Call for Submission to ECREA Pre-Conference: Young people, entertainment and cross-media storytelling

Theme

Entertainment media play a vital role in the media lives of teenagers and youth, as do social, digital and global platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and Netflix. Today’s youth entertainment culture thus includes not only entertainment produced by legacy mass media producers, but also content creators, influencers and ‘new media’ players. Many of these content creators make entertainment to be spread across platforms to strengthen brands and income and create fictional and non-fictional cross-media storylines. The prominent position of global entertainment platforms among teenagers also impacts viewing communities by reconstructing place and locality and by extending the production and modes of cultural reproduction that inform and shape how people perceive themselves and others. All this raises the stakes for national media industries to retain younger segments and for media policymakers, who traditionally have fulfilled policy goals by regulating national media institutions.

This pre-conference invites contributions that further theories about industry notions, practices and strategies of conducive production and distribution practices related to young people as audiences. Contributions can deal with questions concerning all aspects of genre and all aspects of entertainment made for or consumed by youth—from policy and production perspectives to textual analysis and reception studies. Addressing such questions, we are especially interested in papers that shed new light on one or more of the following themes:

  • Case studies of youth productions and/or youth content.
  • Studies investigating how youth consume or use entertainment media.
  • Studies investigating how screenwriters, producers and commissioners conceive and produce content aimed for and consumed by youth.
  • Studies investigating how emerging producers, content creators or influencers conceive and produce content aimed for and consumed by youth and teenagers.
  • Studies investigating the role of public service media and other national institutions in serving and engaging young people.
  • Studies investigating why young people seek out non-domestic/global entertainment.
  • Studies investigating the role that language plays in the consumption of global entertainment.
  • Studies investigating the role of policymakers, policies and funding schemes in facilitating high ‘quality’ content needed by young people.
  • Research and theoretical reflections on the ways in which transnational cultural encounters via screen impact opinions and behaviour towards the Other.
  • Studies of different genres, aesthetics and modes of address in current content targeting young audiences.
  • Conceptual and critical interventions into the production and consumption of youth media content, including perspectives on cross-media storytelling, youth fiction, social media entertainment, content creators and influencers.
  • Methodological interventions that address the challenges in researching young audiences, youth productions and/or youth content.

We particularly encourage PhD students and young scholars to submit their research.

Organising committee

Andrea Esser, Pia Majbritt Jensen, Marika Lüders, Eva Novrup Redvall, Jeanette Steemers, and Vilde Schanke Sundet.

The following research projects co-organise this pre-conference: “Reaching young audiences: serial fiction and cross-media storyworlds for children and young audiences”, “Global natives? Serving young audiences on global media platforms”, and “Screen Encounters with Britain: What do young Europeans make of Britain and its digital screen culture?”

Sponsonring sections

This conference is supported by the ECREA Media Industries and Cultural Production Section and the ECREA Television Studies Section.

To apply

To apply, submit a 300-500-word abstract (excluding references) and a 100-word bio for each speaker (including email address and affiliation). Please send your proposal (PDF) to Vilde Schanke Sundet ((v.s.sundet /at/ media.uio.no) ) and Eva Novrup Redvall ((eva /at/ hum.ku.dk) ). Be sure that your proposal clearly articulates:

  • The main issue or research questions to be discussed
  • Key theoretical approach or concept
  • The critical or methodological framework
  • Main argument or expected findings and conclusions

Deadline for proposal

Deadline for proposal: May 31. Decisions will be communicated to the authors by June 20.