Nolwenn MINGANT, Hollywood Films in North Africa and the Middle East - A History of Circulation, SUNY Press, 2022.

Drawing on a broad range of primary sources, from trade and government publications to interviews, Hollywood Films in North Africa and the Middle East traces the circulation of Hollywood films across the region from the early twentieth century to the present. Originally introduced by French distributors, Hollywood films have been a key component of film culture in North Africa and the Middle East. These films became a favored mode of entertainment during the first half of the century as the major US film studios built a strong distribution structure. After World War II, the changing geopolitical context of decolonization pushed US distributors out of the market. Hollywood films, however, have continued to be favored by audiences. Today, in a landscape that also includes Egyptian and Indian films, Hollywood remains a relevant force in the region’s film culture, experienced by audiences in myriad ways from the pirate markets of North Africa to state-of-the-art theatres in the United Arab Emirates.

Reviews: "This book greatly expands our understanding of international film distribution. Motion picture distribution is difficult to document because the business records of film companies are not generally open to researchers, and the subject has therefore attracted relatively little academic attention. Mingant's case study, however, demonstrates a firm command of the complexities of the subject by buttressing extensive research in secondary sources with primary sources from major archives, documentation from trade and government publications, and interviews with film professionals, government officials, and journalists. It will become the definitive history of the subject." — Tino Balio, author of Hollywood in the New Millennium

Nathalie DUPONT (ed.), "Film and TV-induced Tourism: Some Contemporary Aspects and Perspectives", InMedia, 9.1. | 2021.

Introduction: Though film-induced tourism has become a relatively new aspect of tourism studies, it nevertheless belongs to the numerous contemporary tourism-linked activities bringing people to a specific country. Indeed, the attraction generated by a nation through its landscapes, its art and its traditions has long been visible through their induced tourism, whether it was during the 18th century with the Grand Tour of a notable privileged few to Italy, and now with the hordes of tourists (in pre-Covid times…) who have flocked to the Great Pyramid of Giza, Stonehenge, Venice or swarmed the Mona Lisa at the Louvres.
On the one hand, this ability of certain nations to entice, particularly through their culture or their landscapes, foreign visitors to their countries is part of the attractive “indicators” and “cultural magnets”1 that are potential sources of soft power, which Joseph S. Nye thus defined: “[Soft Power] is the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments. It arises from the attractiveness of a country’s culture, political ideas, and policies. […] Soft Power rests on the ability to shape the preferences of others.” Nye has ranked tourism among those potential soft power sources. There is also no doubt that the development of the post-war consumer society, together with globalization, have amplified mass tourism, while fast modern means of transport such as airplanes and now low-cost companies have allowed an ever-increasing number of tourists to travel faster and further at more affordable prices. [...]
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Joseph Armando Soba, Dans les coulisses de Hollywood. Syndicalisme et mondialisation (1920-2012), L'Harmattan, collection logiques sociales, décembre 2020.

L'Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences est plus connue pour les Oscars que son implication dans les relations professionnelles dans les années 1930. On se souvient davantage de l'Oscar de James Cagney (1943) que de son mandat à la tête du syndicat des acteurs de 1942 à 1944. De même, Kevin Spacey est plus associé à House of Cards qu'au Global Rule One, alors qu'il est l'un des prometteurs de cette règle instaurée en réponse à la délocalisation de la production hors des États-Unis. Le scénariste John H. Lawson est plus connu comme l'un des dix artistes de la Liste Noire qui furent bannis de Hollywood dans les 1940 que comme l'un des fondateurs du syndicat des scénaristes. Comment se sont forgés les syndicats des acteurs et des scénaristes ? Quelles fonctions occupent-ils à Hollywood depuis plus d'un demi-siècle ? Comment ont-ils abordé la généralisation du son, de la télévision, de la vidéo et de l'Internet ? Quel est l'impact de la mondialisation sur les conditions de travail des acteurs et des scénaristes ? Ce livre s'intéresse à ces questions et explore les coulisses de l'industrie américaine du cinéma en mettant en lumière le rôle capital des syndicats des artistes à Hollywood.

Plus d'informations ici.

Joël AUGROS (Dir.), CinémArgent, CinémAction n°171, Paris : Editions Charles Corlet, 2019.

Geoffrey MACNAB, Stairways to Heaven: Rebuilding the British Film Industry, London: I.B. Tauris, 2018.

