Open calls by Luca Barra
SERIES. International Journal of TV Serial Narratives, 2020
This special issue of SERIES — Vol 6 No 2 (2020) — aims to look at how technology influences the ... more This special issue of SERIES — Vol 6 No 2 (2020) — aims to look at how technology influences the production/distribution of TV series and how it is representented in their narratives and promotion.
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 Department of the Arts, University of Bologna, in collaboration with Brown University, Dickin... more The Department of the Arts, University of Bologna, in collaboration with Brown University, Dickinson College, The University of Michigan, The Ohio State University, and Wesleyan University, invites applications for the 2020 “Mediating Italy in Global Culture” Summer School, to be held at DAMSLab in Bologna (Italy) from Monday, June 22 to Saturday, June 27, 2020.
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.
Organized by Luca Barra, Paola Brembilla and Veronica Innocenti (Università di Bologna)
In collab... more Organized by Luca Barra, Paola Brembilla and Veronica Innocenti (Università di Bologna)
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 by Luca Barra
La sitcom. Genere, evoluzione, prospettive, 2020
Da Lucy ed io a Friends, da Happy Days a The Big Bang Theory, da I Jefferson a The Good Place, da... more Da Lucy ed io a Friends, da Happy Days a The Big Bang Theory, da I Jefferson a The Good Place, da Casa Vianello a Boris: la situation comedy è un genere televisivo importante, che sembra semplice ma non lo è, ha un linguaggio stratificato e una storia piena di svolte. Fa ridere il pubblico con la sua sapiente miscela di innovazione e ripetizione, ha dato vita a un importante modello produttivo e industriale, riempie i palinsesti tra prime visioni e repliche. I suoi personaggi diventano popolari, i suoi racconti proseguono per tante stagioni e circolano pressoché dappertutto. Il volume traccia una definizione della sitcom e ne ricostruisce le principali evoluzioni, negli Stati Uniti come in Italia. Getta poi uno sguardo sul presente e sul futuro di un genere spesso trascurato ma ancora centrale, che nello scenario digitale non solo resiste ma si trasforma, insieme alla tv che cambia.
Il palinsesto è la sequenza di tutto ciò che viene trasmesso in televisione nella giornata, nella... more Il palinsesto è la sequenza di tutto ciò che viene trasmesso in televisione nella giornata, nella settimana, nel mese. Ma è anche un mosaico di contenuti eterogenei, è un processo di composizione sempre presente per gli addetti ai lavori, è l’elemento che definisce l’identità e il ‘sapore’ dell’offerta per gli spettatori. Il libro affronta per la prima volta in modo sistematico il tema del palinsesto: gli strumenti e le regole del buon programmatore, le logiche che sottostanno alla sua composizione, l’evoluzione storica dei palinsesti italiani, gli effetti del digitale e del multichannel. Un volume fondamentale per comprendere l’elemento principe della grammatica televisiva e i suoi sviluppi futuri.
Numerosi prodotti di importazione arricchiscono sempre più spesso l’offerta dei media italiani, t... more Numerosi prodotti di importazione arricchiscono sempre più spesso l’offerta dei media italiani, tv compresa: in questo modo, nel nostro Paese approdano contenuti che non sono pensati e realizzati appositamente per il pubblico nazionale, ma che, una volta trasferiti e adattati, mutano – almeno in parte – la loro forma. In ambito televisivo, un caso particolarmente interessante è quello della situation comedy americana: un genere centrale nella tv statunitense, ma che in Italia è insieme molto diffuso nei palinsesti e spesso frainteso, complesso da tradurre e talvolta ricostruito – o persino stravolto –, disprezzato ma visto (e rivisto) da intere generazioni di spettatori. Questo volume pone le basi teoriche per uno stu dio dei processi di ‘mediazione’, solo apparentemente banali, che intercorrono nel passaggio di un prodotto mediale da un Paese all’altro: l’appropriazione nazionale (o ‘italianizzazione’), la traduzione, l’adattamento, la distribuzione. E poi applica queste basi a un’approfondita analisi delle vicende italiane della sitcom americana, e di alcuni suoi titoli in particolare (Seinfeld, Friends, Will & Grace, How I Met Your Mother), da tre punti di vista: la ricostruzione della sto ria del genere nel nostro Paese; la rassegna delle variazioni e modifiche traduttive che il prodotto televisivo si trova necessariamente ad affrontare; infine, il racconto della sua filiera produttiva e distributiva, delle routine traduttive e dei professionisti coinvolti. Per capire cosa cambia nella sitcom quando passa dagli Stati Uniti all’Italia, e perché.
