ERMeCC Research Workshop with David Hesmondhalgh
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Trends and Strategies in the Media and Cultural Industries
Friday 4th November 2011, 12:30-17:00 hrs
Room: T3-42
Woudestein Campus, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Directions
Against the background of wider technological, economic, socio-cultural and political developments, the logics of the media and cultural industries have been changing significantly. New digital technologies and distribution platforms (e.g. gaming, the internet, mobile platforms etc.) have resulted in a radically changing environment. For companies, workers and policymakers operating within media industries, these changes have severely impacted their operations: previously separated media markets have converged, new media products and business models have developed, and users are no longer passive consumers but are actively peer producing content (user generated content). Questions that are central to this meeting are: How do media organizations and industries respond to altering international, national and local (business) conditions brought about by these developments? To what extent and in what ways are structures and processes of media production currently being transformed by increasing digitalisation, converging media and shifting ownership structures? How does this affect the nature of journalistic and creative work?
PhD candidates, research master students, as well as advanced researchers in media, communication and culture are invited to attend the meeting and contribute to the discussion.The workshop will be a high density session, featuring Professor David Hesmondhalgh as a keynote speaker. Professor Hesmondhalgh is Professor of Media and Music Industries at the University of Leed, where he heads the Institute of Communications Studies and serves as Director of the Media Industries Research Centre.
After Professor Hesmondhalgh's lecture on the The Quality of Media Work, there will be ample opportunity for researchers to pitch their research and to discuss, to comment, to network and to be inspired. We think this workshop is particularly relevant for people researching: media production and distribution, creative industries, online creativity (including UGC), media policies, media business, media access and consumption, and related topics.
The Quality of Media Work
For many years, the question of media work occupied a remarkably marginal position in media, communication and cultural studies, and sociology of culture. Recently, however, there has been considerable debate about the quality of work offered by the media industries. Much of this debate has been prompted by ‘creative industries’ policy, which aims to expand the number of jobs associated with media and other employment based around symbolic creativity. In response, a number of analysts have pointed to serious problems regarding jobs and occupations in media industries, such as casualization and ‘precarity’. However, these debates have drawn very little on discussions of quality of work in sociology and philosophy. The result is a lack of political clarity about what forms better media work would take, about what transformations and reforms are being implicitly argued for. In his presentation, David Hesmondhalgh will examine how we might assess the jobs on offer in contemporary media industries, drawing on a normative framework and empirical fieldwork developed in recent research.
Pitching your own research
If you are interested in attending the meeting and/or would like to pitch your current research in a short (5-10 minutes) presentation, please send an e-mail before 23 October 2011 to: ermecc@eshcc.eur.nl, including the following details:
- your name
- job title [PhD student, research master student, postdoc, assistant professor etcetera]
- affiliation (university and department/graduate programme)
- contact details
- title of your current research project
- 100-150 word abstract of your proposed presentation [only if you want to pitch your research]
Please note that there will be a limit to the number of presentations that can be scheduled; you will receive word shortly after October 23 whether or not you have been selected to give a presentation. For more information please contact Dr. Erik Hitters: hitters@eshcc.eur.nl
Recommended Reading
David Hesmondhalgh and Sara Baker. Creative Labour: Media Work in Three Cultural Industries. Routledge, 2010 (paperback published March 2011).
