Media Industries

Numerosi prodotti di importazione arricchiscono sempre più spesso l’offerta dei media italiani, tv compresa: in questo modo, nel nostro Paese approdano contenuti che non sono pensati e realizzati appositamente per il pubblico nazionale, ma che, una volta trasferiti e adattati, mutano – almeno in parte – la loro forma. In ambito televisivo, un caso particolarmente interessante è quello della situation comedy americana: un genere centrale nella tv statunitense, ma che in Italia è insieme molto diffuso nei palinsesti e spesso frainteso, complesso da tradurre e talvolta ricostruito – o persino stravolto –, disprezzato ma visto (e rivisto) da intere generazioni di spettatori. Questo volume pone le basi teoriche per uno stu dio dei processi di ‘mediazione’, solo apparentemente banali, che intercorrono nel passaggio di un prodotto mediale da un Paese all’altro: l’appropriazione nazionale (o ‘italianizzazione’), la traduzione, l’adattamento, la distribuzione. E poi applica queste basi a un’approfondita analisi delle vicende italiane della sitcom americana, e di alcuni suoi titoli in particolare (Seinfeld, Friends, Will & Grace, How I Met Your Mother), da tre punti di vista: la ricostruzione della sto ria del genere nel nostro Paese; la rassegna delle variazioni e modifiche traduttive che il prodotto televisivo si trova necessariamente ad affrontare; infine, il racconto della sua filiera produttiva e distributiva, delle routine traduttive e dei professionisti coinvolti. Per capire cosa cambia nella sitcom quando passa dagli Stati Uniti all’Italia, e perché.

Con le espressioni “Cinema a domicilio”, “piccolo cinematografo privato”, “cinema in casa”, giornalisti, intellettuali e addetti ai lavori salutano l’avvento della programmazione televisiva italiana sperimentale, alla fine degli anni Trenta. Alla fine degli anni Quaranta, quando la RAI riprende quegli studi e quegli esperimenti che, nel giro di pochi anni, porteranno al varo del servizio regolare di trasmissione, il dibattito si rianima; ma la ricerca dello specifico televisivo si accompagna questa volta alla crescente preoccupazione per l’avvenire del cinema stesso quale mezzo di intrattenimento di massa. Attraverso lo spoglio sistematico delle riviste corporative dell’AGIS, il mio intervento intende esaminare il posizionamento degli esercenti cinematografici italiani nel conflitto cinema-televisione e il loro contributo alla messa a punto delle principali strategie di contenimento della concorrenza.

With the labels “home cinema”, “small private cinema”, “home theater”, journalists, intellectuals and professionals welcome the advent of experimental television in Italy, during the late thirties. At the end of the forties, when RAI resumes those studies and experiments that, within a few years, will lead to the launch of the regular television service, the debate is revived, but the search for the specificity of the medium is accompanied by a growing concern for the future of cinema itself as mass entertainment. Through the study of AGIS’ major corporate magazines, this essay will examine the positioning of the Italian film exhibitors in the conflict cinema-television, and their contribution to the development of the main strategies of containment of the competition.

In this paper, we experiment and adopt „new‟ economic approaches to interrogate some of the fundamental changes and continuities in the music industry „system‟ that have been produced as a result of digitalisation. In this experiment, we also include established techniques of media industries‟ analysis like a value-chain analysis (e.g. Küng, Picard and Towse 2008) and the distinction between audience and users markets, following the seminal work by Picard (1989). However, not only we consider the music industry as composed by three segments: (1) the digitalisation of content production in the music industry stage; (2) the distribution and marketing stage; (3) the delivery and exhibition stage, but we also attempt to provide a map of the increasing variety of activities in each segment. Moreover, we embrace a service activity perspective and pay particular attention to changing relationships between these activities. Our account of the main changes to the music industry relies on evidence derived from the findings of a recent empirical research study of the music industry in Ireland, and in the conclusions we discuss the significance of the effects of unauthorised downloads of music and provide arguments on how the industry could deal with this issue.
http://obs.obercom.pt/index.php/obs/article/view/514/471

TELOS no comparte necesariamente las opiniones vertidas en los artículos firmados, que expresan, como es obvio, la posición de sus autores. La Revista TELOS está incluida en los índices internacionales y nacionales, Latindex, E-Revistas y RESH, Revistas Españolas de Ciencias Sociales (CSIC/CINDOC) y Europan Referente Index for the Humanities (ERIH).

