Screen Industries B examines the industrial logic of particular media industries that produce entertainment reaching audiences through the mediation of screens. The module focuses primarily on the film and television industries with references to the video game industry. Organised around 4 blocks – Key concepts, People, Structures and Power – the module investigates the relationships between technologies, economics, policies, politics and the social and cultural contexts that shape these media industries and their products. Using examples from various geographical contexts and drawing on a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives, Screen Industries B provides a pathway through which students can understand and appreciate the complex and multi-faceted nature of some of the key contemporary media industries.
The first block will introduce some of the key debates in the field of screen industries, commencing from the way in which digital technology has impacted film and television and the extent which they are now referred to as ‘legacy’ media before focusing on the ways in which they developed industrially. The emphasis will be primarily on cinema as the first medium to be organized on an industrial scale but in looking at the contemporary converged landscape it will be clear that television is also an important medium to understand its organization and operations.
The second block will take media convergence as a given and will investigate the deep structures that underpin media industries today. Starting from the migration of filmmakers to tv, it will explore the emergence of an indie television as it’s being practiced primarily by people who started their careers in film, before moving to immersive media systems and exploring questions around networking and streaming as these pertain to film, television as well as games. It will end with an examination of franchise entertainment, arguably the most obvious of example of converged media.
The third block will look primarily at issues related to people working in the screen industries, looking at three case studies that explore alternative and often competing systems of people-management in media industries: established structures that make up international star systems, the role of unofficial channels of reputation-making and gossip in determining value and control of individuals, and labour management such as issues relating to the unionisation of media sectors.
The module will end with a block on screen industries and power with a focus on contrasting approaches derived from policy management. It will start by examining the impact of regulation, intellectual property and media law on media production and then move onto examining how media and cultural policy work together with an emphasis on improving structural diversity in screen industries, a key issue in recent years.