Edited Works by Luca Barra
VIEW. Journal of European Television History and Culture, 2017
The history of European televisions’ commercialization is interesting and complex. In many Europe... more The history of European televisions’ commercialization is interesting and complex. In many European countries, early attempts to launch some form of private television took place on a local, national, or even supra-national basis. The process of television commercialization in Europe didn’t just start during the 1980s. Its implementation happened from the very beginning, and followed very different paths in each country. This issue on the History of Private and Commercial Television in Europe may help deepen our understanding of how the commercialization of television has shaped media culture in Europe. It offers a scholarly view on the history of private and commercial television in Europe, addressing institutional, technological, political, and cultural perspectives, and their entanglement, so as to allow for transnational comparison.
Macchinisti, fonici, producer, assistenti di varia natura, amministratori, videomaker, uomini di ... more Macchinisti, fonici, producer, assistenti di varia natura, amministratori, videomaker, uomini di marketing, impiegati, scrittori freelance: sono figure che lavorano nell’industria dei media ma che di solito restano completamente invisibili ai lettori, agli spettatori, agli utenti. Professionisti che costituiscono la spina dorsale della produzione mediale, ma vivono e rimangono nel backstage, il settore non esposto al pubblico in cui si prepara per andare “in scena” o “in onda”.
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.
Dove nasce il successo di una serie tv come Romanzo criminale? Perché il caso letterario Gomorra ... more Dove nasce il successo di una serie tv come Romanzo criminale? Perché il caso letterario Gomorra rivive sul piccolo schermo? Quali sono i rapporti di queste narrazioni con la letteratura, il cinema e la fiction generalista? In che modo si sviluppano la loro produzione, distribuzione e promozione? Quali sono le risposte e le reazioni degli spettatori? Da alcuni anni la fiction ha vissuto un cambiamento sostanziale, in Italia e nello scenario internazionale: l’affermarsi di soggetti nuovi, come le tv a pagamento, ha dato il via a un’inedita produzione di racconti per la televisione. Nel nostro paese, il protagonista di questa mutazione è stato Sky, che ha puntato su storie originali, distanziandosi nei temi, nei linguaggi e nelle procedure creative dai modelli consolidati nella tv tradizionale.
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.
"Il medium è il messaggio" e l'idea di "villaggio globale" ci suonano oggi come slogan conosciuti... more "Il medium è il messaggio" e l'idea di "villaggio globale" ci suonano oggi come slogan conosciuti, che la diffusione di internet e il processo di globalizzazione rendono ancora più profetici; ma molto prima di diventare patrimonio dell'immaginario collettivo, sono passaggi centrali dell'articolata, e talora complessa, riflessione di Marshall McLuhan sui mezzi di comunicazione - dalla parola parlata alla stampa, dal telegrafo al cinema alla televisione.
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.
One of the most compelling and current challenges for television studies is to work on the edge o... more One of the most compelling and current challenges for television studies is to work on the edge of national and international boundaries. Such work must attempt to scrutinize the historical evolutions of the different television national systems in the light of broader, supranational trends. Following a comparative approach, and in order to better understand the developments of European television, the focus on commercialization is without any doubt productive: the entry of private and ad-based players in TV national markets is a major phenomenon that has affected European broadcasting systems at different times and speeds, with complex consequences. Starting from the strong tradition of public service broadcasting and, in many cases, of monopoly, European television has experienced the birth of commercial TV at different points of its history, from the first experiments in the UK during the Fifties until the articulated – and often contradictory – process of deregulation and “liberalization” that occurred in many continental countries from the Seventies, as well – in Eastern Europe – along the Nineties.
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 by Luca Barra
«Storia e problemi contemporanei», n. 76, 2017
The article analyzes 1992. La serie (and the subsequent season 1993), an original fiction produce... more The article analyzes 1992. La serie (and the subsequent season 1993), an original fiction produced by Sky Italia, highlighting the specificity in the context of the Italian television scenario and especially studying the equivocal and layered relationship it has with public history. Following six fictional characters, whose stories intertwine, between Milan and Rome, with the “real” facts, situations and people of the Tangentopoli years, the series is able to create an ambivalent dialogue both with the historiography on that specific period in Italian history and on Berlusconi’s political ascent, and with the historical imagery of those and the following years, always filtered through television and media.