While games studies has theorised the ways in which video games convey narrative it has so far neglected the industrial circumstances that structure these narratives. Using the video game developer, publisher and hardware-manufacturer Nintendo as a case study, this

After her termination as a Friends writers’ assistant, Amaani Lyle filed suit for harassment and discrimination. In response, writers defended their professional authority over the writing process, facing two related tensions. First, Lyle v. Warner Bros. emphasized frictions between artistic freedom and social responsibility, amid concerns about a lack of diversity among writers. Second, the case also spotlighted the ambivalence of writers’ artistic status, within a collaborative and vertically integrated system of production. Focusing on problems of organization and profession, this article explores writers’ negotiations of these tensions as negotiations of their role in a complex industry.

Both the creative industries and ICT are sectors that have stimulated the economic growth in the Netherlands in 2015-2018, the years of economic boom. The number of jobs in creative industries grew 3.4 percent per year in that period, which is twice the national average. For the ICT sector the yearly growth was 2.6 percent. Together creative industries and ICT account for 7.7 percent of the jobs in the Dutch economy, the creative industries for four percent (344.000 jobs), ICT for 3.7 percent (320.000 jobs).

Furthermore, the research reported in this document concludes: (1) Design is a fast-growing sector. (2) Free lancers account for a significant part of jobs in the Dutch creative industries. (3) From 2015 the creative industries combine job growth with economic value created. (4) The concentration of creative industries in Dutch major cities is increasing. (5) Between forty and sixty percent of the Dutch creative workforce is employed outside the creative industries. (6) Creative industries are of significant social importance; besides the economic value they represent.

An exploration of American television as a medium of information, conveyor, and creator of culture and a form of aesthetic expression. The course examines the historical development of television as both a cultural product and industry.

The majority of the class is devoted to a decade-by-decade overview of television's development from its radio origins to digital convergence. Every week includes a screening of a TV program from the decade under discussion plus additional clips. The final weeks highlight specific formal, aesthetic, and industrial aspects of television, including style, narrative, genre, and post-network TV.

Die Film- und Fernsehindustrie ist geprägt durch branchenkulturelle Rahmenbe-dingungen und Barrieren, die auf sämtlichen Ebenen geschlechtsspezifisch wir-ken. Verschiedene Studien verweisen ausführlich darauf, dass Frauen in fast allenkünstlerischen Positionen in Film- und Fernsehproduktion unterrepräsentiertsind: sei es als Regisseurin, Produzentin, Drehbuchautorin oder als Schauspiele-rin. Die Film- und Fernsehindustrie lässt sich also durch einen starkengenderbiascharakterisieren, durch den Frauen in allen Bereichen strukturell benachtei-ligt werden; somit kann man von einer als männlich konstruierten Industriesprechen. Allerdings gibt es gerade in den letzten Jahren Initiativen auf nationa-ler, aber auch auf EU-Ebene dieser Problematik entgegen zu steuern.

This workshop briefing, the third in a series of three, is part of a project focused on the representation of refugee and migrant children in European screen content for children. The one-day workshop took place in Munich on 24 May 2018, under the umbrella of the biennial six-day Prix Jeunesse international festival of children’s screen content. In keeping with the 2018 Prix Jeunesse theme of ‘Strong Stories for Strong Children’, the workshop explored treatments of migration and diversity in mainly fictional storytelling genres for children aged 12 and under. Several had been made for German public service broadcasters, namely those making up the ARD (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) and ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen) networks, both of which contribute shows to the jointly operated children’s service, KiKA (KinderKanal). We also showed content aired by public service broadcasters in Belgium (VRT/Ketnet), the Netherlands (NPO), Slovenia (RTVSlo), Serbia (RTS), Switzerland (SRF) and the Welsh-language broadcaster, S4C. In terms of genre, the range of clips discussed at the workshop included animation for preschoolers, drama, both series and one-offs, reality storytelling and children’s documentaries. The clips featured children of Arab heritage and touched on forced migration or broader issues connected with diversity, but all were from shows aimed primarily at a majority European-born audience. In Munich, as at the workshops in Manchester and Copenhagen, a key objective was to alert European policy-makers, broadcasters and producers to the media needs, wants and experiences of young Arabic- speaking children now living in European countries, drawing on research into children’s screen content and audiences in the Arab world, funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and conducted in 2013-2016 by members of the workshop team.1 Another was to create space for dialogue between European and Arab practitioners. To this end we invited Arab producers and education specialists, to comment on European content that featured migration issues or included children of Arab heritage. The project as a whole looks at content for children under twelve.

