Luca Barra, Ph.D, is Associate Professor at Università di Bologna and teaches History of Radio and Television and New Media Theories and Techniques. He has been Post-Doctoral Fellow Researcher at Università Cattolica, Milan, for five years. His research focuses on the international circulation of media products, on the history of Italian television and on the evolutions of contemporary media landscape. He published two books - Palinsesto (Laterza, Roma-Bari 2015) and Risate in scatola (Vita e Pensiero, Milan 2012) - and several essays in edited books and journals, and he is the editor of the TV studies journal Link. Idee per la televisione.
Address: Dipartimento delle Arti (DAR)
Università di Bologna
via Barberia, 4
40123 Bologna
Italy
Address: Dipartimento delle Arti (DAR)
Università di Bologna
via Barberia, 4
40123 Bologna
Italy
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In recent years, digital technologies have impacted on and shaped cultural, social and political paradigms, and have been integrated into the processes of creating and distributing cultural objects. This has established a dialogue between the computer and culture (Manovich, 2001), changed the media (Bolter & Grusin, 1996), and became part of the reconfiguration of digitextuality (Everett & Caldwell, 2003). This context impacts the production, distribution, and promotion of television series, which then engage at a textual level with the technological challenges facing the medium.
To reflect the volatile and exponential progress of digital technology, we intend to pursue three main directions to explore the relationship between technology and TV series: audiovisual discourse, production processes, and corporate promotion and distribution of television serials.
To investigate the various layers of this topic, SERIES invite researchers to participate in this special issue, which will address the following topics and lines of research into the relationship between television serials and digital technologies:
- narrative aspects considered from thematic, aesthetic and philosophical approaches;
- production in terms of tools, routines, and professional profiles;
- distribution platforms, strategies, and their modes of circulation;
- promotion tools, marketing, and transmedia strategies;
- discourse, including metrics, social networks, and communication.
Articles should range between 5,000-8,000 words (including abstract, notes and references). Full guidelines can be found on our website. In order to be included in the issue, full manuscripts must be sent by June 30, 2020. Expected publication date: December 2020.
For more information and specific questions about the special issue, please contact Luca Barra at [email protected] and Oswaldo García Crespo at [email protected].
If you have any questions, please contact the journal at [email protected].
The third edition of “Mediating Italy in Global Culture” offers an intensive learning experience where graduate and post-graduate students can consolidate their theoretical and methodological skills on the forms of production, distribution, circulation, and reception contributing to the “mediation” of the Italian audiovisual culture in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and other national contexts. Specifically, the Summer School will address the forms of media representations associated with Italy, as well as their manipulation by cultural industries, fandoms, and opinion leaders. Furthermore, the program will focus on the complex imageries and socio-cultural constructions of the brand “Made in Italy” spread by film, television and digital media, as well as by other cultural and creative industries as design, fashion, sports and food. In particular, light will be shed on the crucial framing role played by foreign countries in the popularization of Italy’s depictions around the world.
In collaboration with the ECREA Television Studies section
Media Mutations, the international conference on audiovisual media hosted by the Department of the Arts of Università di Bologna, is inaugurating its twelfth edition. The topic will be the strong, somehow unexpected persistence of broadcasting and mainstream TV and media within the digital environment.
In the past few years, not only have streaming services (as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video) become the driving force of a shift in the television and media business, they have also been at the centre of seminal researches and debates in television and media studies, mainly pointing at the notions of digital revolution and disruption. More recently, the launch of new platforms by other providers (like Apple, Disney, and HBO) has rekindled these debates, which have channelled the OTT promotional rhetoric pointing at the ultimate death of broadcasting, both as a business model and as a cultural form.
However, in these very years, there is wide proof that classic television and traditional broadcasting is bigger than ever. It has returned to the centre of the digital scenario, because of its ability to bring together large and diversified audiences, considered valuable both at a cultural and at an economic level. It is still resisting the competition of on-demand services, balancing its time and space limitations with different experiences, like the creation of events and the focus on TV genres that are not scripted series – e.g. reality programs, factual entertainment, talk shows. More importantly, it has contributed to a wider re-arrangement of the media system, with the digital players trying to imitate the strengths of broadcasting, while traditional media are adapting to the new challenges. As far as business is concerned, production, distribution and circulation are growing, in the US as well as in Europe and in several other markets around the world, while ad-based models are proving to be effective in both the broadcasting and digital business model. Content-wise, network series and shows are still the pillars of schedules for free-to-air television, as they are becoming more and more relevant in terms of ratings, production values, socio-political mandates, franchise expansion. The OTT libraries are filled with network content, thanks to huge deals for retransmission and exclusive runs, while deals between broadcasting operators (PSBs, commercial networks, pay television) and digital platforms are increasingly commonplace. This shows a market that seems based on co-dependency between broadcasting and online platforms rather than straightforward competition, and on the hybridization of mainstream and niche rather than on a neat shift from broadcasting to narrowcasting.
