CALL FOR PAPERS (also available in PDF format here)

 

Screen Policies in the 21st Century 

5th CinEcoSA Conference

17-18 November, 2014

Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3, France

 

Historically, film has been at the centre of cultural policies around the world. These public policies have striven to support a local film production, for both cultural and economic reasons. After dedicating the previous conference in 2013 to Film and TV policies in the English-speaking world, CinEcoSA (www.cinecosa.com) now wishes to enlarge the discussion to 1) other media, 2) other regions around the world. Over the last three decades, the media environment has changed, with digitalisation and the development of new forms of screen media (video games, the Internet, mobile media), so much so that screen media is no longer geographically constrained in its production and distribution. New technologies have also potentially reduced the costs of producing and distributing films around the world. These changes have consequently challenged government policies aimed at the cultural protection and nurturing of local screen industries.

Since the late 20th century, the traditional boundaries on which cultural policies were based have been put into question. The idea of local and national film industries have to be dealt with in a context where many films are shot and post-produced outside the territory where they were developed. Hollywood is renowned for its runaway productions, but filmmakers from other countries, such as France or India, have roamed around the globe to take advantage of the incentives offered by numerous film production centres. States have thus had to balance the economic effort required to attract foreign productions with the cultural objective of developing a national screen production industry. 

Another boundary which seems to be imploding is that between media. Film remains a standard bearer, but it is now part of a larger media ecosystem where television series, web series, interactive websites and video games hold their own. The recent British decision to extend production incentives to video games is a sign that traditional legislation is evolving to incorporate new forms of media. Digital technologies and the Internet have notably had a momentous impact on the media ecosystem. By easing film circulation, new technologies have also facilitated piracy of content, which has become increasingly rampant, reaching levels that 1980s VHS and 1990s DVD pirates could not have imagined. The piracy issue pitting State regulation vs. individual liberty has been at the centre of heated debates, from the SOPA legislation in the USA to the setting up of HADOPI in France. Not all countries have the same film and television policy history and not all react in the same way. One can contrast the situation in France, which has had a long history of film support, which must now be adapted to the digital environment, with that of the United Arab Emirates which have been developing a State-supported media industry only in the past decade and have thus immediately embraced the new media paradigm. 

This conference aims at exploring the changes that have taken place in the institutional ecology of the screen media industries around the world since the late 20th century, including the changing role and priorities of governments in the support, development and protection of the industries, the role of market-based regulation, and the impact of technological innovation. The conference welcomes papers from different disciplinary perspectives to explore the way screen policies adapt to the transnational and transmedia logics of the digital era. Papers can present theoretical frameworks or focus on case studies. National analyses are welcome – however, comparative presentations are to be favoured when possible.

 

Topics may include, but are not restricted to:

• Evolution of State support for media production and distribution, media training programmes, festivals; support for new media (including video games) vs. old media

• State regulation of content (censorship) and circulation

• Debate around digital piracy, peer-to-peer networks 

• Incentive schemes to attract foreign productions or film crews and competition between different geographic localities 

• Interrelationship between regional, national and supra-national institutions and policy bodies, competition and/or collaboration between jurisdictions 

• Co-production treaties 

• Impact of digitalisation 

 

Please send your proposals (title, 400-word abstract, 4 bibliographical references, brief biography) to cecilia.tirtaine@univ-paris3.fr and Nathalie.Dupont@univ-littoral.fr by 25 September 2014. 

Working language of the conference: English. There may be provision for a limited number of delegates to present and participate from outside Europe via video conferencing.

Final papers will be considered for publication in English following a peer-review process.

 

Organizing Committee 

Joël Augros (Université Paris 8, Vincennes-Saint Denis)

Nathalie Dupont (Université de la Côte d’Opale)

Nolwenn Mingant (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3)

Cecilia Tirtaine (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3)

 

Scientific Committee

Joël Augros (Université Paris 8, Vincennes-Saint Denis)

Laurent Creton (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3)

Philip Drake (Edge Hill University, Liverpool)

Nathalie Dupont (Université de la Côte d’Opale)

Frédéric Gimello (Université d’Avignon)

David Newman (Simon Fraser University)

Nolwenn Mingant (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3)

Roger Shannon (Edge Hill University, Liverpool)

Cecilia Tirtaine (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3)

 

Select bibliography

AMIEL Olivier, Le Financement public du cinéma dans l'Union Européenne, Paris: LGDJ, 2007.

BILTEREYST Daniel, VANDE WINKEL Roel, Silencing Cinema: Film Censorship Around the World, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

CHAKRAVARTTY Paula, SARIKAKIS Katharine, Media Policy and Globalization, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006.

DEVICTOR Agnès, Politique du cinéma iranien, de l’âyatollâh Khomeyni au président Khâtami, Paris: CNRS, 2004.

DUBET Eric, Économie du cinéma européen: de l’interventionnisme à l’action entrepreneuriale, Paris: L’Harmattan, 2000.

ELMER Greg, GASHER Mike (eds), Contracting Out Hollywood: Runaway Productions and Foreign Location Shooting, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005.

FLIBBERT Andrew J., Commerce in Culture: States and Markets in the World Film Trade, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

GUGLER, Josef (ed.), Film in the Middle East and North Africa: Creative Dissidence, Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011.

HEROLD Anna, European Film Policies in EU and International Law: Culture and Trade, Marriage Or Misalliance?, Centraal Boekhuis, 2010.

IOSIFIDIS Petros, Global Media and Communication Policy, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

JUST Natascha, PUPPIS Manuel, Trends in Communication Policy Research: New Theories, Methods and Subjects, Bristol, UK & Chicago, USA: Intellect, 2012.

LOBATO Ramon, Shadow Economies of Cinema: Mapping Informal Film Distribution, London: BFI/Palgrave, 2012

MORAN Albert (ed.), Film Policy: International, National and Regional Perspectives, London: Routledge, 1996.

 RABOY, Marc (ed.), Global Media Policy in the New Millennium, Luton: University of Luton Press, 2002.