Digital media Production

The Labour of Media Use: The Two Active Audiences

by Göran Bolin

published in Information, Communication & Society, online first (April 2012)

The ‘active audience’ has theoretically been conceptualized from two perspectives: in political economy, it is... more The ‘active audience’ has theoretically been conceptualized from two perspectives: in political economy, it is suggested that television audiences work for the networks while watching and that they contribute to the valorization process with their labour. Although contested, it has survived among media scholars, also feeding into the discussion on web surveillance techniques. The other conceptualization comes from reception theory, media ethnography and cultural studies, where the interpretive work by audiences is seen as productive and resulting in identities, taste cultures and social difference. This article relates these perspectives by considering audiences as involved in two production–consumptions circuits: (1) the viewer activities produce social difference (identities and cultural meaning) in a social and cultural economy, which is then (2) made the object of productive consumption as part of the activities of the media industries, the end product being economic profit. This article argues for the relevance of analysing these as separate circuits, with different kinds of labour at their centre, and that recent debates on the active audience often misrecognize the difference.

Second Screen White-paper

by Ricard Gras

White-paper about the state-of-affairs re 2nd Screen (also known as ConnectedTV). Written between Oct-Nov 2011 (on a consultancy assignment for Berlin's Crowdpark).

NOTE: though the document provides generic recommendations and does attempt at looking objectively into the subject, as a study (into what effectively is a novel and fast-moving subject area), is bound to become outdated very soon. Feel free to connect via Twitter and/or linked to continue the conversation.

Second Screen (also known as Second Screen Entertainment) is referred to interactive content accessible via portable... more Second Screen (also known as Second Screen Entertainment) is referred to interactive content accessible via portable
devices such as Tablet PC’s and smart phones that provides additional content to viewers as they access media content like
for instance a movie or Television program.

The document explores the popularisation of the herein after referred to as smart devices (Tablet PC’s and smart phones)
and some of the new user habits emerging from the use of such devices and their effects on TV viewing (although such
effects could also extrapolate onto other types of media). This study also lists many, though not all, the initiatives that are
currently pioneering into this market area.

This study concludes that, given the progressive acceptance of smart devices (and the concurrent changes in user habits
they promote) 2nd-Screen apps that are purposely-designed to run alongside media content may tap into considerable
future opportunities. Though the industry is clearly at a phase of trial and error in relation with this subject area, a series of
pioneering productions are already anticipating what could be a  bright future for the equation: smart devices + TV
screen. Likewise, in the midst of this experimental process, a series of challenges are also coming the fore: for instance, the
difficulties of generating multi-screen content that supports (rather than disrupts) the viewing experience.

Beyond big video: The instability of independent networks in a new media market

by Aymar Jean Christian

This essay explores the possibility of an online video market operating independent of conglomerations. At stake is... more This essay explores the possibility of an online video market operating independent of conglomerations. At stake is whether new media can operate ‘democratically’, providing more equal distribution of control to producers and distributors within an unequal market. This is the story of a handful of these websites, all of which promise this possibility: Strike TV, My Damn Channel, KoldCast, Babelgum and Quarterlife. Their stories offer telling case studies of new media in their formative years. In the end, without industrial structures in place, independents must grapple with rapidly changing conditions, improvise business strategies and, ultimately, work with the mainstream, traditional structures to which they were, however superficially, in opposition. Independent distribution in early media emerges as a practice as much indebted to the old media as it pushes new forms of engagement, marketing and production.

Fandom as industrial response: Producing identity in an independent Web series

by Aymar Jean Christian

I frame the development, production, and distribution of a Web series, "The Real Girl's Guide to Everything... more I frame the development, production, and distribution of a Web series, "The Real Girl's Guide to Everything Else," as a fan-driven response to an industrial product, "Sex and the City." As intermittent participants in the Hollywood industry, the series creators, a diverse group of lesbian, bisexual, and straight women of various ethnicities, positioned their series as a market-oriented product intended to reform the industry from its margins and participate in a growing new media economy. Expanded notions of fan production and industry are needed, as are fresh frameworks for analyzing the effects of digital distribution, especially for communities of color, of women, and of sexual minorities.