For decades, television scholars have viewed global television through the lens of cultural imperialism, focusing primarily on programs produced by US and UK markets and exported to foreign markets. Global Television Formats revolutionizes television studies by de-provincializing its approach to media globalization. It re-examines dominant approaches and their legacies of global/local and center/periphery, and offers new directions for understanding television’s contemporary incarnations.

The chapters in this collection take up the format phenomena from around the globe, including the Middle East, Western and Eastern Europe, South and West Africa, South and East Asia, Australia and New Zealand, North America, South America, and the Caribbean. Contributors address both little known examples and massive global hits ranging from the Idol franchise around the world, to telenovelas, dance competitions, sports programming, reality TV, quiz shows, sitcoms and more. Looking to global television formats as vital for various cultural meanings, relationships, and structures, this collection shows how formats can further our understanding of television and the culture of globalization at large.

From a political-economic perspective, the global market is dominated still by major international cinemas: Hollywood in particular – whose major studios (20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., MGM, Sony) maintain control locally through national subsidiaries – but also Bollywood, Nollywood and the Chinese industry in certain regions. European productions, on the other hand, remain for the most part confined to national successes alone, with only few exceptions – such as Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis (Dany Boon 2008), The King’s Speech (Tom Hooper 2010) and, albeit to a lesser extent, Gomorra (Matteo Garrone 2008). In the meantime, the influence of media convergence and the proliferation of digital platforms has demonstrated a series of content circulation strategies that differ to the classic windows of the distribution industry; strategies that have since become central to contemporary debates on film distribution. In academic studies, these mutations have contributed to broadening focus beyond theatrical distribution, in order to account for the circulation of films via alternative, formal or informal channels too (Tryon 2009; Iordanova and Cunningham 2012; Cunningham and Silver 2013). Some recent studies have emphasized in particular how contemporary research on film distribution can no longer exclude informal or non-linear circulation channels (Lobato 2012; Crisp 2015; Lobato and Thomas 2015). With the aim of studying how this new technological context is changing current tendencies, and taking root in the “national interest research project” (PRIN 2015) on the international circulation of Italian cinema, the special issue No. 3/2018 focuses on the strategies and outcomes of European cinema distribution beyond national borders.

Web, or networked, distribution technologies have challenged the power of US media corporations, which set high technical standards for production value, a measure of content quality. Legacy TV companies privilege complex, seamless technical execution supported by large crews of workers-lighting, sound, design, visual effects-but exclude as producers culturally marginalised creators perceived as too risky for the big investment necessary to execute it. The internet disrupts these dynamics by allowing for the distribution of smaller scale TV and video productions that are independently or inexpensively made. In smaller scale work, cultural production value asserts more importance , as producers create with and for their community.

Cucina, moda, casa, trasformazione fisica e psicologica, relazioni, famiglia, fai-da-te, medicina, lifestyle: l’universo dei prodotti che compongono l’offerta di factual entertainment della tv italiana contemporanea è dinamico e variegato. Il suo crescente inserimento nella programmazione nazionale ha accompagnato e, almeno in parte, caratterizzato quella svolta di sistema che ha visto il medium approdare all’“età dell’abbondanza” , con lo svilupparsi non semplicemente di nuovi canali, ma anche di nuove abitudini di consumo, di differenti modalità di produzione, programmazione e acquisto da parte dei broadcaster, e di inedite strategie di costruzione dei brand di rete. [...]