What has brought about the transformation of the British film industry over the last few decades, to the beginnings of what is arguably a new golden era? In the mid-1980s the industry was in a parlous state. The number of films produced in the UK was tiny. Cinema attendance had dipped to an all-time low, cinema buildings were in a state of disrepair and home video had yet to flourish. Since then, while many business challenges - especially for independent producers and distributors - remain, the industry overall has developed beyond recognition. In recent years, as British films have won Oscars, Cannes Palms and Venice Golden Lions, releases such as Love Actually, Billy Elliot, Skyfall, Paddington and the Harry Potter series have found enormous commercial as well as critical success. The UK industry has encouraged, and benefitted from, a huge amount of inward investment, much of it from the Hollywood studios, but also from the National Lottery via the UK Film Council and BFI. This book portrays the visionaries and officials who were at the helm as a digital media revolution began to reshape the industry. Through vivid accounts based on first-hand interviews of what was happening behind the scenes, film commentator and critic Geoffrey Macnab provides in-depth analysis of how and why the British film industry has risen like a phoenix from the ashes.

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J.D. CONNOR, Hollywood Math and Aftermath: The Economic Image and the Digital Recession, London: Bloomsbury, 2018.

Money is Hollywood's great theme - but money laundered into something else, something more. Money can be given a particular occasion and career, as box office receipts, casino winnings, tax credits, stock prices, lotteries, inheritances. Or money can become number, and numbers can be anything: pixels, batting averages, votes, likes. Through explorations of all these and more, J.D. Connor's Hollywood Math and Aftermath provides a stimulating and original take on “the equation of pictures,” the relationship between Hollywood and economics since the 1970s. 

Touched off by an engagement with the work of Gilles Deleuze, Connor demonstrates the centrality of the economic image to Hollywood narrative. More than just a thematic study, this is a conceptual history of the industry that stretches from the dawn of the neoclassical era through the Great Recession and beyond. Along the way, Connor explores new concepts for cinema studies: precession and recession, pervasion and staking, ostension and deritualization.

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Nolwenn MINGANT and Cecilia TIRTAINE (eds), Reconceptualising Film Policies, London and New York: Routledge, 2018.

This volume explores and interrogates the shifts in film policies over the past thirty years. It assesses the logic that has traditionally guided policy-makers, while bringing to light the agency of film professionals. It covers film industries from all over the world, foregrounding issues relating to geographical and economic integration, political regimes and new technologies. Featuring chapters by leading and rising academics, in-depth case studies and interviews with practitioners and policy-makers, this book provides a timely overview of governments’ and industries’ responses to the changing landscape of the production, distribution and consumption of films.

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Julia HAMMETT-JAMART, Petar MITRIC and Eva NOVRUP REDVALL (eds), European Film and Television Co-Production, Cham, Palgrave, 2018.

This volume offers an up-to-date analysis of film and television co-production in Europe. It brings together the voices of policy professionals, industry practitioners and media industry scholars to trace the contours of a complex practice that is of increasing significance in the global media landscape. Analysis of the latest production statistics sits alongside interviews with producers and the critical evaluation of public film policies.  The volume incorporates contributions from representatives of major public institutions—Eurimages, the European Audiovisual Observatory and the European Commission—and private production companies including the pan-European Zentropa Group. Policy issues are elucidated through case studies including the Oscar-winning feature film Ida, the BAFTA-winning I am not a Witch and the Danish television serial Ride Upon the Storm. Scholarly articles span co-development, co-distribution and regional cinemas as well as emerging policy challenges such as the digital single market. The combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches, and the juxtaposition of industry and scholarly voices, provides a unique perspective on European co-production that is information-rich, complex and stimulating, making this volume a valuable companion for students, scholars, and industry professionals.

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Claude FOREST (Dir.), L’Internationalisation des productions cinématographiques et audiovisuelles, Villeneuve d’Ascq : Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 2017.

La part croissante de l'internationalisation dans le montage financier des productions cinématographiques et audiovisuelles constitue un fait majeur depuis la fin du xxe siècle. Certains États encouragent fortement leur production, notamment fiscalement, modifiant la voilure des alliances internationales et le niveau quantitatif comme qualitatif des films et séries. La multiplication des guichets institutionnels amène les producteurs à exercer une veille sur les dispositifs publics, rechercher l’optimisation des montages de financement en fonction des critères d’attribution des fonds de soutien et non plus seulement artistiques, et établir des stratégies de coopération entre structures de pays tiers. Pour la première fois en France, place est faite dans un ouvrage aux analyses de chercheurs mobilisant des approches complémentaires – économiques, sociologiques ou historiques – et, surtout, à des producteurs de toutes tailles dévoilant leurs pratiques complémentaires.

