles based on theoretical considerations or on
empirical work that deal with one of the topics discussed and try to find
answers to the questions
raised. We invite original submissions from communications and media
research and value an inter- or transdisciplinary perspective.


---
Prof. Dr. Carola Richter
Freie Universität Berlin
Institut für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft
Garystr. 55, Zimmer 267
14195 Berlin
Tel: +49-30-838 58898
Fax: +49-30-838 58804
http://www.polsoz.fu-berlin.de/kommwiss/
Sprechzeiten: Di, 14-16 Uhr





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