An undisputed classic, the Fourth Edition of this bestselling media studies text offers an unparalleled analysis of the cultural industries.
Bringing together a huge range of research, theory and key concepts, David Hesmondhalgh provides an accessible yet critical exploration of cultural production and consumption in the global media landscape. This new edition:
Analyses the influence of IT and tech companies like Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook on the cultural industries.
Discusses the impact of digital technologies on industries such as music, TV, newspapers, books and digital games.
Explores the effects of digitalisation on culture, discussing critical issues like participation, power, commercialism, surveillance, and labour.
Examines the changing conceptions of audiences, and the increasing influence of market research, audience tracking and advertising.
As one of the most read, most studied and most cited books in the field, this Fourth Edition is an essential resource for students and researchers of media and communication studies, the cultural and creative industries, cultural studies and the sociology of the media.

De Nederlandse muziekindustrie bevindt zich op dit moment op een cruciaal punt in de geschiedenis. Door vele eeuwen heen is het vakgebied rondom de publicatie van muzikale werken met veel zorgvuldigheid gestructureerd in de vorm van een verdienmodel. In de laatste jaren is er  sprake van een merkbare spectaculaire toename van innovaties op deze markt. Dit is met name op digitaal vlak te merken met de opkomst van platformen op het internet zoals Youtube, Spotify en iTunes. Hierdoor is de gehandhaafde structuur van het huidige verdienmodel in het afgelopen decennium flink aan de tand gevoeld.

De innovaties in de markt blijken dusdanig revolutionair te zijn, dat in de vakliteratuur in de Verenigde Staten vanaf 2013 regelmatig sceptische artikelen verschijnen over de vanzelfsprekendheid van de rollen van bepaalde partijen in het huidige verdienmodel. Met name de noodzaak van auteursrechtenorganisaties worden hierbij openlijk in twijfel getrokken. De grootste muziekuitgevers dreigen zelfs hun muziek niet meer bij de auteursrechtenorganisaties te registreren, omdat zij deze taak intern willen afhandelen.

Op dit moment wordt er in de markt gesproken over de onvrede aangaande de effectiviteit van het huidige verdienmodel ten opzichte van deze revolutionaire ontwikkelingen. Men heeft echter nog niet uitgezocht hoe deze innovaties een concrete uitwerking zullen hebben op het huidige verdienmodel. Het achterliggende probleem van dit onderzoek is dus dat er op dit moment nog geen concrete beschrijving van de uitwerkingen op het huidige verdienmodel bestaat van deze digitale innovaties binnen de Nederlandse muziekindustrie.

Dit probleem brengt dus het vraagstuk “Wat zijn de uitwerkingen van relevante disruptieve innovaties op het verdienmodel van de Nederlandse muziekindustrie?” met zich mee.

Om deze vraag duidelijk te kunnen beantwoorden moet er eerst een helder en duidelijk afgebakend inzicht zijn verworven op het verdienmodel van de Nederlandse muziekindustrie. Dit wordt door middel van deskresearch uiteengezet. Na het winnen van dit inzicht wordt er een groep van vijf experts uit de Nederlandse muziekindustrie gevraagd twee vragenlijsten, elk bestaande uit vijf vragen verdeeld over twee ronden, te beantwoorden op basis van hun mening, die gebaseerd is op hun jarenlange vakkennis en werkervaring in de Nederlandse muziekindustrie. De focus van deze vragenlijsten ligt dus op het stellen van vragen met betrekking tot mogelijke wijzigingen in het huidige verdienmodel. Deze rondes brengen voornamelijk twee extreme invalshoeken aan het licht. 

Een van de twee invalshoeken die hierbij duidelijk naar voren komen is een conservatieve benadering van het huidige verdienmodel waarbij de nieuwe (digitale) partijen enkel toegevoegd zullen worden in het huidige verdienmodel. De tegenpool van deze invalshoek valt dan ook een zeer revolutionair of progressief te noemen. Bij deze tegenovergestelde extreme benadering zal het hele verdienmodel draaien om een enkele tussenpartij die als bemiddelaar dient tussen maker en luisteraar.