Drawing on these considerations, the conference aims to bring the attention back to broadcasting, in order to assess its current state, to explore the recent evolutions of the free-to-air television business in the light of its manifold relations with OTT players, to check the parallel resurgence, resistance and rearrangement of other broadcasting-based media (such as radio), as well as to understand the attempts and experimentations to bring the mainstream back in customised, niche-oriented digital services. In line with its founding purposes, the conference wishes to serve as a basis for discussing methodologies, sharing research results and promoting a multi-disciplinary approach in a global perspective.
Media Mutations 12 encourages submissions that cover the following subjects and topics:
• The crucial role of broadcast television within a digital market
• Strengths and weaknesses of network television vs. digital platforms
• Mainstream shows, genres, events and their role
• The main changes and recent trends in broadcasting business models
• The redefinition of public service broadcasting in the contemporary digital arena
• Changes in the production, distribution and narrative aspects of broadcasting content
• Evolutions and persistence of audience viewing practices
• The relations and interconnections between broadcasting and OTT players
• The redefinition of radio in the transition to digital broadcasting
• Theoretical, philosophical and methodological approaches to studying broadcasting
• Historical perspectives of the evolution of broadcasting
• Single national and transnational case histories on broadcasting systems and media products
The official language of the conference is English. Abstracts (300-500 words for 20-minute talks) should be sent to [email protected] by February 16th, 2020. Please attach a brief biography (maximum 150 words) and an optional selected bibliography (up to five titles) relevant to the conference theme. Notification of acceptance will be sent by March 16th, 2020. A registration fee will be requested after notification of paper acceptance (€80 for speakers and professional attendants; free conference admission for students).
This Conference is financially supported by Centro Dipartimentale La Soffitta and Dipartimento delle Arti, Università di Bologna, in collaboration with DAMSLab.
Books
Edited Works
Questo libro vuole aprire la “scatola nera” dei media e rivelarne appunto il backstage, la “cucina” dove si preparano i prodotti mediali parte del nostro quotidiano.
I contenuti e gli immaginari proposti dai mezzi di comunicazione italiani – dalla televisione alla radio, dall’intrattenimento al giornalismo, dall’editoria al videogioco e ai social – sono infatti sempre il risultato di scelte, decisioni, pratiche produttive, organizzazioni e attività molteplici, da indagare per meglio comprenderne l’impatto e il valore. Attraverso una serie di saggi dedicati a una varietà di media, di metodi e di oggetti di studio, il libro si occupa per la prima volta in modo compiuto della produzione mediale italiana e delle modalità con cui si può studiare, articolando le radici del campo di studi, le sue prospettive contemporanee e le direzioni di ricerca ancora aperte.
Tutta un’altra fiction affronta, affidandosi a una pluralità di voci e punti di vista, il modello seguito da Sky Italia nella produzione seriale mettendolo a confronto con quanto accaduto negli Stati Uniti con Hbo (Home box office) e in altri paesi europei come Francia, Gran bretagna, Spagna e Germania.
Riflessione che McLuhan affida nel 1969 a una lunga e celebre chiacchierata con Playboy, tra le principali testate culturali dell'epoca, qui proposta per la prima volta singolarmente e in una nuova traduzione.
Ma fin da subito l'intervista si svela come molto più di un semplice dialogo: è un'introduzione completa ai concetti chiave delle teorie mcluhaniane sui media; è lo sguardo acuto di un grande studioso - che risponde indirettamente a chi lo vorrebbe "guru" dei nuovi media - sulle molteplici influenze che compongono il suo approccio. Soprattutto, è un commento sagace, che stupisce ancora oggi per la sua lucidità, su molti aspetti della società contemporanea.
This special issue of "Comunicazioni sociali" analyzes the gradual diffusion of several models of commercial TV throughout the decades into different nations across Europe. It aims to provide readers with an outline of the implications of commercialization at the social, cultural, institutional, political, textual and technological level, through case studies of individual nations or regions, comparative studies or theoretical analyses.
