CfP: VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture Vol. 3, Issue 6

Convergent Television(s): Political Ideas, Industrial Strategies, Textual Features and Audience Practices.

Since the 1980s, media convergence has become a buzzword for media studies, a crucial site for academic debate and research and especially a major topic of interest for politics, media industries, technics, and audiences. The complex process of media convergence combines technical issues linked to digitization, political ideas of deregulation, corporate strategies of merging, and grassroots’ cultural practices.

TV studies have been discussing the topic of media convergence from many different angles and perspectives: political, institutional, technological, industrial, textual, and cultural issues of convergence have been put to the forefront. The theme of the Fall 2014 issue of VIEW seeks to shine a light on past and on-going processes of convergent television in different national and historical contexts. We welcome contributions that face the topic of convergence from different disciplinary and historical points of view.

Proposals are invited on (but not limited to):

• Archaeology of TV Convergence: convergence before digitization;
• Historical cases of successful and/or failed convergence in broadcasting;
• National or international policies (especially at European level) that are specifically addressed to favour TV and broadcasting convergence;
• Strategies of convergence (and effects of divergence): how different national broadcasters are confronting the challenges of media convergence and digitization in an innovative (or regressive) way;
• Historical case studies in terms of convergent business strategies: how TV companies combined with other media or even other than media companies;
• Players of TV convergence: national or multinational production companies committed to original content production;
• Technical devices and affordances: how technology has affected the way of producing, distributing and use TV content in a more and more convergent manner;
• The textual features of Convergent TV: how media convergence affects traditional TV genres, styles and aesthetics
• Convergent TV formats, transmedia narratives and forms of branded content entertainment;
• Changing audience habits and practices.

Contributions are encouraged from authors with different expertise and interests in television history, media studies, television studies, media history, political economy of communication, media economics and media industries, audience studies, television professionals and archivists.

Paper proposals (max. 500 words) are due on April 15th. Submissions should be sent to the managing editor of the journal, Dana Mustata (journal@euscreen.eu). Articles (2-4,000 words) will be due on July 1st.

For further information or questions about the issue, please contact the co-editors: Gabriele Balbi (gabriele.balbi@usi.ch) and Massimo Scaglioni (massimo.scaglioni@unicatt.it).

About VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture

VIEW, Journal of European Television History and Culture (http://viewjournal.eu) is the first peer-reviewed multi-media e-journal in the field of television studies. Offering an international platform for outstanding academic research on television, the journal has an interdisciplinary profile and acts both as a platform for critical reflection on the cultural, social and political role of television in Europe’s past and present as well as a multi-media platform for the circulation and use of digitized audiovisual material.

The journal’s main aim is to function as a showcase for a creative and innovative use of digitized television material in scholarly work, and to inspire a fruitful discussion between audiovisual heritage institutions (especially television archives) and a broader community of television experts and amateurs. In offering a unique technical infrastructure for a multi-media presentation of critical reflections on European television, the journal aims at stimulating innovative narrative forms of online storytelling, making use of the digitized audiovisual collections of television archives around Europe.

 

‘This collection is a most comprehensive book on television ratings systems. It offers a remarkable breadth of case studies of nations from North and South America, Europe, and Asia. These also include a wide variety of types of measurement practices and organizational structures. Such an array offers great opportunities for comparative analyses. Just as important, the book is theoretically, analytically and critically sophisticated. It examines the various critiques of audience measurement, such as the important distinction between substantive and procedural truths and the underlying assumptions in quantification and statistics about human behavior and social relations.” (BACK COVER ENDORSEMENT BY Richard Butsch, author of “The Making of American Audiences”).

 