De twee extreme invalshoeken vanuit het expertpanel vormen dus de eerste twee scenario’s. Voortbouwend op de eerste twee scenario’s is er nog een derde scenario mogelijk die een combinatie is van de twee extreme scenario’s. Ook deze laatste mogelijkheid is uitgewerkt in een eigen situatieschets. Met het opstellen deze drie scenario’s is dus de centrale vraag van dit onderzoek beantwoord.
Een extra maar toch belangrijke toevoeging die voortvloeit uit de gewonnen kennis en inzichten die de scenario’s bieden in deze scriptie zijn dan ook mogelijke invalshoeken en bijbehorende onderwerpen voor vervolgonderzoek. Omdat binnen dit onderzoek de mogelijke wijzigingen binnen het toekomstig verdienmodel van de Nederlandse muziekindustrie concreet in kaart zijn gebracht, is het dus mogelijk geworden om met nieuwe invalshoeken naar onderwerpen voor toekomstig onderzoek te kijken. De drie nieuwe invalshoeken die het meest opvallen in deze scriptie zijn ten eerste makers van een muzikaal werk die hun werk in eigen beheer uitgeven, ten tweede de verhoudingen tussen meerdere mogelijke stromen van betalingen en vergoedingen richting artiesten en ten derde de machtsverhouding tussen consumenten en openbaarmakers van muzikale werken in de markt.

In an era when many businesses have come under scrutiny for their environmental impact, the film industry has for the most part escaped criticism and regulation. Its practices are more diffuse; its final product, less tangible; and Hollywood has adopted public-relations strategies that portray it as environmentally conscious. In Hollywood’s Dirtiest Secret, Hunter Vaughan offers a new history of the movies from an environmental perspective, arguing that how we make and consume films has serious ecological consequences.

Bringing together environmental humanities, science communication, and social ethics, Hollywood’s Dirtiest Secret is a pathbreaking consideration of the film industry’s environmental impact that examines how our cultural prioritization of spectacle has distracted us from its material consequences and natural-resource use. Vaughan examines the environmental effects of filmmaking from Hollywood classics to the digital era, considering how popular screen media shapes and reflects our understanding of the natural world. He recounts the production histories of major blockbusters—Gone with the Wind, Singin’ in the Rain, Twister, and Avatar—situating them in the contexts of the development of the film industry, popular environmentalism, and the proliferation of digital technologies. Emphasizing the materiality of media, Vaughan interweaves details of the hidden environmental consequences of specific filmmaking practices, from water use to server farms, within a larger critical portrait of social perceptions and valuations of the natural world.

The last decade has seen an unprecedented wave of corporate development in the European film and television industries, with several major companies becoming vertically and horizontally integrated while also simultaneously expanding into international sales and distribution markets. Such changes fundamentally alter the landscape of the continent’s media industries, which have up to now been characterized by national and linguistic fragmentation and distinct separations between production and distribution. This chapter provides an overview of these historical changes, highlighting relevant developments at firms such as Studiocanal, Pathé and Wild Bunch, amongst others, and examines the implications of these changes for Europe’s co-production policy regime, which has long been predicated on the need to overcome the fragmentation of the European industries.

From the Central and East-European small-market perspective, the recent boom in minority co-production marks a turning point away from the strategy of increasing the production values of Western-assisted local blockbusters toward the adoption of a more measured and pragmatic approach that prioritises internationally appealing directors and themes, ensures lucrative production service commissions and sustains reciprocity ties. This chapter addresses questions about the structural position minority co-production occupies within the Czech screen industry ecology and shows how local producers are the key agent in cementing that position. It starts by contrasting minority co-production with other international “production technologies” before reconstructing the cautionary discourse of producers on majority co-production. After providing a basic structural analysis of industry and policy, it switches to focus on the day-to-day collaborative processes being forged by local independent producers through an exploration of their strategic thinking and lived realities. As well as raising questions about the roles of knowledge transfer and symbolic capital accumulation, it investigates the new power hierarchies and barriers that have begun to emerge from these transnational production contexts.