Critical Studies in Television, 2017
In recent years, the completed transition towards a fully developed multichannel environment and ... more In recent years, the completed transition towards a fully developed multichannel environment and the growth of non-linear offers has brought to the Italian television (TV) landscape unprecedented attention on the ways in which programmes are communicated to the audience and their images and identities are carefully built. The preparation and circulation of promos have therefore grown in importance and relevance in the national TV industry, as new original practices emerged and a long-lasting tradition was challenged by new formats and goals. Building on a set of in-depth interviews with professionals involved in the writing, production and distribution of promos, and analysis of other production materials, the article reconstructs the ‘promotional cultures’ of Italian broadcasters, analysing the main production processes, the different kinds of promos and the various skills involved, and the logics and constraints involved in the making of these ephemeral paratexts that more and more are pervading both the structure of programming flow and the experience of national TV viewers. Thus, the article investigates the professional practices and logics of contemporary commercial and pay TV programme promotion in Italy, defining the role played by national private broadcasters and transnational groups in shaping an Italian promotional space on TV. The ‘Italian style’ of TV show promotion emerges as a constant negotiation between local historical traditions and clichés, on the one hand, and international trends in promo production and aesthetics, on the other, with a solid path shared with other countries and broadcasters, and some peculiar specificities.
In the long history of the enduring connection between Italian cinema and national television, re... more In the long history of the enduring connection between Italian cinema and national television, recent years have brought several new developments. Due to the economic crisis, and hence a quest for creative and production methods to achieve greater return at lower cost, the ‘border’ between film and TV has become the arena for several textual and productive experiments, with varying degrees of success, contributing to the foundations of a new model. On the one hand, television is ‘serializing’ stories that were successes at the cinema presenting them as sequels or reinterpreting the original story in a different way. This trend is exemplified by several premium fictions associated with pay operator Sky Italia, as Romanzo criminale and Gomorra/Gomorrah, or the Netflix project Suburra. On the other hand, forms of actual ‘joint production’ for both film and TV are starting to emerge, representing not merely a desire to spread content over several TV slots, but also the wish (and need) to envisage a dual outlet for a text right from the time of writing and production. Two separate objects are planned and prepared from the outset, as in the case of Tutta colpa di Freud or Chiamatemi Francesco/Call Me Francesco, forcing the writing and production routines to adapt and take due account of the specific traits of the two media, and of their target audiences. Through interviews with professionals, viewing figures and promotional materials, it is possible to identify the motives behind these projects, the modifications in their production routines, and how concepts like taste, success and quality are being reformulated in such a scenario.
Quaderni del CSCI. Rivista annuale di cinema italiano, 2017
Negli anni, il rapporto tra il cinema e la televisione, e in particolar modo l’uso del film fatto... more Negli anni, il rapporto tra il cinema e la televisione, e in particolar modo l’uso del film fatto dal piccolo schermo, ha attraversato fasi alterne: momenti di scontro o di collaborazione, di scarsità e di maggiore abbondanza, di successo e di sovraesposizione, o persino di crisi. Da una parte, il film è una risorsa molto preziosa per i canali televisivi: un contenuto pregiato, costoso, da valorizzare nei palinsesti per garantire una buona resa di ascolti o di immagine. Dall’altra, al tempo stesso, è anche un riempitivo comodo, un materiale abbondante con cui coprire molti canali e intere giornate, da replicare più volte o da lasciare disponibile on demand. Lungo il complesso ciclo di vita dei film, nel ricco (e potenzialmente infinito) percorso successivo all’uscita in sala, dalla prima visione all’ennesima ripetizione, è sempre presente una specie di contraddizione, con i due ruoli che si alternano e si scambiano di posto, con improvvise variazioni di status e inattesi ritorni in auge. Di più, in questo rapporto si incontrano (o si scontrano) fattori differenti, ora legati alla produzione cinematografica nazionale e alla distribuzione internazionale, ora invece dipendenti soprattutto dallo sviluppo dello scenario televisivo italiano. Adottando lo sguardo dei production studies, attento alle culture professionali degli addetti ai lavori, alle best practices e alle routine produttive e distributive, agli obiettivi impliciti o esplicitati, e ricostruendo i processi mediante i quali i film sono prima selezionati e poi collocati per la messa in onda televisiva, si può osservare con chiarezza come sul prodotto cinematografico spesso si esercitino logiche soprattutto televisive, molto differenti da quelle che regolano l’arrivo (e il successo) in sala, e come da queste scelte composite di selezione e di confezionamento risulti un vero e proprio “impacchettamento” televisivo del film, che ne influenza le traiettorie e ne modifica il senso e il valore, per il pubblico e per l’industria.