Main Papers
In recent years, digital technologies have impacted on and shaped cultural, social and political paradigms, and have been integrated into the processes of creating and distributing cultural objects. This has established a dialogue between the computer and culture (Manovich, 2001), changed the media (Bolter & Grusin, 1996), and became part of the reconfiguration of digitextuality (Everett & Caldwell, 2003). This context impacts the production, distribution, and promotion of television series, which then engage at a textual level with the technological challenges facing the medium.
To reflect the volatile and exponential progress of digital technology, we intend to pursue three main directions to explore the relationship between technology and TV series: audiovisual discourse, production processes, and corporate promotion and distribution of television serials.
To investigate the various layers of this topic, SERIES invite researchers to participate in this special issue, which will address the following topics and lines of research into the relationship between television serials and digital technologies:
- narrative aspects considered from thematic, aesthetic and philosophical approaches;
- production in terms of tools, routines, and professional profiles;
- distribution platforms, strategies, and their modes of circulation;
- promotion tools, marketing, and transmedia strategies;
- discourse, including metrics, social networks, and communication.
Articles should range between 5,000-8,000 words (including abstract, notes and references). Full guidelines can be found on our website. In order to be included in the issue, full manuscripts must be sent by June 30, 2020. Expected publication date: December 2020.
For more information and specific questions about the special issue, please contact Luca Barra at [email protected] and Oswaldo García Crespo at [email protected].
If you have any questions, please contact the journal at [email protected].
The third edition of “Mediating Italy in Global Culture” offers an intensive learning experience where graduate and post-graduate students can consolidate their theoretical and methodological skills on the forms of production, distribution, circulation, and reception contributing to the “mediation” of the Italian audiovisual culture in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and other national contexts. Specifically, the Summer School will address the forms of media representations associated with Italy, as well as their manipulation by cultural industries, fandoms, and opinion leaders. Furthermore, the program will focus on the complex imageries and socio-cultural constructions of the brand “Made in Italy” spread by film, television and digital media, as well as by other cultural and creative industries as design, fashion, sports and food. In particular, light will be shed on the crucial framing role played by foreign countries in the popularization of Italy’s depictions around the world.
In collaboration with the ECREA Television Studies section
Media Mutations, the international conference on audiovisual media hosted by the Department of the Arts of Università di Bologna, is inaugurating its twelfth edition. The topic will be the strong, somehow unexpected persistence of broadcasting and mainstream TV and media within the digital environment.
In the past few years, not only have streaming services (as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video) become the driving force of a shift in the television and media business, they have also been at the centre of seminal researches and debates in television and media studies, mainly pointing at the notions of digital revolution and disruption. More recently, the launch of new platforms by other providers (like Apple, Disney, and HBO) has rekindled these debates, which have channelled the OTT promotional rhetoric pointing at the ultimate death of broadcasting, both as a business model and as a cultural form.
However, in these very years, there is wide proof that classic television and traditional broadcasting is bigger than ever. It has returned to the centre of the digital scenario, because of its ability to bring together large and diversified audiences, considered valuable both at a cultural and at an economic level. It is still resisting the competition of on-demand services, balancing its time and space limitations with different experiences, like the creation of events and the focus on TV genres that are not scripted series – e.g. reality programs, factual entertainment, talk shows. More importantly, it has contributed to a wider re-arrangement of the media system, with the digital players trying to imitate the strengths of broadcasting, while traditional media are adapting to the new challenges. As far as business is concerned, production, distribution and circulation are growing, in the US as well as in Europe and in several other markets around the world, while ad-based models are proving to be effective in both the broadcasting and digital business model. Content-wise, network series and shows are still the pillars of schedules for free-to-air television, as they are becoming more and more relevant in terms of ratings, production values, socio-political mandates, franchise expansion. The OTT libraries are filled with network content, thanks to huge deals for retransmission and exclusive runs, while deals between broadcasting operators (PSBs, commercial networks, pay television) and digital platforms are increasingly commonplace. This shows a market that seems based on co-dependency between broadcasting and online platforms rather than straightforward competition, and on the hybridization of mainstream and niche rather than on a neat shift from broadcasting to narrowcasting.