For many of us, we have always known and loved the world of Walt Disney. We grew up with these characters, these stories, and these songs. But how often do we ever think deeply about Disney, even discuss and analyze it at length? Studying Disney offers us a rare opportunity to consider childhood, the media industry, and American culture simultaneously. In this course, students will examine representations of race, gender, sexuality, class, and ability on screen and behind the scenes at Disney. We will also explore the wide expanse of Disney’s properties, from movies to TV to theme parks and theater. Students will also gain experience with conducting research, studying primary documents and contributing to public history. In the end, students will have a richer understanding of Disney not only as a company, but as a cultural institution.

On December 20, 2015, the Palace Theatre announced the casting of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a new play by Jack Thorne, based on a story by Potter creator J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Thorne himself. Set nineteen years in the future, the play introduces theatre into the Harry Potter universe, 1 though the Wizarding World of Harry Potter areas of Universal Studios theme parks have long featured live performances. While news from London's theatre district, the West End, rarely instigates an international cause célèbre, this announcement delighted and surprised Harry Potter fans around the world in its casting of Numa Dumezweni as the strong-willed female lead, Hermione Granger. An accomplished British actress born in Swaziland to South African parents, Dumezweni would become the second actress to portray Hermione following Emma Watson's star-making turn in the eight Harry Potter films produced by Warner Bros between 2001 and 2011. Unlike Watson, however, Dumezweni was black. The ensuing controversy provides a productive inroad into examining race in the world of Harry Potter, not only for the questions it raises about the authorship and ownership of popular texts, but also for the specific constraints and attendant cultures that come with media and its afterlife. Adapting a print text for the stage means entering a new medium and, in the process, a new culture of common practices and expectations, both of the artists and of the audience. This chapter explores these nuances to complicate our understanding of not only the decision to cast Dumezweni, but to further understand how race operates across the Harry Potter universe and media culture more broadly. Though I am a White critic, I ground my discussion of this controversy in the commentaries, critiques, and theories developed by scholars of color so that I might challenge received accounts of this evocative moment in Harry Potter fandom. I will examine this case study through three different lenses: the cultural differences between film and theatre as media and industries; the enduring debate over " colorblind casting " (hereafter, nontraditional casting) in the theatre, 2 in particular, but gradually more across media culture; and the increasingly visible tension between authorship and ownership of popular texts that takes places online in what Henry Jenkins has called " convergence culture " —that is, to borrow from the subtitle of his landmark book, " where old and new media collide. " In so doing, I drawn upon and expand our understanding of race and media through a critical examination of the Harry Potter universe, the culture industries, and convergence culture. 1 I use " the Harry Potter universe " to encompass the world of Harry Potter, which includes the seven books, but also the supplemental books, films, online materials in Pottermore, theme park attractions, and other extensions that further develop the world in the spirit of transmedia storytelling, all under the supervision of J. K. Rowling. 2 Though " colorblind casting " is often used across the culture industries to discuss the practice of casting white roles or roles where race is not specified with actors of colors, I will use " nontraditional casting " because not only does it encompass casting practices beyond questions of race, but it conscientiously avoids the casual ableism of the term. I will only use the term hereafter when quoting others.

This report updates and substantially extends the 2017 report, Go West! Bristol's Film and Television Industries. It revises all the statistical information, including the number of companies. The report analyses the major changes that have occurred since 2017, notably Bristol being awarded a UNESCO City of Film status; the arrival of Channel 4, which located one of its two regional 'creative hubs' in Bristol ;and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the screen sector. There are revised profiles of BBC - placing the Natural History Unit in BBC Studios - and of Aardman Animations as the two principal 'anchor' firms. The report also contains numerous case studies of Bristol's independent companies, including several of the new ones that have emerged since 2017. There is a substantailly enlarged section on natural history filmmaking, examining Bristol's global role as the 'Green Hollywood'. The report argues that Bristol, in terms of company numbers and variety, is the second largest screen production cluster after London and that the screen sector plays a vital role in the city's economy and culture.

This article traces the coevolution of musical culture, law, and technology over the arc of modern Western legal and cultural history, from the Renaissance to the present day. This historical analysis is intended to lend context and substance to contemporary conversations about the role of the Internet and digital production platforms, as well as Internet-based intellectual property laws, such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, in shaping contemporary global musical culture. I propose a 5-stage coevolutionary process, based on the dialectical relationships between (1) laws and regulations, (2) market dynamics, (3) codes and practices, (4) music technologies, and (5) concepts of authorship.