Rivista di politica, 2017
In recent years, zombies have had an important role in the imageries of contemporary TV series. O... more In recent years, zombies have had an important role in the imageries of contemporary TV series. On the one hand, the long tradition of this spreadable mythology, extending its roots to cinema and other media, has allowed the television medium to build its stories on top of pre-existing narrative worlds, and then to modify them to pursue its own representational poetics and politics. On the other hand, undead narratives have been able to adjust well to the transmedial needs of convergent and digital TV. UK TV series Dead Set, created and written by Charlie Brooker, is an exemplary case history of both continuity and innovation in the genre, leading its zombie narrative to interrogate itself, auto-reflexively and meta-textually, on the role of television itself and on its relationship with the audience. Since the beginning: what happens if the only ones not aware of a zombie invasion are inside Big Brother’s house? // Negli ultimi anni, gli zombie hanno avuto un ruolo importante nell’immaginario della serialità televisiva. Da una parte, la lunga storia di una mitologia plasmabile che affonda le sue radici nel cinema e in altri media ha consentito al mezzo televisivo di ricorrere a mondi narrativi già presenti e a modificarli per portare avanti differenti poetiche e politiche della rappresentazione. Dall’altra, le storie sui non morti si prestano bene alle necessità transmediali di una tv digitale e convergente. La miniserie britannica Dead Set, ideata e scritta da Charlie Brooker, costituisce un caso esemplare di continuità e di innovazione, e porta la narrazione sugli zombie a interrogarsi, in modo auto-riflessivo e meta-testuale, sul ruolo della televisione stessa e sul suo rapporto con il pubblico. Fin dalla sua premessa: cosa succede se gli unici a non accorgersi di un’invasione di zombie sono gli inquilini della casa del Grande fratello?
Sociologia della comunicazione, 2017
Sulla base dei risultati di una ricerca qualitativa, il lavoro indaga da una parte il mutato ruol... more Sulla base dei risultati di una ricerca qualitativa, il lavoro indaga da una parte il mutato ruolo dello spettatore del cinema sulle piattaforme televisive e digitali in uno scenario pienamente convergente, proponendo in particolare tre profili di consumo (onnivoro, leggero e tradizionale) che illustrano le combinazioni tra le diverse offerte e le complesse valorizzazioni del contenuto-film e un modello a piramide rovesciata che inserisce le tecnologie di fruizione in rapporto alle pratiche spettatoriali convergenti, e dall’altra le reazioni, le logiche e le strategie dell’offerta televisiva e mediale che tengono necessariamente conto di questo scenario multiforme e in evoluzione. // Building on the results of a qualitative research, the authors investigate, on the one hand, the varied role of cinema viewers on televisual and digital platforms, inside a fully convergent media scenario. In particular, the essay defines three different consumption profiles (omnivore, light and traditional), to illustrate the combination between an abundant offer and the different appreciation of films, and shows an inverted-pyramid model combining consumption technologies and convergent viewing practices. On the other hand, the research studies the reactions, logics and strategies of television and media offer, having to necessarily take into account an evolving, multiple scenario.
"Le webserie e i nuovi mercati dei media. Forme, modelli, immaginario", a cura di J. De Nardis, M. Di Donato, A. Minuz, 2016
During the last television seasons (2015-2016), after several years of success, Italian political... more During the last television seasons (2015-2016), after several years of success, Italian political talk shows have suffered a period of exhaustion. Adopting the perspective of television studies, this essay investigates the structural and strategic reasons accompanying such crisis. Through a careful analysis of television schedules, audience ratings and running orders for a series of prime time talk shows, we detect the role of networks’ and broadcasters’ editorial policies in defining, shaping and modifying Italian TV programs devoted to political debate. Indeed, in talk shows exquisitely televisual goals often prevail on political communication logics.
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Open calls by Luca Barra
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 by Luca Barra
Edited Works by Luca Barra
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 by Luca Barra
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.