CALL FOR PAPERS
*Kick Starting Media:*
*Cultures of Funding in Contemporary Media Industries*
*One-Day Conference: 9 June 2016*
*Media Futures Research Centre, Bath Spa UniversityHeld at Bath Spa
University, Newton Park CampusNewton Park, Newton St Loe, Bath, BA2 9BN*
*Confirmed keynotes:*
Professor Gillian Doyle, University of Glasgow
Dr James Cateridge, Oxford Brookes University
With recent threats of change to the BBC’s future public funding regime,
not to mention news of the British broadcaster’s former *Top Gear* presenters
signing to subscription-based streaming service Amazon Prime, the subject
of new media funding models and their impact on how audiences can – or
should – consume media has become a point of public discussion. Trends such
as crowdfunding and co-creation – where producers and audiences share
responsibility for financing and producing media – as well as
subscription-based platforms like Netflix and video-on-demand services such
as iTunes have all made media more sharable and personal, but all of these
trends and services also raise further questions about the funding
priorities, strategies and policies in the arts, media and culture sectors.
It is thus timely to take stock of the cultures of funding in contemporary
media industries, and this conference provides a platform for analysing the
impact of these contemporary funding cultures, be it on texts, audiences,
technologies or industries.
Recent public debates over funding in the media industries seem tied to the
impact of digitalisation, which has provided a catalyst for change in terms
of how media is now produced and consumed across multiple platforms. As
such, basic business models for funding media are changing. While
digitalisation is seen to have redefined ideas of ownership amidst shifts
from a top-down corporate-driven model to a more bottom-up consumer-driven
model (Jenkins 2006), how is such a shift continuing to shape the type of
media now being financed? Moreover, how are digitised media interfaces –
bringing greater individualised choice for media audiences (Tryon 2013) –
impacting funding patterns and creative imperatives for such media? What is
the impact of convergences and the need to spread content across multiple
platforms on license fee funding? Equally, emerging digitalised funding
models such as co-creativity raise questions about entrepreneurship in the
media but also about unequal power structures as audiences may come to
function as free labour (Scholz 2013; Smith 2015). In what ways, then,
might such blurring of power structures redefine basic notions of media
funding? And how do different media industries now orchestrate, manage and
perceive the turn towards crowdfunded, video-on-demand or co-created
content as business models of the future?
To address these questions, the conference organisers invite proposals for
20-minute papers from both researchers and media practitioners. As well as
exploring the broader questions above, proposals can be on, but are not
limited to, the following topics:
- Contemporary film funding (e.g. Hollywood franchise-based models of
financing, independently-financed productions, crowdfunding platforms such
as Kickstarter, public/private sector film financing, etc)
- Contemporary television funding (e.g. subscription-based streaming
services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, public service/license fee
funding models, new sponsorship models, product placement, TV promo
companies, video-on-demand services such as iPlayer, etc)
- Contemporary videogame funding (e.g. co-creation, social media gaming
production, etc)
- Contemporary comics and book funding (e.g. digital/motion comics,
online publishing trends, etc)
- Contemporary music funding and new economic models (e.g. live-touring,
streaming, downloading platforms such as iTunes, etc)
- Contemporary advertising and transmedia funding (e.g. social media
marketing, online apps, intermediary agency funds, branded entertainment,
etc)
- Impacts of contemporary funding practices on audiences (e.g.
exploitability of co-creativity, crowdfunding as fandom, fan-fiction, binge
watching, etc)
- Impacts of contemporary funding practices on media texts (e.g.
changing narrative formats, participatory content, etc)
* A Special Issue devoted to the conference theme of ‘Funding in the
Convergence Era’ will be published in *The International Journal on Media
Management <http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hijm20/current>* in February
2017, co-edited by Matthew Freeman and journal editor Bozena Mierzejewska.
Conference speakers will be invited to submit their papers to this Special
Issue for consideration.
Please send proposals (300 words plus a 100 word bio) to Dr Matthew Freeman
([log in to unmask]) by no later than *15 January 2016*. Delegates
will be informed of acceptance by mid-February 2016.
This event is part of the Media Futures Research Centre
<http://www.media-futures.org> 'Economic Futures' 2015-16 programme of
activities at Bath Spa University.
*Dr Matthew Freeman*
*Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication*
*Director, Media Futures Research Centre*
*Department of Film, Media and Creative Computing*
*Bath Spa University*
T: +44 (0)1225 876708
Visit www.bathspa.ac.uk
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