Introduction; Jérôme Bourdon and Cécile Méadel
PART I: INVENTING MEASUREMENT
1. The Politics of Enjoyment: Competing Audience Measurement Systems in Britain, 1950-1980; Stefan Schwarzkopf
2. Still the British Model? The BARB versus Nielsen; Marc Balnaves
3. Canada’s Audience Massage: Audience Research and TV Policy Development, 1980-2010; Philip Savage and Alexandre Sévigny
4. The Monopoly that Won’t Divide: France’s Médiamétrie; Jérôme Bourdon and Cécile Méadel
5. Pioneering the Peoplemeter: German Public Service; Susanne Vollberg
PART II: APPROPRIATING AUDIENCE FIGURES
6. Power Games: Audience Measurement as a Mediation Between Actors in India; Santanu Chakrabarti
7. Imagining Audiences in Brazil: Class, ‘Race’ and Gender; Esther Hamburger, Heloisa Buarque de Almeida, and Tirza Aidar
8. From Referee to Scapegoat, but still Referee: Auditel in Italy; Massimo Scaglioni
9. Domestication of Anglo-Saxon Conventions and Practices in Australia; Mark Balnaves
10. Market Requirements and Political Challenges: Russia Between Two Worlds; Elena Johansson and Sergey Davydov
PART III: CONFRONTING CHANGES
11. The Role of Ratings in Scheduling. Commercial Logics in Irish Public Television; Ann-Marie Murray
12. The Local Peoplemeter, the Portable Peoplemeter, and the Unsettled Law and Policy of Audience Measurement in the US; Philip Napoli
13. Challenges of Digital Innovations: A Set-Top Box Based Approach; Katrien Berte and Tom Evens
14. Thickening Behavioral Data: New Uses of Ratings for Social Sciences; Jakob Bjur

FIAT/IFTA, the International Federation of Television Archives, organizes a two-day international seminar on television documentary. The seminar is organized by the FIAT/IFTA Television Studies Commission whose aim it is to promote academic research of the holdings of television archives that are a member of the federation. The seminar will take place at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in Hilversum on 13 and 14 March 2014.

Former and current practitioners, representing different generations and countries, will discuss their work in a witness seminar and extracts from their work will be screened.

The seminar costs € 25-, for one day and € 35-, for both days. Because of the limited seats, we ask you to register as soon as possible. Register at:https://www.eventbrite.nl/e/fiatifta-seminar-television-documentary-tickets-10537101755

More information at: http://www.beeldengeluid.nl/en/TSCSeminar2014

 

 

From March 30 to April 2^nd, 2014 the international Orphan Film Symposium takes place at the EYE Film Institute in Amsterdam. The ninth edition of this biennial event is organised by NYU Cinema Studies and the University of Amsterdam, and is being held in Europe for the first time. The symposium offers a variety of  screenings and presentations and begins  with a celebratory film concert; the world premiere of the recent preservation of East is West (USA, 1922).

The symposium is a gathering of archivists, curators, scholars, technology experts, librarians, collectors, distributors, preservationists, artists, and advocates devoted to screening and studying orphan films: All manner of films outside the commercial mainstream: amateur, educational, ethnographic, industrial, government, experimental, censored, independent, sponsored, obsolescent, small-gauge, silent, student, medical, unreleased, and underground films, as well as kinescopes, home movies, test reels, newsreels, outtakes, fringe TV, and other ephemeral moving images. Rediscovered and recently preserved films, videos, and digital works from around the world will be projected, each presented with context provided by expert speakers and creative accompanists.

The theme of Orphans 9 is obsolescence, broadly conceived. More than 50 presenters will address the histories and futures of film and other moving image media. The symposium considers not only technological obsolescence, but also the ways audiovisual media have recorded and deployed ideas, genres, representations, narratives, and ideologies deemed obsolete or outdated. What orphan films document these phenomena? What neglected and orphaned media should we re-view to better understand the world? How should archivists and curators deal with obsolete “new media”? How are citizens transforming remaindered film and video material? How do archives, museums, libraries, and sister institutions participate in remix culture?

Events begin on 30^th March, Sunday evening with a celebratory film concert; the world premiere of the recent EYE discovery and preservation of East is West (USA, 1922) starring Constance Talmadge, preceded by the short films by Maarten Visser. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday events run from morning through late evening.

Attendance is open to anyone, but advanced paid registration is required. Seating is limited. Fee of 250$ (125$ for students) gives access to all screenings and presentations; catered meals and breaks, and a registration packet. Please register at www.nyu.edu/orphans.

Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) invites proposals for articles for a special issue of Critical Studies in Television:‘ Spaces of Television: Production, Site and Style’ to be published in Autumn 2015.