The Digital Intermediate and Craft Authority in Practice (Dissertation excerpt)

by Christopher Lucas

Sexting as media production: Re-thinking social media

by Amy Hasinoff

Unpublished manuscript draft--currently under review

Many adults are struggling to find appropriate responses to teen sexting: they are blaming the victims of... more Many adults are struggling to find appropriate responses to teen sexting: they are blaming the victims of nonconsensual sexting, using harsh child pornography laws against minors, and giving teenagers the ineffective message to simply abstain from sexting. While some scholars champion girls’ media production practices, mainstream discourses since the early 2000s typically portray girls’ media production as irresponsible, dangerous, and out-of-control because it involves sexual content. In this paper, I illustrate and challenge the dominant mainstream assumptions behind some of the major concerns about digitally mediated sexuality by drawing on scholarship that examines the benefits of youth media production and digital social interaction. I argue that viewing sexting as a form of media production would lead to models of social media production that could account for sexuality and consent.

The Forms of Value: Problems of Convertibility in Field Theory

by Göran Bolin

Media production in late capitalism is often measured in terms of economic value. If value is defined as the worth of... more Media production in late capitalism is often measured in terms of economic value. If value is defined as the worth of a thing, a standard or measure, being the result of social praxis and negotiation between producers and consumers in various combinations, it follows that this worth can be of other kinds than the mere economic. This is, for example, the reasoning behind field theory (Bourdieu), where the generation of field-specific capital (value) is deeply dependent on the belief shared by the competing agents within the field. The full extent of the consequences of such a theory of convertibility between fields of cultural production, centred on different forms of value, is, however yet to be explored. This is the task of this article. It especially focuses on how value is constructed differently depending on the relations of the valuing subject to the production process, something that becomes highly relevant in digital media environments, where users are increasingly drawn into the production process.

Thinking, Fixing, Delivering: Planning and evaluating student-led creative projects

by Roy Hanney

Journal of Learning and Teaching No.2, pp. 20-28. 2007.

This paper explores the nature of a 'project', evaluates appropriate structural considerations for project delivery... more This paper explores the nature of a 'project', evaluates appropriate structural considerations for project delivery and makes recommendations on the appropriate level of documentation for small-scale student-led projects using PRINCE2 as a basis for discussion.

The Custodians of the Gift: Intangible Cultural Property and Commodification of the Fijian Firewalking Ceremony

by Guido Carlo Pigliasco

Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa 2007

Visual Anthropology and Jurisprudence: The Sawau Project

by Guido Carlo Pigliasco

Anthropology News (48)1:65 2007

Intangible Cultural Property, Tangible Databases, Visible Debates: The Sawau Project

by Guido Carlo Pigliasco

International Journal of Cultural Property 16(3): 255-69 2009

The Islands Have Memory: Reflections on Two Collaborative Projects in Contemporary Oceania

by Guido Carlo Pigliasco

with Thorolf Lipp, The Contemporary Pacific 23(2):371-410 2011

Bolin, Göran (2009): ‘Symbolic Production and Value in Media Industries’

by Göran Bolin

, in Journal of Cultural Economy, vol. 2(3): 345-361.

This article discusses value creation within the fields of cultural production. It departs from Bourdieu's field... more This article discusses value creation within the fields of cultural production. It departs from Bourdieu's field model, and seeks to develop it to fit unrestricted cultural production, for example television production. Bourdieu for the most part discussed the production of value (or forms of capital) in relation to fields of restricted cultural production, that is, within the fine arts (e.g. art, literature). Although one of his best known works dealt with television, one cannot say that he used the possibilities inherent in his own theory thoroughly enough to analyse this field of mass production. This article builds on recent discussions on the role of field theory in media studies, and seeks to contribute to the development of a theory of value production in fields of large-scale or unrestricted cultural production. It is argued that the conflation of commercial value with other kinds of value is more intense in the subfield of unrestricted cultural production, as production in this part of the field needs to obey outer demand in a way that production at the pole of restricted production does not.