Plus d'informations ici.

Matthew FREEMAN (Ed.), Industrial Approaches to Media: A Methodological Gateway to Industry Studies, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

This guidebook, aimed at those interested in studying media industries, provides direction in ways best suited to collaborative dialogue between media scholars and media professionals.

While the study of media industries is a focal point at many universities around the world – promising, as it might, rich dialogues between academia and industry – understandings of the actual methodologies for researching the media industries remain vague. What are the best methods for analysing the workings of media industries – and how does one navigate those methods in light of complex deterrents like copyright and policy, not to mention the difficulty of gaining access to the media industries?

Responding to these questions, Industrial Approaches to Media offers practical, theoretical, and ethical principles for the field of media industry studies, providing its first full methodological exploration. It features key scholars such as Henry Jenkins, Michele Hilmes, Paul McDonald and Alisa Perren. 

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Nolwenn MINGANT, Cecilia TIRTAINE and Joël AUGROS (eds), Film Marketing into the Twenty-First Century, Basingstoke: BFI Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

How do you sell English humour to a French audience? Could piracy actually be good for the film business? Why are the revolutionary technologies used in the making of The Hobbit not mentioned in some adverts?

Exploring these questions and many more, Film Marketing into the Twenty-First Century draws on insights from renowned film scholars and leading industry professionals to chart the evolution of modern film marketing.

The first part of the book focuses on geographical considerations, showing how marketers have to adapt their stratégies locally as films travel across borders. The second covers new marketing possibilities offered by the Internet, as Vine, Facebook and other participative websites open new venues for big distributors and independents alike. Straddling practical and theoretical concerns and including case studies and interviews that take us from Nollywood to Peru, this book provides an accessible introduction to the key issues at stake for film marketing in a global era.

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Nathalie DUPONT, Between Hollywood and Godlywood - The Case of Walden Media, Oxford: Peter Lang, 2015.

This book sheds new light on the relationship between conservative Christianity and Hollywood through a case study of Walden Media, which produced The Chronicles of Narnia franchise. Financed by a conservative Christian, Walden Media is a unique American company producing educational and family-friendly films with inspiring, moral, redemptive and uplifting stories. 

However, there is more to Walden than meets the eye and the company reflects wider trends within contemporary American society. Drawing on film industry data, film study guides and marketing campaigns targeting mainstream and conservative Christian audiences in the United States and abroad, this book reflects on Walden Media’s first ten years of activity as well as on the relationship between Hollywood and conservative Christians, notably evangelicals, at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Though both worlds are still wary of one another, this study shows that Walden Media films, and particularly The Chronicles of Narnia franchise, have tread a workable path between Hollywood and ‘Godlywood’, albeit within the constraints of the now global film business. 

Miranda BANKS, Bridget CONOR, Vicki MAYER (eds), Production Studies, The Sequel! Cultural Studies of Global Media Industries, New York and Abingdon: Routledge, 2015.
Production Studies, The Sequel! is an exciting exploration of the experiences of media workers in local, global, and digital communities—from prop-masters in Germany, Chinese film auteurs, producers of children’s television in Qatar, Italian radio broadcasters, filmmakers in Ethiopia and Nigeria, to seemingly-autonomous Twitterbots. Case studies examine international production cultures across five continents and incorporate a range of media, including film, television, music, social media, promotional media, video games, publishing and public broadcasting.
Using the lens of cultural studies to examine media production, Production Studies, The Sequel! takes into account transnational production flows and places production studies in conversation with other major areas of media scholarship including audience studies, media industries, and media history. A follow-up to the successful Production Studies, this collection highlights new and important research in the field, and promises to generate continued discussion about the past, present, and future of production studies.

Paul GRAINGE and Catherine JOHNSON, Promotional Screen Industries, London: Routledge, 2015.

From the trailers and promos that surround film and television to the ads and brand videos that are sought out and shared, promotional media have become a central part of contemporary screen life. Promotional Screen Industries is the first book to explore the sector responsible for this thriving area of media production.

