Cultures of Media Production

The research theme Cultures of Media Production explores how media and creative labour produce meanings about ourselves and our world. Our focus is on the interactions between texts, labour and new technologies, and how this interplay shapes the landscape of the media industries.

Firstly, this theme group aims to explore how our pasts are mediated in various texts and carried into the present and future. More specifically, how do institutions and individuals - such as museums, archives, but also ‘amateurs’ and professionals - deal with a continuously changing media ecosystem, wherein the past is continuously shaped by actors small and large?

Secondly, we aim to understand the implications of new technologies, such as automation and AI, for the future of creative labour and media industries. What is at stake when cultural curation is outsourced to algorithms? How do the “politics” of platforms play a role in which stories get told, and which ones get ignored? How are citizens and media workers impacted by the growing cultural influence of the technology sector, and how do policy makers at all levels respond?

Thirdly, the study of cultures of media production also raises methodological concerns. How do we define the categories of 'producer' and ‘workplace’ when creative work takes such diverse forms? How do we investigate the impacts of these industries when they are so ubiquitous? From the perspective of doing media research, this theme group therefore also investigates how we can research a sector where change is so rapid and where access to workplaces and intellectual property is heavily restricted.

Keywords: media production; digital technologies; creative labour; media industries; creativity; cultures of innovation; media memory; audiovisual culture; storytelling

Conveners: Deborah Castro & Robert Prey