Proposal for Dissertation, Selling Independent New Media

by Aymar Jean Christian

In the spirit of deepening our understanding of new media, the dissertation will focus on the production of an object... more In the spirit of deepening our understanding of new media, the dissertation will focus on the production of an object – “web series” – and its practitioners – producers/filmmakers, marketers, entrepreneurs – to uncover what “digital” technology promises, what it forecloses and what value new media offers scholars seeking to understand how power, agency, markets and industries operate in periods when new media emerge. The market for web series introduces a critical perspective in the debate over whether regular users or big corporations will control and structure the future of media industries: neither unskilled amateurs nor well-endowed corporations, the independent producers and practitioners in the web series market do not clearly fit into the boundaries of the current scholarly debate over structure and agency in media systems. Instead, participants in the independent web series market must navigate competing discourses, grapple with industrial imperatives and improvise new cultural understandings for what they produce and distribute. Far from a user-generated utopia or a corporate-controlled dystopia, the world of web series suggests possibilities and illuminates the challenges new media.

Sounding Places: Situated Conversations Through the Soundscape Compositions of Hildegard Westerkamp

by Andra McCartney

BA Media Production at Lampeter and the Creative Industries

by Trevor Harris

Submitted for "Productive Relationships: Higher Education and the Creative Industries in Wales" report, it wil feature as an exemplar of current best practice in terms of that relationship

The BA Media Production degree scheme has been created by the Department of Film and Media at the University of Wales,... more The BA Media Production degree scheme has been created by the Department of Film and Media at the University of Wales, Lampeter to focus on digital media production in the multi-platform, multi-skilled contemporary media industry. The course was conceived from the outset as one that focused on production across and between genres with the interaction of creativity, theory and practice being at the heart of the programme.

The course is not a training scheme for the Creative Industries but a course that prepares students for a flexible production and/or managerial role in the media industry of the future. Digital media knows no boundaries and this is key to understanding the focus of media production at Lampeter.

This case study will not only emphasise that philosophy in terms of the degree scheme but also demonstrate that in addition to North and South Wales courses highlighted in the report for ELWa in 2005 there is a course in Mid Wales that is relevant to the Creative Industries, whose key feature “is the close links between the institution and the industries, with the provision being practically focused”.

Gwyl Ffilmiau Ceredigion, aka primary school film and animation 'oscars' ceremony

by Trevor Harris

A case study that will feature in the community and outreach section of "Productive Relationships: Higher Education and the Creative Industries in Wales" report

The Department of Film and Media at the University of Wales, Lampeter and the University Media Centre have pooled... more The Department of Film and Media at the University of Wales, Lampeter and the University Media Centre have pooled their expertise over a number of years to facilitate community projects. These have ranged from specific activities using production capabilities such as the Outside Broadcast Unit (see elsewhere in this Report), to the Carers: A Secret Service documentary for the Ceredigion Red Cross Fieldworker’s project, and other production work for local charitable organisations, such as DVD authoring and film editing for The Sleeping Giant Foundation and websites for businesses and attractions such as the National Botanical Garden of Wales.

The Department has also been involved in facilitating events such as the BBC Here For You and BayTV’s recording of the bicentennial celebrations of the town of Aberaeron on the Mid Wales coast. Although many of these have often been one-off arrangements, there has also been webstreaming of events such as Ffresh and CANOL that have tended to be annual bookings.

This case study explores the development of the Ceredigion Schools Film Festival, now in its second year, and the contribution by the Lampeter’s Department of Film and Media, the University Media Centre and students on the MA Media Production course. The festival’s main sponsor for 2009 is Handshake Productions, a Lampeter based company run by a postgraduate student and part-time video production lecturer in the Department. Handshake Production’s sponsorship involved engaging Lampeter Media Production students in editing work in the build up to the festival, as well as producing stings and promos for the ceremony, adding a further link between the festival and the Department of Film and Media at Lampeter.