In a wide-ranging analysis, Paul Grainge and Catherine Johnson explore the intermediaries – advertising agencies, television promotion specialists, movie trailer houses, digital design companies – that compete and collaborate in the fluid, fast-moving world of promotional screen work.

Through interview-based fieldwork with companies and practitioners based in the UK, US and China, Promotional Screen Industries encourages us to see promotion as a professional and creative discipline with its own opportunities and challenges. Outlining how shifts in the digital media environment have unsettled the boundaries of ‘promotion’ and ‘content’, the authors provide new insight into the sector, work, strategies and imaginaries of contemporary screen promotion.

With case studies on mobile communication, television, film and live events, this timely book offers a compelling examination of the industrial configurations and media forms, such as ads, apps, promos, trailers, digital shorts, branded entertainment and experiential media, that define promotional screen culture at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

William D. ROMANOWSKI, Reforming Hollywood: How American Protestants Fought for Freedom at the Movies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Hollywood and Christianity often seem to be at war. Indeed, there is a long list of movies that have attracted religious condemnation, from Gone with the Wind with its notorious "damn," to The Life of Brian and The Last Temptation of Christ. But the reality, writes William Romanowski, has been far more complicated--and remarkable.

In Reforming Hollywood, Romanowski, a leading historian of popular culture, explores the long and varied efforts of Protestants to influence the film industry. He shows how a broad spectrum of religious forces have played a role in Hollywood, from Presbyterians and Episcopalians to fundamentalists and evangelicals. Drawing on personal interviews and previously untouched sources, he describes how mainline church leaders lobbied filmmakers to promote the nation's moral health and, perhaps surprisingly, how they have by and large opposed government censorship, preferring instead self-regulation by both the industry and individual conscience. "It is this human choice," noted one Protestant leader, "that is the basis of our religion." Tensions with Catholics, too, have loomed large--many Protestant clergy feared the influence of the Legion of Decency more than Hollywood's corrupting power. Romanowski shows that the rise of the evangelical movement in the 1970s radically altered the picture, in contradictory ways. Even as born-again clergy denounced "Hollywood elites," major studios noted the emergence of a lucrative evangelical market. 20th Century-Fox formed FoxFaith to go after the "Passion dollar," and Disney took on evangelical Philip Anschutz as a partner to bring The Chronicles of Narnia to the big screen.

Yannis TZIOUMAKIS, Hollywood's Indies - Classics Divisions, Specialty Labels and American Independent Cinema, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012.

For almost three decades the big Hollywood studios have operated classics divisions or specialty labels, subsidiaries that originally focused on the foreign art house film market, while more recently (and controversially) moving on to the American 'indie' film market. This is the first book to offer an in-depth examination of the phenomenon of the classics divisions by tracing its history since the establishment the first specialty label in 1980, United Artists Classics, to more contemporary outfits like Focus Features, Warner Independent and Picturehouse.

This detailed account of all classics divisions examines their business practices, their position within the often labyrinthine structure of contemporary entertainment conglomerates and their relationship to their parent companies. Yannis Tzioumakis examines the impact of those companies on American 'indie' cinema and argues that it was companies such as Fox Searchlight and Paramount Classics (now Paramount Vantage) that turned independent filmmaking to an industrial category endorsed by the Hollywood majors as opposed to a mode of filmmaking practised outside the conglomerated major players and posed as a sustained alternative to mainstream Hollywood cinema. A number of case studies are provided, including such celebrated films as Mystery Train, The Brothers McMullen, Broken Flowers, Before Sunset and many others.

Richard MALTBY, Daniel BILTEREYST, Philippe MEERS (eds), Explorations in New Cinema History: Approaches and Case Studies, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.

Explorations in New Cinema History brings together cutting–edge research by the leading scholars in the field to identify new approaches to writing and understanding the social and cultural history of cinema, focusing on cinema’s audiences, the experience of cinema, and the cinema as a site of social and cultural exchange.

- Includes contributions from Robert Allen, Annette Kuhn, John Sedwick, Mark Jancovich, Peter Sanfield, and Kathryn Fuller–Seeley among others

- Develops the original argument that the social history of cinema–going and of the experience of cinema should take precedence over production– and text–based analyses

- Explores the cinema as a site of social and cultural exchange, including patterns of popularity and taste, the role of individual movie theatres in creating and sustaining their audiences, and the commercial, political and legal aspects of film exhibition and distribution

- Prompts readers to reassess their understanding of key periods of cinema history, opening up cinema studies to long–overdue conversations with other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences

- Presents rigorous empirical research, drawing on digital technology and geospatial information systems to provide illuminating insights in to the uses of cinema

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Matthew ALFORD, Reel Power - Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy, London and New York: Pluto Press, 2010.