The journal issue emerges from a research project of the same name, investigating television fiction produced in the UK from 1955-94 and analysing how the material spaces of production (in TV studios and on location) conditioned the aesthetic forms of programmes. Papers that specifically address British drama during this period are particularly welcome, however comparative perspectives concerning dramas from other television industries, import/export, transnational exchange, co-productions and spatially-themed studies of earlier or later dramas will be also considered.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

• Analysis of the dramatic conventions of television genres as demonstrated through the use of space and mise-en-scene.
• Case studies of television dramatists, actors, directors, producers, designers, or other production staff focusing on mise-en-scene and issues of space.
• The relationship between television dramatic space and performance, and the social and cultural meanings of performance in different spatial and aesthetic contexts.
• The spatial significance of particular production techniques and/or special effects in television drama.
• The social and cultural meanings of the spaces depicted in television drama: e.g. heritage spaces, the urban and the rural, regional, national and foreign spaces, fantasy spaces.
• The institutional and aesthetic relationships between the spaces of television production (studio, location) and dramas’ social, political and cultural meanings.
• Histories and historiographies of television drama, particularly relating to production strategies and institutional contexts.

Proposals for articles of 5,000-6,000 words, in the form of an abstract of approximately 400-500 words should be submitted to Dr Leah Panos (l.d.panos@reading.ac.uk) by 31 March 2014.

Further details of the project can be found at:
http://www.reading.ac.uk/ftt/research/Spacesoftelevision.aspx

“Behind the Screen explores the complex plays of power and imagination that shape the production of European film and television. Ranging widely, the authors provide revealing case examples of the diverse contexts in which screen media are conceived and produced. Shrewdly observant and conceptually sophisticated, these essays engage brilliantly with enduring debates about creative labor and cultural authority in modern societies.”

- Michael Curtin, Mellichamp Professor of Global Media Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

 

BEHIND THE SCREEN: INSIDE EUROPEAN PRODUCTION CULTURES

Ed. by Petr Szczepanik & Patrick Vonderau

New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2014

Introduction; Petr Szczepanik and Patrick Vonderau

PART I: FIELDS AND APPROACHES

1. Borderlands, Contact Zones, and Boundary Games: A Conversation with John T. Caldwell; Patrick Vonderau

2. Analyzing Production from a Socio-Material Perspective; Sara Malou Strandvad

3. The ‘Cultural’ of Production and Career; Chris Mathieu

4. Pacts of Embodiment: A Comparative Ethnography of Filmmakers’ Gestures; Emmanuel Grimaud

5. Film Production as a Palimpsest; Sylvie Lindeperg

PART II: MODES OF PRODUCTION

6. Stress Aesthetics and Deprivation ‘Pay’ Systems; John T. Caldwell

7. The State-Socialist Mode of Production and the Political History of Production Culture; Petr Szczepanik

8. A Flexible Mode of Production: Internationalizing Hollywood Filmmaking in Postwar Europe; Daniel Steinhart

9. A European Take on the Showrunner? Danish Television Drama Production; Eva Novrup Redvall

10. Exporting Nollywood: Nigerian Video Filmmaking in Europe; Alessandro Jedlowski

PART III: THE POLITICS OF CREATIVITY

11. Inequalities in Media Work; Rosalind Gill

12. Subjects At Work: Investigating the Creative Labour of British Screenwriters; Bridget Conor

13. Policy or Practice? Deconstructing Creative Industries; Philip Drake

 

Publisher website: http://us.macmillan.com/behindthescreen/PetrSzczepanik

We would like to present you the most frequently viewed videos on EUscreen in 2013*:

#1  Makrobiotička / Macrobiotic Lady (provided by Czech Televison)

 

What is the life like for those who know what they eat? 70-years old lady Jarmila Průchová was healed thanks to a macrobiotic diet.”I am as happy and active as sixteen years ago, when these footage were taken. Best regards. Jarmila.” – said Ms Průchová in 2013.

Broadcast date: 22/06/1997

 

 

 

 

#2 Actie van de rijkswacht/ Action of the State Police (provided by VRT)

 

 

The State Police in Begium is very active on the roads, not only to verbalize the transgressions but also to give a help to automobilists in trouble.

Broadcast date: 09/08/1956

 

 

#3 A travers le Bruxelles populaire/Through the popular Brussels (provided by RTBF)

 

Clients in a café tell stories in the different Brussels dialects.

 Broadcast date: 31/03/1974

 

 

 

 

 

#4 Valfil (provided by RTBF)

 

Valfil wire fabric in Seraing is dismantled and transported by boat to China.

Broadcast date: 10/02/1988

 

 

 

 

 

#5 25 years paracommando (provided by VRT)

 

Paracommandos are famous for their interventions in war time. How about the training and the daily life of the paracommandos ?

