[Commlist] CFP: Media Mutations 12 - Broadcasting, Reloaded

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Media Mutations 12 – Call for Papers

Broadcasting, Reloaded. Resurgences, Resistances and Rearrangements of 
Mainstream Television and Media in the Digital Arena

Bologna, Dipartimento delle Arti – DAMSLab, May 18th-19th, 2020

Organized by Luca Barra, Paola Brembilla and Veronica Innocenti 
(Università di Bologna)

In collaboration with the ECREA Television Studies section.

Website: https://site.unibo.it/mediamutations/en

Confirmed keynote speakers:

Emily Nussbaum, television critic for The New Yorker, winner of the 2016 
Pulitzer Prize in Criticism

John Ellis, professor of Media Arts at Royal Holloway University of 
London and television producer

Media Mutations, the international conference on audiovisual media 
hosted by Dipartimento delle Arti of Università di Bologna, comes to its 
twelfth edition. This conference’s theme is the strong, somehow 
unexpected persistence of broadcasting and mainstream television and 
media in a digital environment.

In the past few years, not only have streaming services (as Netflix and 
Amazon Prime Video) become the driving force of a shift in the 
television and media business, they have also been at the centre of 
seminal researches and debates in television and media studies, mainly 
pointing at the notions of digital revolution and disruption. More 
recently, the launch of new platforms by other providers (like Apple, 
Disney, and HBO) has rekindled these debates, which have channelled the 
OTT promotional rhetoric pointing at the ultimate death of broadcasting, 
both as a business model and as a cultural form.

However, in these very years, there is wide proof that classic 
television and traditional broadcasting is bigger than ever. It has 
returned to the centre of the digital scenario, because of its ability 
to bring together large and diversified audiences, considered valuable 
both at a cultural and at an economic level. It is still resisting the 
competition of on-demand services, balancing its time and space 
limitations with different experiences, like the creation of events and 
the focus on TV genres that are not scripted series – e.g. reality 
programs, factual entertainment, talk shows. More importantly, it has 
contributed to a wider re-arrangement of the media system, with the 
digital players trying to imitate the strengths of broadcasting, while 
traditional media are adapting to the new challenges. As far as business 
is concerned, production, distribution and circulation are growing, in 
the US as well as in Europe and in several other markets around the 
world, while ad-based models are proving to be effective in both the 
broadcasting and digital business model. Content-wise, network series 
and shows are still the pillars of schedules for free-to-air television, 
as they are becoming more and more relevant in terms of ratings, 
production values, socio-political mandates, franchise expansion. The 
OTT libraries are filled with network content, thanks to huge deals for 
retransmission and exclusive runs, while deals between broadcasting 
operators (PSBs, commercial networks, pay television) and digital 
platforms are increasingly commonplace. This shows a market that seems 
based on co-dependency between broadcasting and online platforms rather 
than straightforward competition, and on the hybridization of mainstream 
and niche rather than on a neat shift from broadcasting to narrowcasting.

Drawing on these considerations, the conference aims to bring the 
attention back to broadcasting, in order to assess its current state, to 
explore the recent evolutions of the free-to-air television business in 
the light of its manifold relations with OTT players, to check the 
parallel resurgence, resistance and rearrangement of other 
broadcasting-based media (such as radio), as well as to understand the 
attempts and experimentations to bring the mainstream back in 
customised, niche-oriented digital services. In line with its founding 
purposes, the conference wishes to serve as a basis for discussing 
methodologies, sharing research results and promoting a 
multi-disciplinary approach in a global perspective.

Media Mutations 12 encourages submissions that cover the following 
subjects and topics:

•The crucial role of broadcast television within a digital market

•Strengths and weaknesses of network television vs. digital platforms

•Mainstream shows, genres, events and their role

•The main changes and recent trends in broadcasting business models

•The redefinition of public service broadcasting in the contemporary 
digital arena

•Changes in the production, distribution and narrative aspects of 
broadcasting content

•Evolutions and persistence of audience viewing practices

•The relations and interconnections between broadcasting and OTT players

•The redefinition of radio in the transition to digital broadcasting

•Theoretical, philosophical and methodological approaches to studying 
broadcasting

•Historical perspectives of the evolution of broadcasting

•Single national and transnational case histories on broadcasting 
systems and media products

The official language of the conference is English. Abstracts (300-500 
words for 20-minute talks) should be sent to 
(mediamutations.org /at/ gmail.com) by February 16th, 2020. Please attach a 
brief biography (maximum 150 words) and an optional selected 
bibliography (up to five titles) relevant to the conference theme. 
Notification of acceptance will be sent by March 16th, 2020.

A registration fee will be requested after notification of paper 
acceptance (€80 for speakers and professional attendants; free 
conference admission for students).

This Conference is financially supported by Centro Dipartimentale La 
Soffitta and Dipartimento delle Arti, Università di Bologna, in 
collaboration with DAMSLab.


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