Hollywood is often characterised as a stronghold of left-liberal ideals. In Reel Power, Matthew Alford shows that it is in fact deeply complicit in serving the interests of the most regressive US corporate and political forces.

Films like Transformers, Terminator: Salvation and Black Hawk Down are constructed with Defence Department assistance as explicit cheerleaders for the US military, but Matthew Alford also emphasises how so-called 'radical' films like Three Kings, Hotel Rwanda and Avatar present watered-down alternative visions of American politics that serve a similar function.

Reel Power is the first book to examine the internal workings of contemporary Hollywood as a politicised industry as well as scores of films across all genres. No matter what the progressive impulses of some celebrities and artists, Alford shows how they are part of a system that is hard-wired to encourage American global supremacy and frequently the use of state violence.

Matthew Alford has written for the Guardian, New Statesman and BBC radio. He has also lectured at the Universities of Bath and Bristol.

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Ben GOLDSMITH, Susan WARD, Tom O'REGAN, Local Hollywood: Global Film Production and the Gold Coast, University of Queensland Press, 2010.

Hollywood films and television programs are watched all over the world. While many of these productions are still made in southern California, the last 20 years has seen many productions made elsewhere in the US, in Canada and in locations around the world. New production centres have emerged and older centres have been retooled and revitalised by migrating Hollywood production. The 'Global Hollywood' has been made possible by a growing number of local Hollywoods – locations equipped with the requisite facilities, resources and labour, as well as the political will and tax systems to attract and host high-budget, Hollywood-standard projects.

Using the Gold Coast as a case study, this important new book shows how a combination of circumstances created our own outpost of Hollywood in Australia. Forces in the US pushed Hollywood studios and producers to work outside California, while a unique situation in Queensland provided an attractive alternative home for Hollywood productions with government tax support, an entrepreneurial business philosophy and a diverse natural environment.

Local Hollywood makes a much-needed contribution to the field of film and media studies, as well as being a fascinating insight for all film buffs. 

Marco CUCCO, Il film blockbuster, Roma: Biblioteca di testi e studi, 2010.

Ogni anno gli incassi del mercato cinematografico internazionale ruotano attorno a pochi grandi titoli in grado di raccogliere uno straordinario successo di pubblico. Film generalmente poco amati dalla critica, maltrattati nei discorsi quotidiani, ritenuti superficiali e semplicisti nella rappresentazione della realtà. Qual è allora il segreto del loro successo? A partire da un’analisi storica che affonda le radici nel contesto statunitense postbellico e neotelevisivo, il testo indaga su come Hollywood abbia progressivamente incentrato la propria attività attorno a pochi "blockbuster", caratterizzati da un ingente costo di produzione e da una spiccata vocazione commerciale. Il loro successo è riconducibile a una vasta gamma di fattori, come il costante superamento di nuove frontiere sul piano della spettacolarità, l’offerta di un’esperienza cinematografica immediatamente gratificante a livello sensoriale, la capacità di intercettare i gusti, le tendenze e le opinioni più diffuse nella società. Portando alla luce le caratteristiche produttive di queste pellicole, il relativo schema promozionale e distributivo e l’articolata rete di rapporti che li lega ad altri mercati e ad altri media, si invita il lettore ad accostarsi ai blockbuster con uno sguardo rinnovato. Studiarli significa infatti indagare un tipo di film in grado di riflettere la complessità della propria epoca parlando in maniera semplice a una platea universale di spettatori e riscoprendo quell’antico legame tra cinema e pubblico basato sulla gioia infantile per l’attesa, la scoperta e la meraviglia.

Jean-Michel VALANTIN, Hollywood, le Pentagone et Washington : Les trois acteurs d'une stratégie globale, Paris : Editions Autrement, 2003, 2010.