Da Lucy ed io a Friends, da Happy Days a The Big Bang Theory, da I Jefferson a The Good Place, da Casa Vianello a Boris: la situation comedy è un genere televisivo importante, che sembra semplice ma non lo è, ha un linguaggio stratificato e una storia piena di svolte. Fa ridere il pubblico con la sua sapiente miscela di innovazione e ripetizione, ha dato vita a un importante modello produttivo e industriale, riempie i palinsesti tra prime visioni e repliche. I suoi personaggi diventano popolari, i suoi racconti proseguono per tante stagioni e circolano pressoché dappertutto. Il volume traccia una definizione della sitcom e ne ricostruisce le principali evoluzioni, negli Stati Uniti come in Italia. Getta poi uno sguardo sul presente e sul futuro di un genere spesso trascurato ma ancora centrale, che nello scenario digitale non solo resiste ma si trasforma, insieme alla tv che cambia.

Offering a deeper understanding of today’s internet media and the management theory behind it

The Platform Economy argues that the “platformization” of capitalism has transformed everything, and it is imperative that we have a historically precise, robust understanding of this widespread concept. Taking Japan as the key site for global platformization, Marc Steinberg delves into that nation’s unique technological and managerial trajectory, in the process systematically examining every facet of the elusive word platform.

Tato studie zkoumá podmínky a sociální procesy vzniku autorství a stylu v konkrétních historických podmínkách — v době po zřízení takzvaných tvůrčích skupin. Ve dvou úvodních kapitolách krátce shrnuji hlavní výsledky teoretických debat z posledních 30 let (z velké části soustředěných na americkou a britskou kinematografii), které mohou posloužit k analýze průmyslového autorství a skupinových stylů v podmínkách československého filmu 50. a 60. let: problematiku autorských pozic a autority nad textem; roli producenta jako facilitátora autorství (spíše než autora v běžném smyslu); a nakonec otázku vztahu mezi produkčními praktikami a stylistickými normami. V navazující deskriptivně-analytické části studie pak tyto tři teoretické rámce uvažování o skupinové kreativitě aplikuji na vývoj tvůrčích skupin po roce 1955. Kladu si otázku, kdo byl v jednotlivých fázích jejich vývoje klíčovým hybatelem neboli facilitátorem (k pojmu facilitace viz níže) autorství a stylu. S tím, jak se pole filmové produkce postupně vymaňovalo zpod přímého vlivu pole politické moci, přesouvaly se tyto pozice z úrovně nejvyššího vedení zestátněného filmu až na úroveň skupin a jejich vedoucích; souběžně s tím se posilovala role konkurence uvnitř profesní komunity a z ní plynoucí diferenciace tvůrčích postupů. Vytvoření podmínek pro skupinový styl ovšem ještě neznamenalo jeho reálný vznik — kolem některých tvůrčích skupin a neformálních sítí spolupracovníků
se skupinový styl zformoval, kolem jiných nikoli (konkrétní důvody by bylo třeba prozkoumat v samostatné komparativní práci). Naproti tomu průmyslové autorství byl fakt daný držením autority přidělovat autorské pozice, čili trvalá vlastnost zestátněného filmu, respektive jeho výrobních složek.

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English Summary:

Industrial Authorship and Group Style in Czech Cinema of the 1950s and 1960s

The article discusses the conditions for group-based creativity and style in the state-socialist production system of Czechoslovakia in the second half of the 1950s and the 1960s. My aim is to describe the manner in which collaborative creative activities were organised under a regime which designated the state as the sole official producer. I will also look at the way informal social networks allowed distinct group styles to take shape. I focus on organisational solutions which were introduced in the mid-1950s in an effort to strike a balance between top-down centralized control on the one hand, and creative freedom as a necessary prerequisite for product differentiation on the other. I initially draw on recent theoretical discussions of group style and authorship as well as on my previous work, on what I call the “State-socialist Mode of Film Production”, which comprises management
hierarchies, and a division of labor and work practices. I then move to my example, Czechoslovak cinema after 1954, when so-called fi lm units were re-established in Barrandov Studios as part of the general decentralization of the rigid production system of the early 1950s (characterised by extreme social atomization and disempowerment of the production community). By focusing on
the early stage of the transformation process (1955‒1962), when the units ‒ practically substituting for hands-on creative producers ‒ were pushed to innovate and differentiate by building informal collaborative networks with young writers and directors, I attempt to uncover the social workings of group styles. The group styles are thus described in their nascent form, before they materialized into the first revisionist fi lm movement of post-WW2 Czech cinema ‒ socially critical and satirical movies of the late 1950s, followed by the so-called “New Wave” of the 1960s.

