Media Industries Podcast 5d4q5e

Orçun Can and Paul McDonald (King’s College London) Opening series two of the Media Industries podcast, Orçun and Paul offer a sneak peek of what to expect from the episodes.

Traditionally, copyright has been predicated on protecting and sustaining human creativity. From the pen to the camera, human creativity has involved the use of tools. With digital forms of creativity, computing technologies have variously become the tools for creative action. What happens to the status of copyright, however, when the machine is no longer just a tool, and actively makes decisions in the creative process? In the first of two episodes on AI and copyright, Tanya Aplin (Professor of Intellectual Property Law, King’s College London) guides us through some of the issues emerging from current debates over relationships between AI, copyright and creativity. For this episode, Tanya outlines how the status of AI generated works varies between jurisdictions, and also reflects on disputes arising from the uses of copyrighted works as AI training data. In a subsequent episode, she returns to pick up the conversation on copyright and the protection of AI-generated outputs.

Focusing on what he calls ‘mobile production’, Kevin Sanson (Queensland University of Technology) discusses the spatial configuration of creative relationships in film and television, and the logistical role of labour in making and maintaining those relationships. Yuening Li (Maynooth University) speaks about her work examining the place of digital payment services in our lives and the social media functions of fintech. Finally, as part of the CresCine (www.crescine.eu) project comparing film markets in small European nations, Cathrin Helen Bengesser and Jakob Isak Nielsen (Aarhus University) report initial insights relating to audience perceptions of domestic productions, and also trends in genre popularity.

Eva Cheuk-Yin Li (Lancaster University) introduces her work on the rise of the Girls Love media industry in Southeast Asia, and particularly the growth of GL television series production in Thailand. Jeanette Steemers (King’s College London) and Andrea Esser highlight findings from ‘Screen Encounters with Britain’, a project examining what young audiences in Denmark, , Italy, and the Netherlands are thinking about British film and television output. Finally, Nino Domazetovikj (Free University of Brussels) outlines how transnational video streaming services are reshaping commissioning strategies and production investment for scripted television fiction in smaller European markets.

Forum Mithani (Cardiff University) outlines how in recent years Japanese dramas have achieved greater prominence in the international scripted television format market, focusing in particular on the remaking of ‘Mother’. Anthony Killick (Liverpool John Moores University) identifies how, since 2018, various developments in the industry and culture of film in Saudi Arabia should be read as indicative of the state’s broader cultural ideology. Finally, Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer (Kozminski University / London School of Economics and Political Science) provides a snapshot of her research examining how online news tabloids in Poland, the UK, and US frame political discourse.

Mark Deuze (University of Amsterdam) highlights issues of mental wellbeing in media work, and the paradox of professionals equally voicing unhappiness and joy about their working lives. Ivana Kostovska (Free University of Brussels) reflects on how regulatory responses amongst European nations to the popularization of video streaming services are variously obliging streamers to invest in local production. Finally, Aoife Quinn Hegarty (Technological University of Dublin) offers an overview of her research analysing historical shifts in how Ireland’s feminist movement has been informed by and used the country’s media.

Doris Eikhof (University of Glasgow) reports insights from the Gender Equity Policy (GEP) Analysis project which conducted a comparative evaluation of gender equity policies for film industries in Canada, , and the UK. Vejune Zemaitye (Tallinn University) outlines the scope and aim of CresCine (www.crescine.eu), a large multi-partner project examining the competitiveness of small European nations in the international film business. Finally, Ashley Woodfall (Bournemouth University / Children's Media Foundation) talks about some of the challenges now confronting public service media in the UK when trying to engage the child audience.

Christopher Meir (Charles III University of Madrid) looks at how streaming platforms are transforming the conditions in which European films are produced and circulated. Tonguc Sezen (University for the Creative Arts) reflects on how large language models (LLMs) are being applied as aids in the writing of digital game narratives. Finally, Mathilde Sanders (Utrecht University) outlines the work of PubHubs (pubhubs.net), a Dutch project building a decentralised online social network based on the public values of privacy, security, friendliness, and inclusion.

Ulrike Rohn (Tallinn University and the ScreenMe podcast) introduces the scope of research in media economics and media management, and her work co-editing The Handbook of Media Economics. Yuval Katz (Loughborough University) draws on research conducted in Israel/Palestine to discuss how the creation of media can offer a space for conceptualizing peace. Finally, Christa van Raalte (Bournemouth University) talks about the role of production managers in UK television, reflecting on the industry’s problem retaining PMs, and the feminisation of the role.

Munira Cheema (King’s College London) provides an overview of her research examining how anti-state and anti-establishment publics in Pakistan express themselves online through Twitter/X and YouTube. Kristian Redhead Ahm (Danish School of Media and Journalism) considers the impact, in Denmark, of streaming logics on public service broadcasting principles and narrative practices in documentary production. Finally, Liz Evans and Cassie Brummitt (University of Nottingham) discuss their project, TV2054, exploring how UK audiences imagine the future devices, content, and viewing behaviours of television.

Nur Kareelawati Abd Karim (Islamic Science University of Malaysia) discusses some of the challenges and insights arising from her study of the production culture of religious television at the Islam Channel in London. Madison Trusolino (Dalhousie University) situates her on-going work on the commercial actor lockout in Canadian television within broader concerns about formal and informal labour organisation in arts and cultural industries. Finally, Némésis Srour (Center for South Asian and Himalayan Studies) delves into the history of how Bollywood films have circulated in Middle Eastern territories.

Drawing on research into podcast and video game production in Denmark, Mads Møller T. Anderson (University of Copenhagen) discusses how experiences of workplace autonomy vary according to industry logics, professional roles, and individual needs. Rowan Aust (University of Bournemouth / ReelTime Media) unpacks the meanings of ‘good work’ in the film and television industries, reflecting on her experience advocating for flexible working, job sharing, and overtime. Finally, as public service media struggle to connect with child audiences, Vera Slavtcheva-Petkova (University of Liverpool) argues for integrating children into discussions concerning the design of programming.

As Director of the Media Industries conference, Paul McDonald (King’s College London) talks with Orcun Can (King’s College London) about the evolution and purpose of the conference.