Hollywood et le Pentagone... D'un côté la fabrication des "rêves", mais surtout une véritable industrie, de l'autre le secrétariat à la Défense. Quelles relations unissent ces deux institutions symboles de la puissance américaine ? A travers de nombreux exemples et analyses de films, Jean-Michel Valantin lève ici le voile sur leur interdépendance. L'industrie du cinéma se révèle un acteur essentiel du débat stratégique américain, par la production de films de "sécurité nationale", traversant des genres variés, de la comédie au thriller, en passant par la science-fiction et le film de guerre. Sont ainsi mises en scène les idées dominantes sur la "menace" proposées par l'appareil de sécurité nationale, qui y voit un moyen de légitimer ses opérations militaires et ses choix stratégiques. Depuis trente ans, il s'agit d'une véritable coopération : l'armée et les studios échangent d'énormes contrats. Hollywood est ainsi totalement pénétré par les évolutions politiques et idéologiques de Washington, qui, en retour, semble parfois directement s'inspirer des productions hollywoodiennes. Ainsi, de la guerre froide à Avatar, les grandes problématiques stratégiques américaines sont-elles à la fois travaillées et globalisées par Hollywood.

Jean-Michel Valantin est docteur en études stratégiques et sociologie de la défense, spécialiste de la stratégie américaine et chercheur au Centre interdisciplinaire de recherches sur la paix et d'études stratégiques (CIRPES) et expert en sécurité environnementale.

Nolwenn MINGANT, Hollywood à la conquête du monde - Marchés, stratégies, influences, Paris : CNRS Editions, 2010.

Comment Jurassic Park est-il devenu une véritable entreprise multinationale, avec son logo, ses produits dérivés et ses campagnes publicitaires ? Pourquoi la firme Paramount, afin d’assurer le triomphe planétaire de Titanic, a-t-elle choisi une actrice non américaine, la Britannique Kate Winslet ? Le traitement de l’homosexualité dans Alexandre explique-t-il la faible performance du film aux États-Unis et en Corée du Sud ? Les méthodes traditionnelles sont-elles encore adaptées pour garantir la bonne santé des films made in USA ?

C’est à ces questions, et à beaucoup d’autres, que répond Nolwenn Mingant dans cette enquête passionnante sur les grands studios hollywoodiens. Une étude pionnière qui retrace au plus près l’évolution du marché cinématographique depuis quarante ans, les stratégies culturelles des majors pour s’imposer à l’échelle mondiale, les conséquences du marketing sur les films produits. Si le rayonnement d’Hollywood dans le monde reste incontestable, ses studios sont de plus en plus influencés par les autres pays. Techniques de distribution et choix de productions sont de plus en plus conditionnés par les préférences des spectateurs internationaux.

L’ouvrage indispensable pour comprendre le marché du cinéma à l’heure de la globalisation. Un voyage exceptionnel au cœur de l’empire d’Hollywood et de la fabrique de l’imaginaire contemporain.

Nolwenn Mingant est maître de conférences en civilisation américaine à l’Université Paris 3-Sorbonne Nouvelle et co-fondatrice du groupe de réflexion CinEcoSA (Cinéma, Économie et Sociétés anglophones). 

Daya KISHAN THUSSU (ed), Internationalizing Media Studies, London: Routledge, 2009.

The explosion of transnational information flows, made possible by new technologies and institutional changes (economic, political and legal) has profoundly affected the study of global media. At the same time, the globalization of media combined with the globalization of higher education means that the research and teaching of the subject faces immediate and profound challenges, not only as the subject of enquiry but also as the means by which researchers and students undertake their studies.

Edited by a leading scholar of global communication, this collection of essays by internationally-acclaimed scholars from around the world aims to stimulate a debate about the imperatives for internationalizing media studies by broadening its remit, including innovative research methodologies, taking account of regional and national specificities and pedagogic necessities warranted by the changing profile of students and researchers and unprecedented growth of media in non-Western world.

Transnational in its perspectives, Internationalizing Media Studies is a much-needed guide to the internationalization of media and its study in a global context.

Daya Kishan Thussu is Professor of International Communication at the University of Westminster in London. The founder and Managing Editor of the journal Global Media and Communication, his key publications include News as Entertainment; Media on the Move; International Communication, and Electronic Empires.

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Joël AUGROS et Kira KITSOPANIDOU, L'Economie du cinéma américain : Histoire d'une industrie culturelle et de ses stratégies, Paris : Armand Colin Cinéma, 2009.

Les compagnies qui dominent le marché du film en ce début de XXIe siècle perdurent depuis les années 1920. La concentration des recettes au profit de six majors, la mainmise de celles-ci sur l’essentiel de la production, leur présence derrière les grands réseaux de télévision, la domination américaine sur les écrans du monde, tout cela trouve son origine dans le succès d’un mode de production spécifique : le système hollywoodien.