Drawing on these considerations, the conference aims to bring the attention back to broadcasting, in order to assess its current state, to explore the recent evolutions of the free-to-air television business in the light of its manifold relations with OTT players, to check the parallel resurgence, resistance and rearrangement of other broadcasting-based media (such as radio), as well as to understand the attempts and experimentations to bring the mainstream back in customised, niche-oriented digital services. In line with its founding purposes, the conference wishes to serve as a basis for discussing methodologies, sharing research results and promoting a multi-disciplinary approach in a global perspective.
Media Mutations 12 encourages submissions that cover the following subjects and topics:
• The crucial role of broadcast television within a digital market
• Strengths and weaknesses of network television vs. digital platforms
• Mainstream shows, genres, events and their role
• The main changes and recent trends in broadcasting business models
• The redefinition of public service broadcasting in the contemporary digital arena
• Changes in the production, distribution and narrative aspects of broadcasting content
• Evolutions and persistence of audience viewing practices
• The relations and interconnections between broadcasting and OTT players
• The redefinition of radio in the transition to digital broadcasting
• Theoretical, philosophical and methodological approaches to studying broadcasting
• Historical perspectives of the evolution of broadcasting
• Single national and transnational case histories on broadcasting systems and media products
The official language of the conference is English. Abstracts (300-500 words for 20-minute talks) should be sent to [email protected] by February 16th, 2020. Please attach a brief biography (maximum 150 words) and an optional selected bibliography (up to five titles) relevant to the conference theme. Notification of acceptance will be sent by March 16th, 2020. A registration fee will be requested after notification of paper acceptance (€80 for speakers and professional attendants; free conference admission for students).
This Conference is financially supported by Centro Dipartimentale La Soffitta and Dipartimento delle Arti, Università di Bologna, in collaboration with DAMSLab.
Questo libro vuole aprire la “scatola nera” dei media e rivelarne appunto il backstage, la “cucina” dove si preparano i prodotti mediali parte del nostro quotidiano.
I contenuti e gli immaginari proposti dai mezzi di comunicazione italiani – dalla televisione alla radio, dall’intrattenimento al giornalismo, dall’editoria al videogioco e ai social – sono infatti sempre il risultato di scelte, decisioni, pratiche produttive, organizzazioni e attività molteplici, da indagare per meglio comprenderne l’impatto e il valore. Attraverso una serie di saggi dedicati a una varietà di media, di metodi e di oggetti di studio, il libro si occupa per la prima volta in modo compiuto della produzione mediale italiana e delle modalità con cui si può studiare, articolando le radici del campo di studi, le sue prospettive contemporanee e le direzioni di ricerca ancora aperte.
Tutta un’altra fiction affronta, affidandosi a una pluralità di voci e punti di vista, il modello seguito da Sky Italia nella produzione seriale mettendolo a confronto con quanto accaduto negli Stati Uniti con Hbo (Home box office) e in altri paesi europei come Francia, Gran bretagna, Spagna e Germania.
Riflessione che McLuhan affida nel 1969 a una lunga e celebre chiacchierata con Playboy, tra le principali testate culturali dell'epoca, qui proposta per la prima volta singolarmente e in una nuova traduzione.
Ma fin da subito l'intervista si svela come molto più di un semplice dialogo: è un'introduzione completa ai concetti chiave delle teorie mcluhaniane sui media; è lo sguardo acuto di un grande studioso - che risponde indirettamente a chi lo vorrebbe "guru" dei nuovi media - sulle molteplici influenze che compongono il suo approccio. Soprattutto, è un commento sagace, che stupisce ancora oggi per la sua lucidità, su molti aspetti della società contemporanea.
This special issue of "Comunicazioni sociali" analyzes the gradual diffusion of several models of commercial TV throughout the decades into different nations across Europe. It aims to provide readers with an outline of the implications of commercialization at the social, cultural, institutional, political, textual and technological level, through case studies of individual nations or regions, comparative studies or theoretical analyses.
Keywords: convergence, social TV, second screen, social media, television industry, Italian television
Da Da Da, the militant pastiche Blob, the commercial programming remix Super Show, the comedy history rewritten by La Super Storia On the basis of these programmes, the consequences and risks of putting de-contextualized pieces taken from the past into the contemporary TV flow will be explored.
