Call for Papers: Media Industry Studies – Current Debates and Future Directions

King’s College London

18-20 April 2018 

International conference hosted by the Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries, King’s College London

Deadline for proposals: 15 September 2017

Jointly organized by:

Media Industries Scholarly Interest Group, Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS)
Media Industry Studies Interest Group, International Communication Association (ICA)
Media Production Analysis Working Group, International Association of Mass Communication Research (IAMCR)
Screen Industries Work Group, European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (NECS)
Media Industries and Cultural Production Section, European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA)
European Media Management Association (EMMA)
Screen Industries Special Interest Group, British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS)
AG Medienindustrien, Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft (GFM)
Media Industries journal

Host Committee:
Paul McDonald (conference chair), Sarah Atkinson, Bridget Conor, Virginia Crisp, Jeanette Steemers

Advisory Committee:
Hanne Bruun (ECREA), Elizabeth Evans (Media Industries), Tom Evens (EMMA), David Hesmondhalgh (ECREA), Derek Johnson (SCMS), Skadi Loist (GFM), Amanda Lotz (ICA), Alisa Perren (Media Industries), Roel Puijk (IAMCR), Kevin Sanson (Media Industries), Andrew Spicer (BAFTSS), Petr Szczepanik (NECS), Patrick Vonderau (GFM)

Focus:

Studies of media industries have formed a distinctive strand of media scholarship. Foundational traditions in this field are marked by the political economy of communications, sociology of media occupations and institutions, media economics, media industry historiography, and critical and cultural studies. Subsequently, insights drawn from critical legal studies, cultural policy studies, economic geography, creative labour, cultural economy, Internet studies, production cultures and informal media economies have diversified and enriched the field.

In part this interest arises from contemporary changes within the media industries themselves, with the global extension and integration of media markets, digitalization of media production and distribution, changing business models, proliferation of supply channels, patterns of corporate convergence, and the blurring of producer/consumer relations. These are only the most recent development, however, of industries built on complex and contested histories.

With the boom in media industries scholarship and emergence of dedicated degree programmes or single modules, studies of industry have gained a visible place in media curricula. This conference is therefore providing an international and interdisciplinary forum for reviewing the past and present state of media industry studies, and defining the future of the field.

Papers, panels and workshop are invited from all traditions in media industries scholarship. We welcome work across the full breadth of media industries – print, publishing and journalism, advertising, recorded music, film/cinema, radio, television, video, games, mobile communications and social media – and in all international or historical contexts.

Thematic concerns include but are not limited to:

• critical and conceptual perspectives
  methodological approaches
  cultural and creative industries
  political economy
  production cultures and studies
  economic sociology
  de-westernizing media industry studies
  distribution studies
  gatekeepers and intermediaries
  cultural and economic globalization
  impacts of digitalization
  independent and alternative media institutions
  media industries historiography
  cooperative and competitive inter-industry interactions
  law and the shaping of media industries
  marketing and branding media content
  media management
  media markets and flows
  retail and sales of media
  networks, infrastructures and ecologies
  ownership and concentration
  policy and regulation
  politics of media labour
  teaching media industries
  media technologies as these relate to media industries

Submissions:

Submissions are welcomed in three categories: open call papers, pre-constituted panels, or pre-constituted workshops.

For further information, please visit the conference website: https://mediaindustrystudies.wordpress.com/