 Broadcast date: 27/09/1967

 

 

 

 

 

#6 Les garçons et les filles/ Boys and girls (provided by RTBF)

 

The celebrations in Brussels : the Saint-Verhaegen on 20 November 1963.

Broadcast date: 04/12/1963

 

 

 

 

 

#7 Luttre: train crash / Accident de train (provided by RTBF)

 

Luttre : aftermaths of a train crash that killed 18 and injured 69.

Broadcast date: 15/08/1974

 

 

 

 

 

#8 Jeugdbendes in Genk/ Gangs in Genk (provided by VRT)

 

The phenomenon of gangs among young migrants in the city of Genk. Their life is conditioned by unemployment and petty crimes. They find a way out in music and dangerous moto competitions. How does justice handle them ?

Broadcast date: 04/09/1980

 

 

 

 

#9 Teenage street style (provided by RTÉ)

 

Teenage street style and fashion in late 1980′s Dublin.

Broadcast date: 03/02/1989

 

 

 

 

 

#10 Children Street Games and Rhymes (provided by RTÉ)

 

Film of children playing on the street in a Dublin housing estate.

Broadcast date: 27/10/1969

 

 

 

 

 

 

* data from Google Analytics

VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture Vol. 3, Issue 05.

Deadline for abstracts: February 1st, 2014.
Deadline for full papers: 15 March, 2014.

While recent comparative and transnational approaches in the field of European television history have demonstrated the need for (post)socialist television histories in Europe, there is currently limited scholarship dedicated to this geopolitical area of television in Europe. This area of study has mostly been relegated to the margins of other disciplines and remained isolated by national languages inaccessible to non-native scholars.

The forthcoming issue of VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture is dedicated to the theme Television Histories in (Post)Socialist Europe. It aims to open up discussions of (post)socialist television in Europe beyond political histories of the nation-state, discourses of Cold War isolation and East-West antagonism. The very broad questions that motivate these aims are:

• Which empirical case studies help us understand (post)socialist television histories beyond stories of political control?
• Which primary sources allow us access to television histories that fall outside the mainstream histories of the socialist state?
• What methods do we need in order to decentralize the state in the production of (post)socialist television histories and analyze television histories that have resisted, subverted or negotiated the politics of communist regimes?
• How can we theorize (post)socialist television as an object of study that revisits the East versus West dichotomies that have been at the centre of television history in Europe
• How do (post)socialist television histories help us revisit the Cold War geography of Europe?
• How can we understand the shifting place of (post)socialist television within broader societal processes of communication?

VIEW welcomes contributions in the form of short articles (2000-4500 words), video and audio essays that take these broad questions on board and deal specifically with topics such as:

• empirical case studies that help us understand (post)socialist television histories beyond stories of political control;
• video and audio essays exploring television archival collections in Eastern Europe;
• video and audio essays presenting primary sources (e.g. oral interviews, audio-visual and written material) of television in former socialist countries;
• transnational cultures of (post)socialist television in Europe, namely: shared cultures of television production and professions, shared techno-political cultures of television and shared viewing cultures;
• memories of socialist television and nostalgia;
• popular television programmes during and since socialism.

This issue is guest edited by the European (Post)Socialist Television History Network in collaboration with the following guest editorial team:

• Kirsten Bönker (Bielefeld University, DE)
• Sven Grampp (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, DE)
• Ferenc Hammer (ELTE University, HU)
• Anikó Imre (University of Southern California, USA)
• Lars Lundgren (Södertörn Univerity, SE)
• Sabina Mihelj (Loughborough University, UK)
• Dana Mustata (University of Groningen, NL)
• Julia Obertreis (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, DE)
• Irena Reifová (Charles University, CZ)

Submission info

• Contributions are encouraged from authors with different kinds of expertise and interests in television broadcasting, from researchers to television professionals, to archivists and preservationists.
• Contributions can be in the form of conventional articles, illustrated commentaries or photo-essays.
• Paper proposals (max. 500 words) are due on February 1st, 2014. Submissions should be sent to the managing editor of the journal, Dana Mustata.

VIEW is published by the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in collaboration with Utrecht University, University of Luxembourg and Royal Holloway University of London. It is supported by the EUscreenXL project, the European Television History Network and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.