En détaillant l’histoire, des origines à nos jours, de l’industrie cinématographique aux États-Unis, ce livre analyse ses rouages et ses transformations sous la contrainte des innovations techniques, de l’évolution des marchés et des publics, du contexte sociopolitique et de la concurrence des autres médias. De la production à l’exploitation en salles et aux marchés annexes, il retrace les stratégies que les compagnies hollywoodiennes ont élaborées pour conserver leur prééminence dans l’offre de spectacle.

Au-delà du cas américain, c’est le fonctionnement économique du cinéma dans son ensemble qui se trouve éclairé.

Joël Augros, spécialiste de l’économie du cinéma, est maître de conférences à l’Université Paris 8-Vincennes à Saint-Denis. Kira Kitsopanidou, spécialiste d’histoire des techniques, des métiers et de l’économie du cinéma, est maître de conférences à l’Université Paris 3-Sorbonne Nouvelle. 

Vicki Mayer, Miranda J. Banks, John T Caldwell (eds), Production Studies: Cultural Studies of Media Industries, New York and Abingdon: Routledge, 2009.

"Behind-the-scenes" stories of ranting directors, stingy producers, temperamental actors, and the like have fascinated us since the beginnings of film and television. Today, magazines, websites, television programs, and DVDs are devoted to telling tales of trade lore—from on-set antics to labor disputes. The production of media has become as storied and mythologized as the content of the films and TV shows themselves.
Production Studies is the first volume to bring together a star-studded cast of interdisciplinary media scholars to examine the unique cultural practices of media production. The all-new essays collected here combine ethnographic, sociological, critical, material, and political-economic methods to explore a wide range of topics, from contemporary industrial trends such as new media and niche markets to gender and workplace hierarchies. Together, the contributors seek to understand how the entire span of "media producers"—ranging from high-profile producers and directors to anonymous stagehands and costume designers—work through professional organizations and informal networks to form communities of shared practices, languages, and cultural understandings of the world.
This landmark collection connects the cultural activities of media producers to our broader understanding of media practices and texts, establishing an innovative and agenda-setting approach to media industry scholarship for the twenty-first century.

Amandine DUCRAY, Les Sitcoms ethniques à la télévision britannique de 1972 à nos jours : Jusqu'à ce que l'humour nous répare, Paris : L'Harmattan, 2009.

Articulé autour d’études de cas diffusées sur de grandes chaînes nationales britanniques, cet ouvrage propose une analyse du genre télévisé « sitcom ethnique ». Du lancement de Love Thy Neighbour (ITV, 1972-1976), la première série comique fondée sur une alternance entre un foyer blanc et un foyer noir, à l’avènement d’un humour « indo-britannique » de trait d’union dans Goodness Gracious Me (BBC2, 1998-2000), les comédies de situation ethniques s’inspirent chacune d’un air du temps contemporain en matière de relations raciales. L’entrée de comédiens, de réalisateurs et de scénaristes issus de minorités ethniques dans le cercle des médias à partir des années quatre-vingt reflète elle-même une évolution sociale majeure outre-Manche. Le passage des sitcoms à « thématique ethnique », inventées par la majorité blanche, à un « matériau ethnique » écrit, tourné et joué par des Britanniques noirs ou d’origine sud-asiatique, marque en même temps un renouveau manifeste du genre. Entre mythe et réalité, la passation historique du « pouvoir » comique produit de nouveaux modèles de représentation et le rire, tour à tour de connivence ou de moquerie, contribue à délimiter les contours d’une identité culturelle et nationale britannique en mouvement.

Maître de Conférences en civilisation britannique à l’Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, Amandine Ducray consacre ses recherches à la relation entre minorités ethniques et médias dans la Grande-Bretagne du vingtième et du vingt-et-unième siècles.

Gilles LIPOVETSKY et Jean SERROY, La Culture-monde : Réponse à une société désorientée, Paris : Odile Jacob, 2008.

