Informality and Global Mediascapes

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Informality is a widely discussed concept in social science but it has rarely been used within media and communications research. This panel, bringing together four critical media industry scholars from the US and Australia, considers how the concepts of informality and the informal economy can be to used to illuminate current and historical problems in global media. Through conceptual papers and case studies, we aim to articulate new connections between media industry research and wider problems of international governance and regulation. The four presenters - Govil, Lobato, Thomas and Wang - have published widely on media industry transformation, intellectual property and regulation in the US, India, China and the Asia-Pacific, and on theoretical questions in global media studies. Our books and edited collections include Global Hollywood (Miller, Govil et al), The Indian Film Industry (Govil and Mazumdar, forthcoming), Shadow Economies of Cinema (Lobato), The New Media Theory Reader (Hassan and Thomas), Amateur Media (Hunter, Lobato, Richardson and Thomas) and Framing Piracy: Globalization and Film Distribution in Greater China (Wang).

Sub Unit

• Global Communication and Social Change

Chair

• Ramon Lobato, Swinburne U of Technology

Individual Presentations

• The Informal Media Economy - Ramon Lobato, Swinburne U of Technology

• Governing Informal Media - Julian Thomas, Swinburne University of Technology

• Cloud, Informality, and Global Copyright Governance - Shujen Wang, Emerson College