Keywords
Televideo; Italian teletext; RAI; public service broadcasting; news production; intermediality
Allo stesso tempo, però, quello che finisce nei palinsesti delle reti e che gli spettatori trovano in onda è il frutto del lavoro di numerosi professionisti, il risultato di una serie complessa di processi produttivi, di decisioni distributive, di gerarchie e di scelte, di compromessi tra punti di vista contraddittori, di logiche e strategie tutt’altro che univoche. La mancanza spesso di una “firma” su quanto è trasmesso e la confusione nei confini che delimitano programmi, canali e offerte nascondono in realtà un’autorialità molteplice e frammentata, un’articolata catena decisionale, le differenti competenze di svariati addetti ai lavori. Guardare dietro lo schermo, e dentro quella scatola nera, rivela una multiformità nelle direzioni e nelle prospettive, mostra la confusione ordinata e insieme la linearità costantemente disattesa di un’intera industria, evidenzia le culture condivise della produzione e della distribuzione che raccolgono (e sono formate da) un insieme di professionisti dagli obiettivi anche molto diversi. [...]
The second edition of “Mediating Italy in Global Culture” offers an intensive learning experience where graduate and post-graduate students have the opportunity to consolidate their theoretical and methodological skills and engage in thought-provoking conversations on the forms of production, distribution, circulation, and reception contributing to the “mediation” of the Italian audiovisual culture in the United States, the United Kingdom, and various other national contexts.
Entertainment cultures seem to be spreading widely across contemporary media, from press to fashion, from music to television, from videogames to politics, from sports to museums. Audiovisual and digital media ease the connection between entertainment and a wide range of realms in everyday life (information, politics, education, emotions, and many others), both at a global and local level; yet processes of hybridization and narrativization permeate and transform their logics, strategies and imageries through forms of performance, amusement and divertissement. This is not a new phenomenon, but the result of a long history of interwoven developments and connections. Simultaneously, the strength and depth of this transformation has increased dramatically, if not multiplied, in recent decades. After having been long accused of corrupting the masses, or dismissed as minor and banal, the cultures and practices of entertainment are now widely studied and thoroughly researched, with interdisciplinary approaches accounting for their complex and mixed nature.
The conference aims to expand the academic knowledge of this fundamental trend, establish new transmedial and multidisciplinary research perspectives in the field, and strengthen the understanding about how entertainment has shaped (and is still shaping) media sectors, how it is defined, produced and perceived, and with what outcomes.
Organized by Luca Barra and Paola Brembilla, in collaboration with Andrea Esser, the Media Across Borders network and the ECREA Television Studies section.
Media Mutations, the international conference of studies on audiovisual media hosted by Dipartimento delle Arti of Università di Bologna, comes to its ninth edition. This year’s theme is the cultural and industrial role of global formats in television production, distribution and viewing practices.
In the last fifteen years, following a long history that already started in the early years of the medium, television all around the world has been constantly and successfully broadcasting global formats: big brands and franchises, with a codified set of rules, sold at international audiovisual markets, distributed in many countries and on numerous networks and channels, and adapted and remade according to the tastes and needs of local audiences. Beginning with Big Brother, Survivor and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and later with The X Factor, Masterchef, Peking Express, In Treatment, The Bridge, Pulseras Rojas and many others, formatted shows have contributed to creating a shared television aesthetics, spreading best practice in production, distribution and marketing, and establishing similar consumption habits. At the same time, differences and national specificities are still at work, and the success of global formats in individual national markets depends on successful localization. The process of formatization is now used in both TV fiction and entertainment productions, and it is relentlessly expanding, both at the economic and cultural level, and in a convergent media scenario. [...]
In the last fifteen years, following a long history that already started in the early years of the medium, television around the world has been constantly and successfully broadcasting global formats. Beginning with Big Brother, Survivor and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and later with The X Factor, Masterchef, Peking Express, In Treatment, The Bridge, Pulseras Rojas and many others, formatted shows have contributed to the creation of a shared television aesthetics, spreading best practices in production, distribution and marketing, and increasing genre proximity across the world. At the same time, differences and national specificities are still at work, and the success of global formats in individual national markets depends on their successful localization. The process of formatization is now used in both TV fiction and entertainment production, and it is relentlessly expanding, both at the economic and cultural level, and in a convergent media scenario.
The conference aims to expand academic knowledge on this phenomenon, establish new research perspectives in the field, and strengthen our understanding of national and transnational distribution and reception practices. The focus will be on cultural and linguistic format issues, on legal, economic and productive aspects of format development and format trade, and on the different genres and types of formatted audiovisual products.