Call for abstracts. Streaming media: production, interfaces, content and users

2020-06-03

Streaming is an increasingly used form of content distribution. Content providers from different areas of the media industries have shifted to this digital form of distribution and many users have followed. With this special issue on streaming media, we are looking for articles that study streaming from different perspectives and contribute to a better understanding of how streaming is a phenomenon that deeply affects established media industries such as film, television, gaming, music, radio/podcasts, books and audio books.

Streaming as a technical notion refers to transmitting and receiving digital data over the internet; a process distinguished by the end-user being able to watch, listen, or read content as the file is being transmitted. Streaming as distribution systems hence facilitates on-demand use and consumption of media content. However, as communication and media scholars we are broadly interested in streaming media, that is, the structures, relations and practices including and surrounding streaming as distribution systems. This encompasses (at least) studies of media industries and production, interfaces, content, and use of streaming media.

We have seen the emergence of many new streaming services from global superplayers as well as national streaming providers and small local services. The amount and size of these new streaming services is so substantial that we have yet to analyze many of the platforms that are available (often through both apps and websites) thoroughly. This special issue seeks empirically grounded, conceptual and methodological contributions about the changes and continuities represented by streaming media.

Accordingly, we encourage contributions to the following topics and are grateful for additional perspectives:

  • Key concepts and theoretical discussions in research about streaming
  • Studies of media industries and the impact of streaming on organizations and productions
  • How streaming media transform value creation and value networks in different industries
  • The strategies of commercial and public media providers facing the competition from global superplayers
  • Streaming media and national and/or regional media policy (e.g. efforts to sustain media diversity; requirements for a certain percentage share of local content)
  • To what extent and how streaming impacts content creation
  • How specific genres are impacted by streaming
  • How audiences/users appropriate and make sense of streaming media, or how streaming media have consequences for what content people choose to consume
  • The consequences of algorithms and/or personalization of content (from a service provider perspective; from a content creator perspective; from an interface perspective; from a media user perspective)
  • Methodological reflections and discussions about how we should study streaming
  • Comparative studies of streaming from different industries (e.g. comparing gaming platforms with music platforms)
  • Studies with different data sources on streaming (e.g. comparing insights about users with insights about a particular media industry)
  • Transnational studies of streaming
  • The promotion and branding of streaming services and content (e.g. trailers, adverts, etc.)

 

Please submit an extended abstract of 1000 words (including references) by 15th of October on MedieKultur’s website: http://www.tidsskrift.dk/mediekultur

Authors will be notified of their acceptance by 25th of October. The deadline for submission of full papers is 1st of January 2021.

Articles that are accepted for further process by the editors will go into peer-review in January and February 2021. We expect to have decisions on manuscripts and potential further revisions by March. We expect to publish this special issue by Summer 2021. 

Guest editors for this special issue: Mads Møller Tommerup Andersen (Aarhus University) and Marika Lüders (University of Oslo).