Using Lisa Parks' concepts of “postbroadcasting” and “flexible microcasting,” I examine how Viacom and MTV Networks developed Logo TV as a cable channel catering to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) audiences. Through an examination of the trade press, MTV Networks' and Logo's programming strategies, and the series Noah's Arc and Round Trip Ticket, I argue that Logo's attempts to market itself to a diverse queer audience are undermined by textual choices in specific programs that reinscribe class, race, and national hierarchies in queer cultures. The article begins with an examination of how Logo executives constructed a queer audience in the age of media convergence and then moves to consider the promotional, programming, and scheduling strategies that were developed to target queer audiences. Using Noah's Arc and Round Trip Ticket, I analyze limitations in Logo's programming regarding the channel's representations of gender, race, and nationality.

Creative industries is becoming increasingly important topic in Japan in recent years. The focus is no longer exclusively on manufacturing and productivity, for which Japan is known for, but has shifted to nurturing creativity and culture and becoming a branded cool nation. This essay reviews socio-cultural and politico-economic contexts of this development which is usually overshadowed by recent scholarly attention on global circulation and consumption of Japanese popular culture, particularly manga and anime. In particular the essay discusses what I see as fundamental contradictions in Japanese creative industries discourse, namely the issue of tension between old media and new media by way of introducing very public takeover attempt by Livedoor (internet startup) of Fuji Television (largest television company) in the mid 2000s.

Television’s perceived weakness at the turn of the century opened a rhetorical and economic space for entrepreneurs eager to curate and distribute web programs. These companies introduced various forms of experimentation they associated with the advantages of digital technologies, but they also maintained continuity with television’s business practices. This dialectic between old and new, continuity and change, insiders and outsiders, reflected the instability of television as a concept and the promise of the web as an alternative. Using articles in the trade press, this essay explores the history of episodic web programming—variously called web series, webisodes, bitcoms, web television and, in its earliest form, cybersoaps—as new media network executives hoped to replicate but also differentiate themselves from legacy media.

Course Description: What is going on in the media industries today? What kinds of issues and challenges are entertainment industry professionals dealing with? This class has two key goals: First, students will learn how the media industries operate, gaining a sense of the "big picture" of the contemporary film, television, and digital video landscape. Large-scale issues being faced by those working in the entertainment industry-including the impact of conglomerate ownership, regulation, globalization, and digitization on creative practices and work roles-will be addressed through readings and class discussion. Second, students will hear from a range of guest speakers coming from Hollywood, New York, and Texas about their personal experiences navigating the media business, past and present. While a few of those visiting the class will work in production (writing, producing, etc.), most of our guests will work in other types of creative, managerial, and executive roles (e.g., talent management, business affairs, marketing and distribution, etc.). Class discussion will focus in part on connecting guests' experiences to larger industrial practices and concerns. Objectives and Outcomes: By the end of this course, you should be able to… • Recognize how industry mandates, conditions, and practices shape media products; • Understand key debates and issues being discussed by media professionals today; • Identify how digital technologies are affecting longstanding practices in film and TV; • Appreciate how individuals are navigating diverse career paths in the media industries, balancing creative pressures and economic imperatives.

The article focuses on the co-creational labour made by professionals (and non-professionals) who, in a non-Anglo-Saxon country such as Italy, adapt and modify (heavily or slightly) the ‘original’ media products (i.e. TV series) in order to make them accessible to the domestic audience. After a concise introduction on the ‘Italianization’ process, the article proceeds to describe two ways of adapting nationally: the professional translation and dubbing system and the grassroots fansubbing phenomenon. The attention is both on the production routines and on their influence on the meaning of the text.