Le sens même de la culture s'est transformé en profondeur. Mode, publicité, tourisme, art-business, star-system, urbanisme : plus rien aujourd'hui n'échappe à l'ordre de la culture. Celle-ci est devenue une culture-monde, celle du technocapitalisme généralisé, des industries culturelles, du consumérisme global, des médias et des réseaux numériques. Transcendant les frontières et brouillant les anciennes dichotomies entre "civilisation" des élites et "barbarie" de la populace, elle affiche une vocation planétaire et s'infiltre dans tous les secteurs d'activité. Comment la penser à l'heure de l'hypercapitalisme culturel ? Quel monde dessine la culture-monde des marques internationales, du divertissement médiatique, des réseaux et des écrans ? Gilles Lipovetsky et Jean Serroy, tout en analysant ce bouleversement, avancent des pistes d'action possibles visant à faire reculer l'empire croissant du consumérisme et la désorientation généralisée de l'époque. Et si les années qui viennent étaient, paradoxalement, celles d'une "revanche de la culture" ?

Gilles Lipovetsky, philosophe-sociologue, a publié de nombreux essais sur les transformations de la société contemporaine. Jean Serroy, professeur d'université, est l'auteur de divers ouvrages sur la littérature du XVIIe siècle ainsi que sur le cinéma. La Culture-monde est leur second livre en collaboration, après L'Écran global.

Critique disponible en ligne. 

Janet WASKO and Mary ERICKSON (eds), Cross-Border Cultural Production: Economic Runaway or Globalization?, New York: Cambria Press, 2008.

This volume addresses issues revolving around the production of mediated cultural products across borders. More specifically, the authors consider cross-border cultural production in the film and television industries and how it affects and is affected by media centers, and, more recently, established production locations.

The film and television industries have long been recognized as playing important economic, political and cultural roles. And while it could be argued that, historically, these forms of cultural production often have been international endeavors, the choice of production sites has become an especially contentious issue during the last few decades as global production has expanded. While some factions, notably from the US film and television industries, refer to this issue as "runaway production," this book takes a much broader look at the implications and consequences of this phenomenon. Basically, cross-border production involves the expansion of production away from traditional centers, whether to other countries or to other locations within the same country. Thus, this study covers a wide range of issues involving economic and political considerations, as well as creative and aesthetic decision-making.

Janet Wasko is the Knight Chair for Communication Research at the University of Oregon (USA). She is the author of How Hollywood Works (Sage, 2003), Understanding Disney: The Manufacture of Fantasy (Polity Press/Blackwell, 2001), and Hollywood in the Information Age: Beyond the Silver Screen (Polity Press, 1994), editor of A Companion to Television (Blackwell, 2005) and Dazzled by Disney? The Global Disney Audience Project (Leicester University Press/Continuum, 2001), as well as other volumes on the political economy of communication and democratic media. 

John T. CALDWELL , Production Culture: Industrial Reflexivity and Critical Practice in Film and Television, Durham: Duke University Press, 2008.
In Production Culture, John Thornton Caldwell investigates the cultural practices and belief systems of Los Angeles–based film and video production workers: not only those in prestigious positions such as producers and directors but also many “below-the-line” laborers, including gaffers, editors, and camera operators. Caldwell analyzes the narratives and rituals through which workers make sense of their labor and critique the film and TV industry as well as the culture writ large. As a self-reflexive industry, Hollywood constantly exposes itself and its production processes to the public; workers’ ideas about the industry are embedded in their daily practices and the media they create. Caldwell suggests ways that scholars might learn from the industry’s habitual self-scrutiny.

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James CHAPMAN, Cinemas of the World: Film and Society from 1895 to the Present, London: Reaktion, 2003.

The cinema has been the pre-eminent popular art form of the 20th century. In Cinemas of the World, James Chapman examines the relationship between film and society in the modern world: film as entertainment medium, film as a reflection of national cultures and preoccupations, film as an instrument of propaganda. He also explores two interrelated issues that have recurred throughout the history of cinema: the economic and cultural hegemony of Hollywood on the one hand, and, on the other, the attempts of film-makers elsewhere to establish indigenous national cinemas drawing on their own cultures and societies.

Chapman examines the rise to dominance of Hollywood cinema in the silent and early sound periods. He discusses the characteristic themes of American movies from the Depression to the end of the Cold War especially those found in the western and film noir – genres that are often used as vehicles for exploring issues central to us society and politics. He looks at national cinemas in various European countries in the period between the end of the First World War and the end of the Second, which all exhibit the formal and aesthetic properties of modernism. The emergence of the so-called "new cinemas" of Europe and the wider world since 1960 are also explored.

"Chapman is a tough-thinking, original writer (...). An engaging, excellent piece of work." - David Lancaster, Film and History.