Media Industries and Global Creator Economy

Catalog description

The course explores debates about the creator economy and globalization in relation to film, television, and media industries. Since 1990s, there has been increasing movement of film, TV, and media commodities across the world beyond the usual production centers. Since 2010s, particularly with the development of production and distribution platforms, there is a rise of the global creator economy, and increasing calls for thinking about creator capitals in addition to media capitals such as Mexico City, Mumbai, Los Angeles, Dubai, Seoul, Miami, and Lagos. Readings in the course will deal with varied theoretical and methodological approaches to study media industries including cultural studies and political economy. The readings will concern different aspects of the media industry such as labor relations, technological changes, artistic traditions, cultural policies, business models and regulatory norms. We will try to understand the competing visions regarding shift from the cultural industries to creative industries and the rise of user-generated content. The global creator economy exists both inside and outside media industries, at once constitutive of it, and bringing forth mutations in the traditional industry with the rise of influencer marketing and start-up enterprises. How are content creators responding to platform dependence and adjusting to the changing AI landscape? How are industry professionals imagining their target audiences amidst shifting relations between the global, the regional, the national, and the local? What kinds of algorithmic ploys and talent acquisition strategies are long video and short video streaming platforms engaging in as they compete for the attention of local and global audiences? What kinds of relations of competition and collaboration exist between global and local streamers?