[Commlist] Flow Special Issue CFP: "Streaming Wars and TV's Next Juncture"

Call for Papers:

Flow Volume 26 Special Issue: “Streaming Wars and Television’s Next 
Juncture”


As the new decade dawns, Disney, Apple, WarnerMedia, and NBCUniversal 
have launched (or will soon launch) their own streaming platforms. These 
entrants prove once again that the ecology of television and digital 
content is one that continuously shifts, raising the question: Is a 
streaming war in full swing? With legacy media companies and major 
technology companies entering the ring, has the streaming arena now 
become too crowded? And how will consumers, amidst ever-multiplying, 
well-funded platforms vying for their attention, alter and/or reinforce 
their viewership and subscription consumer habits?


This special issue of Flow’s twenty-sixth volume, “Streaming Wars and 
the Future of Television,” asks cultural and media scholars to consider 
these and other questions related to the recent shift in streaming media 
— all while remembering streaming technologies’ long and integral role 
in post-network American television. From 2000, with the use of cameras 
to live-stream the activities of the Big Brotherhouse on AOL, to the mid 
2000s, when platforms began delivering content digitally to households, 
and the early 2010s, when Netflix, Amazon Video, and others began 
producing original content — over the past 20 years, the short history 
of streaming has been made up of numerous evolutions. The entrance of 
these new streaming platforms, then, might be better understood not as a 
revolutionary break from one era to another but rather as yet another 
(albeit monumental) progression.


Therefore, we invite submissions that grapple with this most recent 
shift. Using industrial, historical, political, regulatory, economic, 
cultural, national, and transcultural/international lenses, scholars 
might consider: Is there something new and noteworthy about this 
particular moment in streaming media, or does it echo previous business 
models? In what ways do (or don’t) these newer platforms signal the 
future of television? What is gained or lost as legacy media outlets 
move into digital terrain? And in what ways can scholars across 
television studies, media industries, platform studies, and related 
fields collaborate and converse about this multi-billion dollar push 
into a new industrial and technological era of television? Possible 
topics include, but are by no means limited to:

  *

    Focused studies on specific platforms, their respective parent media
    companies, and/or their distinct strategies on entering the
    streaming market

  *

    Weekly episodic release vs. binge model

  *

    Narrative/representational possibilities borne from new streaming
    production/distribution models

  *

    Reconceptualizing media conglomeration, mergers & acquisitions, and
    integration studies

  *

    Use of particular IP or content from media libraries to leverage
    access and finance

  *

    Implications for pre-existing niche, minor, and independent
    streaming platforms

  *

    Changes in film distribution and exhibition

  *

    Changes in international media flows

  *

    Production studies of such issues as shifts in narrative
    development, financial affordances, and marketability through A-list
    talent


To be considered for this timely issue, please submit a completed short 
essay of 1,200-1,500 words, along with at least three images (.png), 
video, and/or new media files (GIFs, etc.), and a short bio, to 
co-managing editors Rusty Hatchell and Selena Dickey at 
(flowjournaleditors /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(floweditors /at/ gmail.com)>by Monday, 
February 10, 2020. The Special Issue will be published at 
flowjournal.org <http://www.flowjournal.org/>on Monday, March 2, 2020. 
Please note: /Flow Journal/ does not charge authors to publish on the site.

*
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